The millions of eyes glued to television and computer screens in the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings likely knew more about what was happening on the ground than the athletes and their supporters in the chaos of the attack zone – that was certainly the case for Terrace’s Donna and Gord Hull, who were separated for over three hours throughout the afternoon of April 15.
Donna was 200 yards away from crossing the finish line of her first Boston Marathon when the first explosion went off just up the block in front of her. She stopped short, and barely had time to ask the police officer closest to her what was going on, if this was for real, when a second, smaller explosion went off, this one just behind her.
“The bombing was unreal,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what just happened, it was horrific to witness.” Then panic set in – she automatically thought Gord had been in the explosion.
The scene around her was instant chaos, with officers ushering athletes out of the way, telling them, “Clear the area, clear out of here, get out of here,” and so she moved off the road and began asking people on the street if she could use their cell phones to try to find her husband.
When the explosions went off, Gord was standing in the family area just past the finish line with family of his from the Massachusetts area.
“I knew there was a shipyard not that far away and the fellow I was with, he used to be in the military, and I said to him, ‘Any chance they’re shooting from the big deck guns over on the harbour, or what?’ He didn’t know either. You just don’t know, you hear this big boom,” said Gord.
Within minutes it became clear that this wasn’t a drill, that something had gone seriously wrong. Family members began calling almost instantly, reporting that they’d heard it was a bomb and asking them if they were all right.
Gord desperately wanted to get a hold of Donna – he had taken a photo of her earlier in the race, and told her he’d see her at the finish line. But cell service was by then shut off, as authorities didn’t know if more bombs could be set off by cell phones.
“That just made everything worse and compounded the communication problems,” he said. “She tried calling, trying to locate me, and I was on the other side trying to locate her, but there was just no way to kind of get together... it was real chaos.”
And so they both waited, blocks away from each other but with increasing anxiety that the other was seriously hurt.
“There was just that two or three hour window where you don’t know what’s going on, and that’s when the horrible thoughts and feelings begin to cross your mind,” he said. “We’d been sitting there watching ambulances go by, you don’t know how many are wounded or injured, you don’t know how many are dead, you don’t know. And then of course, the longer it goes without finding her, the worse you think something tragic has happened.”
Eventually, near the three-hour mark, Donna made her way back to the hotel. She’d been checking hospitals and still didn’t know where Gord was. Phoning home, she found her three children there together. They told her how worried they’d been – they’d been following her progress online and knew she had to have been close to the explosions. They also told her that Gord was okay.
“It was so emotional for me to talk to my kids at that point,” she said. “The race didn’t matter. You’re happy to find out your husband’s okay, and the kids and stepkids and friends... It was overwhelming support for us in Terrace.”
Moments later, Gord got the call from his daughter.
“She said, ‘Donna’s okay, she’s trying to track you down too,’” he said. “Just a huge sense of relief, knowing she’s fine.”
He hurried back to the hotel and when he saw her, said it was just “elation.”
The couple left Boston the next evening for Florida, where they're staying for the next week before coming home, and are still coming to grips with the experience.
“We’re very thankful and just happy to be alive, really,” she said. “The Boston experience to run it was amazing. I’d say to anyone go and do it, don’t be afraid of this.”
Donna has run plenty of marathons in her time – and she’s known to be at the top of the pack in Terrace races. But, as Gord points out, the stories she tells about Boston won’t be about the race, they’ll be about the aftermath.
And while there isn’t another Boston Marathon planned for the pair, that’s not because of what happened, it’s because this marathon was meant to be her last.
“Boston itself, the city of Boston, the people of Boston, they are absolutely the best people ever,” Gord said. “The people of Boston deserve a pat on the back for how supportive they are to the runners.”
And there’s no doubt in his mind the city will recover.
“People as a whole are resilient,” he said. “You get over it, you shake yourself off and you carry on. It’s unfortunate, but this stuff is going to happen. It’s gonna happen someplace, you just always hope it never hits home with you.”