Boston Marathon Explosion

It's terrible what happened in Boston. My wife, daughter and I was there just days ago checking out a college for her and went to the finish line

Here's my daughter on saturday at the finish line, the explosion was at the buildings behind her, primarily where that Ryder truck is

 

Very sad. My wife had a few running friends there at the finish line, I keep waiting for the email that says they are ok...

 

It sounds like they are cutting out cell phone service in Boston for the time being as a security measure. Be patient waiting for news and I hope they are safe. The victims are in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Hoping for good news, but it may be slow in coming because as said, cellular service has been disabled

 

Based on the number of people and how congested this race can get it could have easily been a lot worse.

 

Looks like it wasn't done for runners but at the people watching as it was to their backs.

 

All of my wife's friends were ok tonight. One of them who ran had just crossed the line was in the finishers' area and felt the concussion wave from the blast. Unreal.

I feel so bad for all the innocent people hurt who just came out to run or watch a race...

Very cool gesture of the runners who went and donated blood when they couldn't finish the race

 

I sure hope they find the group responsible for this. It hit home for me when I saw the AP alert today...I've been running half marathons since 2010.
The hardest part is thinking of the families, kids, INNOCENTS watching there today, and then that happened.

Definitely praying for all involved in this. I agree with LV Bound -- could have been so much worse.

 

One of my co-workers' sister and brother-in-law ran today in the Marathon. She was able to talk to them and they were okay. They finished not too long before the blast. I know them, so I will be giving them a great big welcome home hug in a couple of days. I'm from MA and still have a lot of family there, so it hits home. I hope and pray they find the person(s) responsible for this tragedy. My thoughts are with all of the families affected by this.

 

Really sad story, hope no more things like that ever happen.

 

I was wondering the same thing. If they exploded the bombs at the start of the race there would be a lot of carnage and loss of life IMHO.

Since the bombs went off hours after many finished the race there weren't as many people near the finish line as would be at the start. At the starting line, if they planted the bombs near the starting line, then another a half a block away the carnage would be devastating IMHO.

One thought could be that the terrorist was foreign and didn't want to injure foreign runners, putting the bombs at the finish line there would be more bostonians supporting the marathon and VIP people in the area where the bombs went off.

So easy to speculate on the incident, we'll have to wait and see as more details come to light. Our hearts all go out to everyone involved and injured in boston and hope that they do catch the culprit quickly.

The only problem is that like 9/11 this has again struck fear in america. This can happen anywhere, in vegas during new years where there are tens of thousands, in amusement parks or sports events, even events in Hawaii. No place is safe anymore. Surprising that most of the acts of terror were on the east coast and not on the west coast....yet. Again the bad guys have put people on edge. This is bad for me as I am going to be in DC next month, then europe the week after. I know that everyone will be on edge where ever I go.

 

I don't think these bombs were meant to hurt the runners. I don't think any runners were hurt from the bombs. They were placed behind the people watching and imo they were the targets.

 

you are mostly correct, the main targets were the people watching in the area. One runner was injured, they did interview him, he got hit on the leg with shrapnel but for the most part the runners were only bystanders to the horror.

I meant that in terms of terror and mayhem and maximum kill and maim and injury it would have had more of an effect if it were done at the beginning of the race, where you have thousands of runners bottled up in one location. If a bomb went off there the runners wouldn't have anywhere to run then exploding another bomb would cause more injury and deaths.

hard to figure out what was the purpose of the bombs, to kill americans? bostonians? why not go for the "kill" and do it at the start line where you can get a lot more people. I don't mean that they should have done it at the start line, I am just wondering if the terrorist just wanted mayhem but didn't want to really kill a lot of people. but then maybe he tried (at the start) but couldn't drop the bombs without drawing suspicion or something. Right now it is all speculation but maybe best to just let everything sort itself out.

 

JMO, the beginning of the race is when a threat is expected. Later on and everything is going well is a better time for the attacker(s) to mingle in the crowd.

This is all very sad. These cowards that have attacked innocents have upset the balance of life again.