Back in Boston

The difference a year makes.

When Richard Briles left Boston a year ago, the city was angry. Terrorists had just detonated bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon a few days earlier and the city seethed as it tried to comprehend who could, or would, do something so devastatingly terrible.

Briles, an emergency-room doctor for Silvertip Emergency Physicians at Kalispell Regional Medical Center, finished his race roughly 40 minutes before the explosions. He was safe at his hotel a few blocks and didn’t hear the blasts go off. When he offered his assistance, they informed him that medical staff was already at the area.

A year ago, he called the scene solemn.

Days after the race finished, that anger and hurt still teemed throughout the town.

“Last year, I spent a couple days after the marathon in town there,” Briles said. “Everybody was pissed off. They were really pissed off that people had done this to them.”

Briles said he wasn’t sure he’d run the marathon again this year. It wasn’t out of fear of another attack or even loss of ability. At 59, he easily qualified to compete with a finish of 3 hours, 19 minutes in last year’s race, but all the added attention and security might ruin the experience. After running four straight years, running agains wasn’t something he needed to do.

“As time went on, I read about all the ‘Boston Strong’ stuff,” Briles said.

“I follow baseball and just following the Red Sox and how they were involved with it. I thought they were going to make a big deal out of this and I would go back and experience it. So, I did and I’m glad I did.”

When he arrived in Boston on Saturday, the mood was entirely different than when he had left.

“So I didn’t see a lot of that anger,” Briles said. “There was a lot of that anger afterwards (last year).

“I didn’t see that. I think people were pretty much healed now. They wanted to pull this off to show the world what a great city they are.”

He attended the festivities held by the city at the finish line on Sunday. The Red Sox tribute to the victims and survivors later that night was most touching.

“Boy, it was a tearjerker,” Briles said. “They had everybody run out (onto to the field). They had the victims run out, and all the firefighters run out, the doctors, just all of the people that were involved. It was something.

“That was really cool, and I kind of wished I would have gone to that.”

By the time the race came around, the city was back to its normal, cheery Patriot Day rowdiness. Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the heavily secured streets, all cheering as loudly as ever.

“The excitement of the town, the town was pretty excited about it, I think more excited about it than it ever had been,” Briles said. “They really wanted to pull it off and do a great job. The crowds were bigger and louder than ever.

“It was perfect, they pulled it off perfect.”

Briles ran his fastest time ever in Boston, finishing in 3:14:21, nearly five minutes faster than a year ago. He was the 10th fastest Montanan to finish.

“I was hoping to even go a little faster,” Briles said.

“I can’t say I was unhappy with my time. I was excited and wanted to do well. I was kind of thinking this might be my last one. I wanted to do well if it was my last time.

“It was the best one. I ran my fastest time at Boston. This one was the best. It was sun shining and it was all good. I can’t think of any negatives about the thing.”

Whether he runs again is still to be decide. He has until September to register.

One thing is certain, a lot can change in a year. And for a city, and an entire region of the country, even a simple race can help to make things better.