Randy Sims - A Boston Marathon Perspective

Randy Sims runs regularly, though generally not in races, except 5Ks with his 11-year-old daughter to give her encouragement. He has only run one marathon. So the path that took him to Boston on April 15 was a bit more circuitous.

 

Randy and Dina - the Boston 5K



He was there to support his girlfriend, Dina, who is active in our local running community. Sims said her favorite is the Boston Marathon, which she has run about a half dozen times. He described how Boston residents and businesses come together for the weekend in support of the marathon – the air of anticipation and excitement as visitors pour in, how spectators line up everywhere to cheer their favorite runners.



“The whole city participates,” Sims said. “I can see why it’s Dina’s favorite. It’s fun, joyous.”

Sims said that he and Dina ran the Boston 5K the day before the marathon. But the big day, Monday, April 15, he took a place in the spectator stands near the finish line.

 

It was mid-afternoon, 2:49 p.m. EDT, and he expected Dina, who was in the third wave, to come by any moment. Sims said the weather was perfect, and everyone was clapping and cheering as the steady stream of runners came by him on Boylston Street. He remembers thinking that he would like to be there again. As he watched, he heard a loud explosion and saw smoke across the street.

“I saw the explosion, glass shattering,” Sims said, “and I knew immediately what it was.” Or at least what he thought it was. “I thought some kids had lit off fireworks, and something had gone wrong.”

But about 13 seconds after the first explosion, as he was trying to process what was happening, a second explosion shook the ground.

Those first moments following any sort of disaster are chaotic, as people try to understand what is happening and how to respond. There’s a lack of information, then misinformation, and more questions than answers. Sims’ main concern was trying to contact Dina, who because she was in the race, didn’t have a cell phone.

Sims said no one was rushing to get out of the stands, and since there was only one entry and exit, it wouldn’t have helped. But it was only minutes before security began ushering him and the other spectators away. That’s when he started seeing some of the victims.



“There was a man sitting up in a wheelchair, he was conscious,” Sims said. “But his legs, they were bloody stumps. That’s the first time I realized how bad it was.”

Searching for Dina, Sims made his way to the Family Meeting area, then the medical area, then eventually found Dina’s bus and discovered her backpack was still on the bus, meaning she hadn’t picked it up yet. At the same time, he started receiving and sending texts to family and friends who knew he was there, and wanted reassurance that he was okay. Thankfully, he was able to get word about Dina after about 45 minutes. She, with the other runners, had been diverted by police from the finish line, and was in a nearby bar.

Sims said he initially didn’t want to talk about the experience, because there was too much to think through. “I kept playing it in my mind over and over again,” he said. “I didn’t want to talk to anybody about it for a while.”

He said he has been in an accident, tornado, and natural disaster, but this was different. “It was more personal,” he said. “It was a planned attack. You literally watch it happen in front of you, and it doesn’t make sense.”

 

Randy Sims loading hay bales
to be sent to Moore, Oklahoma.



He is also trying to keep it in perspective. He realizes it was a tragic event. After all, it killed three people and injured more than 260. Yet he is also aware that there are people in certain parts of the world who live with this sort of death and destruction on a daily basis. Too, Sims is trying to understand something that can really never be understood – how do some people get so misguided that they think bombing innocent people seems like the right thing to do.



 Sims spent some time recently loading hay bales that were being sent as part of a relief effort to Moore, Oklahoma, an area devastated by a tornado. He is a firm believer in giving back, and was before the Boston Marathon bombings. He explained that at the Boston Marathon, his original plan was to watch the race from the Starbucks patio, about 15 feet from where the second bomb went off. But it's futile to ponder the what ifs in life, he said. "Life is full of a lot of ‘what ifs’. I think we should learn from the past, but never dwell on the past or the ‘what ifs’, but instead work on the present and future, focusing on being a servant to others in need.”

He also still runs. As for Boston, he said he plans to return next year.