WASHINGTON-Little more than a week after holding the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, event director Phil Stewart headed north to run the Boston Marathon for the 18th time. As he put it, "It was a good day to be running badly."
Stewart was running the race with a friend and the pair were about five miles from the finish line when the bombs went off. "We were out on the roads when they closed them down and closed down the finish line," he said.
Stewart said that he was surprised a running event had risen to the prominence of a terrorist attack.
"When you think of all the different things a terrorist could attack-like the Super Bowl-there are so many more high visibility events than even the biggest running events," he said. "I thought the possibility of something happening was very small."
From a visibility perspective, Stewart noted that the New York City marathon-which includes runners crossing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge-is one of "the most iconic places in all of running."
"Of all the venues in running that I would worry about, that probably would've been at the top of my list," he said, adding "if you're dealing with smaller-time terrorists, then certainly the potential venues expand in a way."
But, he said, nobody wants to feel like they're being intimidated by terrorists, and Stewart said he'd like to run the marathon again. "I think the running community will come back to Boston next year in stronger numbers than ever."
