Boston Marathon explosions mar anniversary celebration for Ann Arbor couple

For Rob and Marie Morgan, this year’s Boston Marathon was meant to be a celebration. The couple took their vows in Boston two days before last year’s race and celebrated their one-year anniversary with friends at a pre-race pasta dinner Sunday night.

Monday, Rob ran the race while Marie, who is seven months pregnant, cheered him on. Approximately two hours after he crossed the finish line, their post-race celebration turned to shock and fear as two bombs exploded just two blocks away from where they had gathered with other local runners.

It was a terrifying end to what the couple had hoped would be a celebration of their love for each other and their dedication to the sport of running.

The Morgans, who run PR Fitness in downtown Ann Arbor, a personal training company that offers group and individual coaching for endurance athletes, had brought 25 PR Fitness athletes to the race Monday including 11 first-time Boston marathon runners.

"Boston is a really special race," Rob Morgan said. "I’ve run Chicago and NYC and they are all great but there’s something very special about Boston and a lot of it is the history. It's really special for people to be able to run in this race."

Many of the PR Fitness runners had gathered at a pre-determined spot in the post-race recovery area when they heard and felt the explosions just two blocks away.

“When the first explosion went off, everyone was dead silent and just looking at each other,” Morgan said.

“We all knew right away that something wasn’t right. It wasn’t a backfire, wasn’t a cannon, nothing made logical sense. Then within 30 seconds there was a second explosion and then you really knew something bad had happened.”

Morgan said he could hear sirens within a minute after the explosions and runners quickly dispersed from the post-race gathering area. Public transportation quickly shut down in the city, so the pair were left to begin walking towards Brookline, a neighborhood miles away from the finish line.

“We were just walking in the street and cabs were almost non-existent,” Morgan said.

“Luckily, a woman in Bay Village saw us and invited us into her home. She fed us, gave us water and eventually drove us back to our hotel.”

The couple made it back to their hotel at approximately 7:30 p.m., nearly six and a half hours after Rob finished the race. By that time, they had managed to check in with all of the PR Fitness runners and ensure that everyone was safe.

Rob said Monday night that it is difficult to determine how these events will affect future races, but he believes runners are a resilient group.

“All of the events I’ve been to, the organizations and the police and everybody do such a great job making everything safe and fun. I don’t know what’s going to happen to races after this,” he said.

“Those explosions went off right by the finish line and it was crowded with spectators who were just there to watch family and friends. I know that people will keep running, but I can’t even start to think about how things might change.”

Gianna Lete ran the last 8 miles of the race with her husband, Eric Straka. She said Tuesday morning that her friends in the Ann Arbor running community had immediately reached out to each other and connected via Facebook.

“What I’m gathering is there’s a strong sense of solidarity. People are focusing on the people in Boston who stepped forward and offered their homes and hearts and were givers and helpers,” she said.

“The runners in this community are focusing on ‘don’t let them get us down. We’re going to stand up and keep running.’ Today people are wearing a race T-shirt all day to show solidarity and show that we’ll keep running races.”

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2