Scotch Plains Marathon Runner: 'I'm Still in a State of Shock'

Julianne Gorton thinks she probably could have finished this year's Boston Marathon faster if she weren't distracted by all the spectators.

"There was maybe only two-tenths of a mile where there wasn't a crowd, and that was only because there was no place for them to stand," Gorton, 33, told Patch. "Everyone was so energetic, kids everywhere with hands out to get a high five, people handing out ice pops and orange slices. It was amazing to experience."

As she crossed Fairfield Street and neared the finish line, Gorton heard her husband, two young sons and mother and father, calling her name, cheering her on. She waved to them, finished with a time of 3:19:36, and hunted for the post-race massage tent. When she didn't see it, she instead rejoined her family. It was Gorton's first time running Boston; her finish time in the Philadelphia Marathon gained her entry.

"I certainly was excited to have qualified," she says. "I've only been running for about five years. I used to be an avid walker, and then I realized that I could get the same amount of exercise in half the time if I learned how to run. It's a great stress reliever. It helps clear my mind, and I can think about things that need to get done and get organized with my thoughts."

Reunited, Gorton and her family made their way back to their hotel in nearby Somerville. After 26.2 miles of enthusiasm and positivity from so many strangers, Gorton could never have predicted the fear and chaos that would come just an hour later.

"Now looking back, I feel like there's a reason I couldn't find that massage tent," she says. "We left within 15 minutes of reuniting. We didn't even know what happened until we were walking back to the hotel. My mom's cousin was the first one who called and started frantically asking 'Are you okay? Are you okay?' I heard my mom say, 'Yes. Why? What happened?' and then her jaw dropped."

Gorton fell to the ground upon hearing the news.

"My mom looked at the time stamp on our subway tickets - 2:50 p.m. - right when the first explosion took place," she says. "We literally got out just in time."

Gorton says her first thought was of all the people she'd just seen, the ones cheering her from the sidelines and the ones running beside her.

"At that time I didn’t know how big the explosion was," she says. "I had visions of hundreds or thousands of people dead or injured. I started crying. It was my older son who was able to finally calm me down. He came and gave me a hug and said, 'It’s okay, mommy. It's okay.'"

Gorton and her family struggled with spotty cell phone service over the next few hours as they tried to let family and friends know they were okay. Eventually Gorton told her mom to put out a message on Facebook. Gorton's sister got the news of the explosions from a coworker during a meeting, and without a word frantically ran back to her desk to get her phone. 

Gorton also teaches 7th grade social studies at Park Middle School, though she's currently out on maternity leave.

"I know if I was teaching, my students definitely would have known I was running in the marathon," she says. "I would have had to figure out some way to get in touch with them." 

As she tries to process what happened, Gorton says she is "still in a state of shock." It's the what-if scenarios that she can't seem to shake.

"I keep thinking of my two children being right at that spot only an hour before," she says. "If something happened to them, I know it wouldn’t have been my fault, but I would have carried that guilt with me for the rest of my life."

Although shaken, Gorton says she'll run again.

"We can’t be scared," she says. "We can’t shy away from future events, because that’s what the person or people who did this want. I’m devastated for those who have lost somebody or have been injured or know someone who has been injured. I just hope they are able to find whoever did this so justice can be served."