After a 30 year hiatus a local marathon runner found himself running the Boston Marathon after his son asks him to return to the sport.
When Tulane University physics professor Dr. Guy Norton agreed to run the Chicago Marathon with his thirty-year-old son, he didn’t plan to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but he did.
“My son wanted to run a marathon before he turned thirty years old. I thought I was done with the sport,” Dr. Norton said.
Norton had moved on to other sports like sailing. “In fact I was building a 40’ sailing boat to retire on when Hurricane Katrina hit,” Norton said. But he accepted his son’s invitation nonetheless and they set their sights on the Chicago Marathon.
The Chicago marathon was scheduled for the day before his son’s birthday, in October. This would be his son’s first and the Doctor’s fourth marathon.
“The stars were in alignment the planets and everything and I ran a really good race in Chicago, well enough to qualify for Boston,” Dr. Norton said.
“Well I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to run Boston,” Norton said.
Dr. Norton entered the Boston Marathon and was accepted. His son and his son’s girlfriend joined him in Boston to cheer him on.
The Boston Athletic Association’s posted Dr. Norton finishing time as 3hrs, 36 minutes, 28 seconds.
“I almost duplicated the qualifying time I ran in Chicago,” Dr. Norton said.
Norton said as he crossed the finish line volunteers put a ceremonial medal around his neck. “It was fun it was like, you know, okay I did this, it was really a sweet moment,” Dr. Norton said.
Dr. Norton thinks there were probably 5000 volunteers working with the marathon.
Dr. Norton remembered, after reuniting with his son, standing in downtown Boston among the big office building on Boylston Street, enjoying the moment and joking with folks at finish line.
“Being from New Orleans, you finish a race and grab a beer, you know. I asked them, where’s the beer? It’s time for the beer. I’m from New Orleans and it’s time for a beer, and we laughed,” Dr. Norton said.
He said they didn’t have beer, but plenty of water. But his quads were sore and thought a shower would be great. So he and the family started to make their way back to the hotel.
They arrived at the subway. “The T, the underground metro,” Dr. Norton called it.
Dr. Norton’s jubilation soon turned to concern when they tried to take the subway back to the hotel.
“It was crowded, with lots of people and families down in the metro and as soon as we got our tickets the Boston police arrived. They said the T, was closed and asked everyone to make there way to the exits,” Dr. Norton said.
The Norton crew weren’t to concerned as they made their way to the surface. “They told us it was a gas explosion,” Norton said.
Dr. Norton said at this point he, his son and his girlfriend had no idea what took place at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
Two brothers Tamerian and Dzhokar Tsarnaev are suspected of detonating two IEDs (improvised explosive devises) near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the first went of at 2:49 and a second a few moments later about 200 yards away before the finish line.
169 IEDs attacks on American soil.
Most associate IEDs with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but this is not the first time an IED has been used on native soil.
According to the Study of Terrorism And Responses To Terrorism or START, a National Consortium based at the University of Maryland, terrorists have used IEDs in 169 attacks on American soil between 1970 and 2007.
START’s data shows 12.5% of all terrorist attacks in the U.S. for this period have involved some form of IED. This is significantly higher than the global average of a little less than 8%.
But Dr. Norton, was thinking a gas explosion occurred in the subway, not a terrorist IED attack and began to make his way to the exits. Once they got back to the surface they noticed that things were changing rapidly.
“We were walking back to the hotel but you can kind of tell that something wasn’t right because very few cars were on the streets. And what was on the streets were all emergency vehicles, ambulances, police cars, fire engines and black SUVs running around and they were all in a hurry,” Norton said.
Dr. Norton said police presence continued to escalate; the hotel security was ramped up. They had to show their identification and room keys to get into the hotel and again to get on to the elevator to get to the rooms.
Dr. Norton explained how the hotel is not close to the scene at the finish line so there was a disconnect. Also at this point no one knew if it was a bomb or just a horrible accident.
“And we were getting all these texts asking if we were OK? So we were thinking let’s get to the room and see if there’s anything on the news,” Norton said.
There it was, the horrible event being reported live on every news channel, Norton said.
As they watch the news, they sat in the hotel room and took time to reflect on what happened at the finish line and how close they had come to the tragedy.
“We thought about how things really could have just gone from good to bad in a heartbeat,” Dr. Norton said.
Earlier Dr. Norton’s son and his son’s girlfriend were standing at the last left turn before the straight shot to the finish line waiting to cheer him on as he finished the race.
“That’s the area where that second bomb was,” Norton said.
Dr. Norton crossed the finish line at 2:01PM, just 48 minutes before the first IED went off.
“Yeah, you know it makes you pause, and think about how things could have been different. What if they hadn’t seen me run by? They may still have been standing there waiting,” Norton said.
Dr. Norton says they like to visit Boston, and the U.S.Army veteran says the whole experience has motivated him to continue running. “I’ve already told my son I’m going back. Just to show that it won’t deter me from doing what I do,” Norton said.
Dr. Norton said, “This was going to be my final marathon. But no, next year, next April I’ll be up at Boston. I’ll run and maybe that will be my last marathon,”
Don Weaver 