M75 runner Bill Iffrig becomes poster child for courage at Boston
Our M60 multi-eventer friend Dave Ortman writes from Seattle: “Bill Iffrig, a M78 masters runner, is one of the Club Northwest runners (from Lake Stevens, WA) shown right at the finish line when the bomb goes off. He’s at about 00:36 of the second video clip. Also a writeup on him at Boston.” Bill won three medals at 2011 Sacramento worlds, including bronze in the 5K and 10K. I saw him interviewed on CNN Monday night, and a Google search shows close to 5,000 stories mentioning him and the Boston Marathon. We hope all our roadie friends and family are safe and find a way to get up and finish the way Bill did. Let us know what you heard or saw.
5 Responses
Run Bill Run!
These A-Holes will NOT win. We will never let them terrorize our life.
Praying Wicked Hahd For Bahston Ruhnuhs, Family & Friends.
Thanks to Dave and Ken to bring this photo and the report.
We’ve seen the drama over and over and my repeated
remark is: The runner in the orange shirt (Bill Iffrig) is ok!
YES, people will terrorize us – but not totally succeed!
Many, many of us survived the bombings during WWII,
then fleeing from the Russians, trying to make it into the American sector, one whole year on the “run”.!
Now living in the USA and enjoying every day we wake up,
and being very aware of the evil around us. Still,
believing in the “good of people” that’s the best way to keep on going!
And Bill made the cover of SI:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BH_CGb2CYAMhM2E.jpg:large
I finished about a half-hour before the blasts, and was still making my way down Boyleston Street, two city blocks from the finish, having gotten my Mylar blanket, finisher’s medal, water/Gatoraid, and goodie bag of food,and on my way one block more to get my checked bag. There was a lot of congestion, as many runners were finishing at about the same time, which was 2:50 on my watch. I didn’t hear ANY sirens until 2:58, and then CONSTANT sirens for hours. The blasts, particularly the first, sounded like a cannon going off. I thought it was likely a pipe bomb, and decided to get out of the area as quickly as I could. (The thought never occurred to me that it might be a dirty bomb until today.)There were 14-15 seconds between blasts; I thought at the time that it may have been a minute or two. After the second one, I started walking faster east, toward the Commons, but I stopped and got my checked bag.
I called my wife at 2:59, and told her that something really bad had happened near the finish line, that I couldn’t find out what it was, and to turn on the TV. It was several hours until there were relatively reliable news reports about what had happened.The first reports were about only a handful of injuries, so I was not as distressed about this as I was later that evening. I wandered aimlessly south of the blast site, ending up at the Back Bay train station, where I was reached by telephone from reporters who had been calling my wife back in my hometown of Harrisburg. One interview I did, with my local newspaper, appears below:
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/04/harrisburg_man_reports_confusi.html
I decided to forget about attending the post-race party (it had never occurred to me that this would be cancelled) and took an overnight bus and morning Amtrak train back to Harrisburg. I had trouble sleeping on the bus, and followed developments on the Internet, finally learning that the race had been stopped, that some of my friends from Harrisburg were unable to finish, and that three were killed and scores were seriously injured. Only then did it start to sink in that this was a major tragedy for running, sports, and our nation’s history.
I ran fast enough to qualify for 2014 , and I hope to return to run this race again–if my wife will let me.
Bill Iffig has gone viral and is an icon. We’re glad to have Bill and his wife back in Puget Sound.
Condolences to those in Boston.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/boston-marathon-runner-who-fell-in-photo-joins-the-ranks-of-historys-sudden-icons/2013/04/21/38067602-a8fd-11e2-b029-8fb7e977ef71_story.html?tid=pm_pop
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