LetsRun.com Visitor Will Brown Talks About The 2013 Boston Marathon Terrorist Attacks: “It was the biggest sound I’d ever heard – two huge booms – I even thought it was possibly a plane crash.”
“I was going to find time to do something else with my running, but maybe I’ll come back just to be defiant.”
by LetsRun.com
April 22, 2013
Shortly after last week’s terrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon, we ran into LetsRun.com visitor Will Brown in the lobby of the Fairmont Copley while the hotel was still in a lock-down. Brown had just given an interview to the Associated Press and we asked him if we could interview him as well as he was outside of the hotel when the explosions went off.
“It was the biggest sound I’d ever heard – two huge booms – I even thought it was possibly a plane crash.”
“I was about two and a half blocks away. Everybody around me – we just looked at each other and said, “What in the world was that?” I thought probably it was a gas explosion – I didn’t think (at the time) it was an attack,” said Brown. “I just hope and pray that people are going to be ok – obviously there is a lot of carnage out there.”
“It won’t keep me from coming back to Boston,” added Brown. “I had said before the race- I’ve had six straight Bostons and this was probably my last one. I was going to find time to do something else with my running, but maybe I’ll come back just to be defiant.”
Prior to approaching Brown for an interview, we didn’t know he was a website visitor. That only came up after we identified ourselves as being from LetsRun and then he said he was a big fan of the website (the front page that is – the messageboard he said is “kid stuff.”).
We’re thinking about following up with the 60-year old Brown, who finished Boston on Monday in 3:49, with a formal interview about his running history. We talked to him briefly off camera about his running history and it was inspiring one.
Brown said he started running only maybe eight years ago when his daughter wanted him to do a 5k with her. He did that in about 30 minutes. A golfer at the time, Brown said he he really enjoyed the road race. Golf costs close to $100 bucks and takes four hours. Running cost about $25 and included a free t-shirt and a beer and took less than an hour.
He was hooked and became a student of the sport. A few years later, he was a 3:29 marathoner in his mid-50s. Oh yeah, and in the process he lost about 45 pounds from 190 to less than 145.
That’s pretty incredible if you ask us.
Full interview below.