By Bill Petzold
Editor
TUSCOLA COUNTY — It was a sudden, inexplicable act of terror that shocked a country when they saw it on television, but for Fairgrove’s Brenda Clark it was a frigthening scenario unfolding around her.
Just yards from the completion of her third career Boston Marathon, two homemade explosive devices — crafted from pressure cookers — exploded 12 seconds apart on Boylston Street, killing three people and injuring more than 250 people.
“When it happened, I was a block from the first explosion,” said Clark, who works at the Caro Post Office. “By the time the second explosion went off, I had turned and gone the other way. I was closer to the second explosion, but didn’t actually see the second one. The runners kind of congregated and huddled — they thought it was everything from a cannon to a manhole cover blowing off. We didn’t know what had happened, and I know there were some people who crossed the finish line after that. I think I was just too afraid, I didn’t feel a need to put myself any further into danger.”
The immediate problem Clark faced was reuniting with her friends — on the other side of the finish line.
“Once they told us we had to go back, they pushed us right back in with the spectators, and they were pushing us back away from where I needed to go to meet my friends,” Clark said. “So I looped back around because I had been there before and did probably 15 blocks to get back to the other side of the finish line and find my friends. … I had 26.24 miles on my Garmin when I was stopped, so a marathon’s 26.2 — I turned it off at that point, but I would imagine that I did at least another mile, if not two miles, to get back. … I actually went back down beyond the finish line and got my backpack from the bus and found my friend. They were shutting the subways down, and I think it took us two hours to get out of there.”
Clark said that she took the subway and a city bus to get back to their car.
“I was staying about seven miles north of Boston, in Burlington, and the highway was bumper-to-bumper getting out of there,” she said. “It was quite a day. I think I was running purely on adrenaline.
Fortunately, Clark won’t be going it alone this year as she returns to finish the race she was prevented from finishing last year. Laura Dennis of Deford is an experienced runner — with relatives in Boston, to boot — and Clark will travel with Dennis and company.
“Boston is No. 17 for me,” Dennis said. “I ran my first marathon in 2001, it was a small one called West Michigan, I think, up in Muskegon, and it was awful. I went in poorly undertrained. When you think back of your most memorable marathon, you would think Boston would be, but I think back to that one. … I hit the wall so bad, that once I finished I said, ‘I’ll never do another one again.’ That was my very first one … and then I ran Detroit in 2004.”
Even though about 36,000 people will compete in this year’s Boston Marathon, it’s still no small feat to qualify. Dennis qualified with her time at the Traverse City Track Club’s Bayshore Marathon, and also ran a qualifying time at the Detroit Marathon in 2012. She said she’s done the Detroit race every year for the past decade.
Both Clark and Dennis ran Boston in 2011, but the women didn’t really know each other at that time.
“I was tracking her last year, and I was watching her and I was like, ‘She should be done, what’s going on? It’s still showing her running.’” Dennis said. “And then I heard about the bombing, and it was like ‘Wow!’ I had no idea (where she was).”
“We really just have gotten to be really good friends training for this one,” Dennis said.
Dennis and Clark compare notes via text messages to track their progress and meet up for weekend runs, which are longer runs. Both women have been 50 to 60 miles per week in preparation for Boston, and with the brutal weather put in many miles on treadmills — although Dennis said she has done some roadwork with spikes on her shoes, dashing through the snow. Both said they had logged more than 260 miles in March.
Dennis will make her second appearance at the Boston Marathon, which both runners described as an amazing experience — crowds of cheering supporters lining the entire route, several people deep in most areas. Dennis described it as a big party with millions of people.
Clark credited Dennis for encouraging her to return to Boston for her fourth race there and eighth career marathon. She said she is one of about 5,000 runners who were prevented from reaching the finish line.
The two will deal with additional security at this year’s 118th running. According to the Boston Athletic Association’s website, spectators are asked not to bring backpacks, suitcases, coolers, containers with more than 1 liter of liquid, blankets or costumes covering the face. The BAA also notes that spectators can expect to see an increased police presence.
“It will probably be a little bittersweet for me after not having been able to cross the finish line last year.” Clark said. “I was a block away last year (when the explosions occurred). I’m glad that Laura’s going, I don’t know if I would have gone (alone) — I think she did a little bit of arm twisting going on in there. It was pretty frightening.”