Tarrytown Runner Was Celebrating Finish During Boston Marathon Explosion

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. – Joe Kearns was in his hotel room after having run the Boston Marathon when he heard a very loud noise.

All of a sudden, we heard a very loud explosion,” Kearns, a Tarrytown resident, told the New York Daily News on Monday. “I guess 10 seconds later, we heard another loud explosion. We had no idea what was going on. We heard the sirens. We were a little bit panicked.”

Kearns had completed the race—and broken his personal record that day--about an hour before chaos erupted. Monday's race was his ninth marathon and his third Boston Marathon. He told the Daily News he was making plans with his girlfriend to celebrate when they heard the explosion and looked out their Boylston Street hotel window.

“You could see the marathon had stopped,” he said. “Nobody was running down Boylston Street. When I heard the loud sound, being optimistic, I thought maybe a transformer blew. I was thinking anything other than a bomb going off. When we heard the sirens, that’s when it got scary. That’s when it got real.”

Kearns finished the race at the 03:07:02 mark.

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