Boston Blast: Man Knocked Over By Explosion, Got Up, Finished Race

Police officers with their guns drawn hear a second explosion down the street near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The first explosion knocked down a runner at the finish line. John Tlumacki/Boston Globe via Getty Images
Police officers with their guns drawn hear a second explosion down the street near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The first explosion knocked down a runner at the finish line. John Tlumacki/Boston Globe via Getty Images

We’ll leave you tonight with some good news from Monday’s horrific explosions at the Boston Marathon.

In photographs and videos, you can see there is one runner who is closest to the blast. When the device explodes, he’s knocked over by the force. You can see him clearly in this looped Vine video shared more than 39,000 times on Twitter:

The man is 78-year-old Bill Iffrig, an avid runner, who was participating in his third Boston marathon. What’s amazing? He got up and finished the race. His only injury? A scraped knee.

The Everett (Washington) Herald reports:

“Iffrig briefly saw a remnant of what he believes was the bomb, a casing that looked like a coffee can, he said.

“‘Then all this smoke was coming from someplace, and I wasn’t able to see too much.’

“A race official came to check on him and helped him up.

“Then, accompanied by the official, Iffrig walked the last 12 feet or so across the finish line.

“‘I ended up second in my division,’ he said. ‘After you’ve run 26 miles you’re not going to stop there.’ His timing chip marked his finish at 4 hours, 3 minutes, 47 seconds.”

 

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Boston Blast: Man Knocked Over By Explosion, Got Up, Finished Race

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