Runners, spectators describe chaos

BOSTON — Runners who had just finished their 26.2-mile ordeal, already on the verge of collapse, were stunned and shocked by the explosions that rocked the finish line Monday afternoon.

“I was just finished and collecting my medal when it went off,” said runner Mike McMahan of Maple Grove, Minn. “Then the next one went off 10 seconds later. I saw flames on that one. I didn’t see flames on the first one.

“My wife was at the 25-and-a-half mark when she was stopped. She had to borrow a cellphone to text me she was all right. This is my first Boston and my 22nd marathon. This was an investment, not a cheap adventure. I will remember this, but not for the reasons I want. I will remember this.”

Greg Meyer of Michigan, the 1983 Boston men’s champion, was running with his sons Danny and Jay.

“I grabbed my medal, went to the VIP tent to get my clothes and boom,” Meyer said. “I told Danny, who was struggling the last three miles, I said, ‘Thank God you kept running, because the three of us would have been there right about then.’ We all ran the whole way together.

“This is so sad and I feel so bad for the people. This is an event that brings people together, not for this kind of stuff. We don’t need this. The bomb went off there and two blocks up. My family was right there at the finish line, and it’s not just me, everybody’s family was there. What if they had put that under the damn bleachers?

“I was past. I was right in the [Copley] square picking up my bag when all of a sudden you could hear the bomb and a plume of smoke from where we could see. Thank God the medical tent was right there. I saw the plume of smoke go up and we were safe. But you knew this isn’t good, and it was right at the finish line. It was right there where everybody was at.

“I don’t understand this. I just don’t understand this, and I feel so bad for all the people injured. I feel sorry for all the good people [who] do so much to put on an event that is supposed share happiness with one another. This is supposed to bring people together, and it shouldn’t be tearing people apart.”

A runner in his mid-30s who said he was an Army veteran from Maryland said, “I’ve lived through Afghanistan five times and Iraq twice. I can’t believe it happened here.”

Alicia Shambo, 51, of Hopkinton, Mass., was handing out Mylar blankets at the finish line when the explosion occurred.

Shambo, a former U.S. Navy medic, said she rushed to get people to safety.

“The extent of the injuries is just horrible,” Shambo told the Boston Herald outside Tufts Medical Center emergency room. “Extremities just dangling.”

Shambo said she aided a 20-something female who had shrapnel lodged in her lower leg.

“She is going to be OK,” said Shambo. “I can’t say that for everybody.”