Stephanie Freeman arrived home in Rochelle, Georgia, late
Tuesday evening and held her young son really tight. Already the survivor of a
personal horrific experience that almost took away her ability to walk, Freeman
found herself in the middle of a major national story during what was supposed
to be the trip of a lifetime.
The entire country was gripped Monday by the news that two
bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the oldest and most
prestigious race of its kind. It’s for this race that Freeman spent almost a
decade attempting to reach a qualifying time. While she didn’t quite make that
goal – about 20 minutes short – to be in the field of roughly 26,000 runners
for the 2013 edition, Freeman still had a chance to attend the event for the
first time ever.
Freeman is part of Team Saucony, a company that makes
running shoes and apparel. After arriving in Boston on Saturday, April 13,
Freeman and her team took part in the John Hancock Sports & Fitness Expo at
the Hynes Convention Center, which is also located near the race’s finish line,
on Sunday.
After returning home, Freeman, who participated in the half
marathon at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins in January, spoke to the
Houston Home Journal about how excited she was when Monday rolled around and
she had a chance to watch some of the world’s elite athletes in action up
close.
At first, Freeman said she was across the street from where
the eventual explosions took place. She was able to take pictures of runners
crossing that line, and later she said her little group moved to the 25 ½-mile
mark. Roughly an hour and a half later, she said the group went to The Shops at
Prudential Center, a shopping mall, for a pizza lunch at the food court.
Freeman said they were only a few blocks away from the
finish line when they heard a blast.
“Everyone ran to the window,” she said. Ten seconds later, a
second blast occurs. “It was a huge, loud noise. The food court was a stampede.
Children were being run over. I had to jump over the table.”
Freeman found herself, once back outside on the race course,
telling runners who were only a few miles from the finish that they had to go
in an opposite direction. She said there were runners who saw the smoke but did
not fully grasp what had happened.
As a teenager in Wilcox County, Freeman was involved in an
auto accident where she swerved off Hwy. 215 and the car flipped five times.
She suffered serious lung and brain injuries, was in a coma for two months and
had to learn how to walk, talk and eat all over again.
Through her rehabilitation, Freeman took up the sport of
distance running and basically fell in love with the marathon. She feels a
kinship with anyone who also trains day after day to reach the “World Series of
running,” the Boston Marathon.
On Monday, there were no personal flashbacks to the events
of 20 years ago.
“I hated to have to tell people they couldn’t go further,”
said Freeman. “This means so much. It was heartbreaking for me. I knew if I had
been in that race and couldn’t cross that finish line … It takes away the joy.”
The blasts cost three lives and injured close to 200, some
of whom lost parts of their body. The crowd switched from runners everywhere to
local police, S.W.A.T. teams, firefighters and military personnel.
“I was proud to be an American that day,” said Freeman about
her reaction to the dedicated work she saw in these units to help out the injured
and scared. She also made pictures of S.W.A.T. members at hotel doors, the hotels
being on lockdown. She reported seeing a slew of media people, including Lester
Holt of NBC, on the scene.
“If I had been (near the finish line) still,” Freeman
recalled thinking when she hugged her son upon returning home. She said she was
able to walk the street in Boston Tuesday morning – helicopters still in the
air – before leaving for home. She said things at the airports weren’t as bad
as she expected.
Boston Marathon officials say the race will continue in
2014, and Freeman said she is going to keep trying hard to get to three hours,
40 minutes, and “run with pride.”
HHJ News
