Boston Blast Knocks Down Runner, 78, But He Finishes Race

Bill Iffrig was a few yards short of the finish line at the Boston Marathon when the 78-year-old runner was knocked to the ground by the first of two blasts. A Boston Globe photographer shot several pictures of the fallen Iffrig with police and race assistants nearby, and the images soon appeared around the world.

Astonishingly, Iffrig was helped to his feet, apparently uninjured, and finished the race.

"I was heading for the finish line," he told ESPN's Steve Levy. "The shock waves must have hit my body and my legs just started going like noodles ... I wasn't unconscious ... so I made an attempt to get up. As I did that, one of the assistants came over and gave me a hand, and walked me on over to the finish line so I could finish."

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"I wondered [if] it might be a terrorist plot, or something," he told CNN's Piers Morgan about the blast. "The way it went off, this big bomb going off ... that doesn't happen every day."

Iffrig has run 45 marathons, according to the CNN report. After finishing his third Boston Marathon yesterday, he walked about six blocks to his hotel and was reunited with his wife.

His main concern? That this horrific crime would ruin the Boston Marathon. "Everyone else is out there having fun, and someone is out there trying to destroy the whole thing. Terrorists, or whoever they are, I just don't have much use for it."

 

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