Woonsocket Runner's Training Injury Likely Spared Her From Explosions

A knee injury slowed Woonsocket's Courtney Gardner enough so she was far away when bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line killed three people and injured more than 100.

"I've never been so grateful for an injury," Gardner said Tuesday, nearly 24 hours after the incident President Obama has called "an act of terrorism."

After an overnight with friends in Saugus, MA and a morning trip to retrieve her parents' rental car, Gardner was home with a medal for a Marathon she never finished. 

Gardner said she also made a stop at the Boston Athletic Association's runner bag pickup on Berkely Street in Boston Tuesday morning. Along with the usual fare gifted to Marathoners, Gardner received a medal for finishing the race. "Which was very nice, considering I didn't cross the finish line," Gardner said.

It wasn't for lack of determination. At the half-mile mark, a knee injury she'd suffered during training started to bother her. "After half a mile, I was, 'This is going to be a long race,'" she remembers thinking. She toughed it out for the first 10 miles before she had to slow down, letting her friend pull ahead. 

Near the end, approaching Boston University, one of the guys she'd been keeping pace with was looking at his cell phone, and the woman he was with was looking at him strangely, "...because why would you answer your phone in the middle of the race?" Gardner said. She didn't have to wonder long. "He said, 'There's been an explosion,'" Gardner said.

Gardner's phone, which was playing music for her run, stopped playing when a call came in from her mother. She'd told her mom that she expected to be finished with the race at that time, so she assumed she was calling to see where she was, but didn't realize her mom was frantically worried about her at that moment.

Gardner made it past Boston University and into Kenmore Square where she saw her best friend, Krista. "I was so happy to see her," Gardner said. "She stopped me. She grabbed me by the shoulders and said, 'Listen to me. Everyone is OK, but there's been a bomb.'" 

The two had already agreed to run the last part of the Marathon together, and Krista said, "'We're going to finish this. Let's go,' " Gardner said. But then the pair ran into throngs of people running the other way, and Gardner realized her mother had been calling and texting her frantically. Her parents were waiting outside a restaurant on Newbury Street, and they needed to meet up with her as soon as possible. 

"I was so, so exhausted I wasn't even processing," what was going on, Gardner said, but she and Krista were able to meet up with her family using text messages — mobile calls weren't working. They met up with a friend who had a car near the Hatch Shell auditorium, and were able to get to a friend's home in Saugus, MA for the evening.

On Tuesday, safely home in Woonsocket, Gardner said she was glad her friends and family were OK. She praised the first responders - EMTs and police. "After the explosions, they were right there," Gardner said. 

Check back at FenwayKenmore Patch for continuing coverage of the investigation and reports from people who ran the Marathon. 

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The FBI has issued a national tip line for any information related to today's bombings. Anyone with information can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), and select prompt #3.

"No piece of information or detail is too small," wrote the FBI in the release.