Mr. Patrick and his running partner, Jamie Holm, at Athletes Village buying souvenirs before they ran the Boston Marathon. Photo contributed by Mr. Paul Patrick
By Eric Burch
Science teacher Mr. Paul Patrick ran in the Boston Marathon the day the widely known bombs went off.
The weekend before April 15th was a special time for Patrick. Patrick had finally qualified to run in the Boston Marathon. Patrick did not have any idea how prestigious it was to qualify to be in this historic race, until he was finally about to leave and so many people were congratulating him. In previous years, Patrick had only gone to watch the race once.
Patrick is the girls track and field coach. Patrick has been running marathons for seven years. He gives himself anywhere from twelve to sixteen weeks to train for a race. Patrick did not want to win; he just wanted a respectable time. Since it was his first race, Patrick did not train as hard as he would if he would have liked to win. Patrick still ran forty five to fifty miles a week. He ran and trained with a group of friends. To kick off his training in January, Mr. Patrick ran half a marathon. For ten weeks, Mr. Patrick rigorously trained up until the day of the race. Patrick said that running the Boston Marathon is the most prestigious race in the United States.
The Boston Marathon was the thirteenth marathon that Patrick had run. He had never remembered hurting as much in his legs as they did after finishing this race. Patrick then said that after he and his partner had gotten back to their hotel and to see what had unfolded at the finish line, they had forgotten the pain in their legs and were glued to watching the television. Patrick started the race at 10am and he said that he finished “right around 1:30.” Patrick finished the race in three hours and twenty six minutes. After finishing, he picked up his bag, got out of the finish area and went back to the hotel. Patrick said it was cold so he wanted to get more layers of clothes on. “By the time I got back to the hotel and turned the TV on, I realized the bombs had gone off and [then] just watching the news like everybody else to see what had happened and what the effects of the bombs were on the people who were there.” He had been at the finish line just eighty minutes previously and he said it was strange to see all of that unraveling. “A lot of the times we say, ‘Oh look what happened there, I was just there yesterday,’ or, ‘I was there a year ago,’ or ‘I was there a week ago.’ But to be there an hour and half ago, and to realize that it was just fate that [the two bombers] chose to let off the bombs at 2:50, instead of 1:30, or instead of whatever time they chose affected the course of history for all the people who were close by, [and] three people lost their lives[…]” Patrick then remember those who had to stop the marathon early, “As a runner, to get to mile 25, you’re kind of in a miserable state after you’ve been running (for these athletes) over four and a half hours and then be told that you have to stop and that you can’t finish, it’s just hard to process that.”
Patrick said that he wouldn’t hesitate to back if he received the opportunity to qualify again. “Obviously it has some negative endings with the people who were injured and the people that were killed, but that won’t [hinder] me from going.” Patrick said he believes that to be in that group of “elite” runners, it is special. Mr. Patrick compared getting into the Boston Marathon as a runner to if you were a football player and getting into the Super Bowl. “If you live your life [running in fear], then you’re going to say no to just about everything and you’re gonna lock yourself and you’re never gonna go out.” Patrick feels very fortunate to have gotten out of the area safely, but didn’t realize just how fortunate he was until a few days later when he saw the amount of injuries as it increased and the severity of the injuries.
Patrick felt that he left the race with many more positives than negatives for there were a few positive outcomes from the event such as being able to run the race itself, manage to finish, and manage to get the time that he did. “It was an unfortunate incident, but [again] that won’t stop me from going back next year or the years following.”