For Princetonians in Boston, ?Marathon Monday? becomes day of tragedy

For the runners and spectators participating in the Boston Marathon on Monday — including dozens of Princeton students, faculty, staff and alumni — the day of celebration turned into shock, confusion and heartbreak. At around 2:50 p.m., more than four hours into the race, two bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three people and injuring 176. As of Tuesday afternoon, the source of the bombs was still undetermined.

“It was a beautiful day, in the 60s and sunny — perfect running weather,” said Stephanie Iantorno ’13, the only Princeton undergraduate student known to have run in yesterday's race, recounting her excitement at the starting line. She noted that the group of runners was “buzzing with energy,” and on the sidelines, “people were cheering you on, playing music.”

She described the Boston Marathon as a special event, full of accomplished, qualified runners, and said she felt a strong sense of camaraderie.

“It really is one of the most energetic and supportive groups of people,” Iantorno explained. “I was talking with some runners who had done this marathon before, and all the runners said to look out for Hill 21 — called the Heartbreak Hill.”

Iantorno, who said she had hoped to run the race in between three-and-a-half and four hours, finished in three hours, 41 minutes and 22 seconds. She crossed the finish line at 2:02 p.m., after having started with the second wave of runners at 10:20 a.m. Iantorno said she found her mother and friends from Harvard College in the finish area, where they had cheered her on.

Eight minutes later, at 2:10:31 p.m., fellow Princetonian Kelley Sternhagen ’11 crossed the finish line with a time of three hours, 46 minutes and 57 seconds. Sternhagen said she was supposed to meet her parents at the finish, but they had been delayed returning to Boston from Brookline, Ma. Sternhagen told her parents not to come to the finish line since they were running late. She and a friend left to celebrate in an Irish pub, she said. Meanwhile, Iantorno, her mother and friends left the area around 2:30 p.m. for a meal.

Princeton coordinator of track and field operations Michael Henderson, who watched the race, was at the family meeting area beyond the finish line when the first explosion occurred. The two friends whom he was cheering on in the marathon had finished 15 to 20 minutes before, Henderson said, and he met them on St. James Street, near the John Hancock Building and Trinity Church. The buildings impeded the crowd’s view of the finish line.

“There was a lot of concern because we didn’t know exactly what had happened,” Henderson said. “We heard [the explosion] clear as day, but when you looked in that direction you just kind of saw the buildings.”

The crowd in the family meeting area was evacuated further east on St. James Street, away from the finish line, Henderson explained.

“As we were walking you saw more and more people in tears,” he said. “We saw a group of media discussing whether they should go back in for more pictures or just get out of there and things like that.”

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“Everything was going great. It was a beautiful day; everybody was festive and enjoying everything, and it all changed pretty quickly there in the end,” Henderson said. “At this point, everything’s still soaking in. It was definitely a surreal experience.”

“Surreal” was also how Iantorno described the news. She, her mom and friends found out about the bombing when they walked into a restaurant in Cambridge after the race.

“It was very eerie,” Iantorno explained. “I couldn’t believe it happened. I was terrified and incredibly sad.”

Sternhagen said she and a friend were on the subway when the bombs went off, and they didn’t hear about the blasts until they got to the pub where she planned to wait until she could meet up with her parents. They found the crowd there “glued to the TV.”

“My first thought was, ‘Where is that happening?’ and then I saw the finish line, and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I was just there,’” Sternhagen said. She said she first asked if everyone was okay and then immediately thought of her parents.

“I told them just not to come, but it was pretty scary because if ... I had waited for my family to come, we would’ve been right in the middle of things when it happened, so it’s just a huge blessing that we decided it wasn’t worth it for them to come to the finish,” Sternhagen said.

Sternhagen was only able to talk to her father for 20 seconds before the connection was cut. He told her to stay where she was, warning that “these things always happen in twos.” Sternhagen said her father was not at the finish line and had no idea that a second bomb had actually gone off.

“I just did what he said — I stayed put; I didn’t move. They made their way to me. We were all definitely afraid [of another bomb],” she said.

As cell service was unavailable after the blast, Sternhagen said she had no way of directly contacting her family. Instead, she arranged to meet them at the pub through phone calls to her family back home in South Dakota. Sternhagen’s family was close to the pub, but it took an hour and a half for them to reach it.

“We were all trying to get in touch with people that we cared about and make sure everyone was safe. We were all getting texts and emails. But we knew it was best to stay put,” Sternhagen said. There were police officers on every corner, Sternhagen said, and she remained in the pub for four hours.

Sternhagen and her parents planned to leave Boston on Tuesday, and their travel plans remain unaffected, she said.

After hitting some traffic in Boston before getting on the Massachusetts Turnpike, Henderson said he was able to arrive in Princeton around early Tuesday morning. Iantorno confirmed that she was also safely back on campus.

When asked how the running community would respond to the incident, Henderson said he imagined there would be a moment of tribute at the upcoming London Marathon on April 21, as well as next year’s Boston Marathon, citing the community’s close-knit nature.

“[The incident in Boston is] something that every runner can feel the impact of,” Henderson noted. “There are so many people who have run Boston or aspired to run Boston. And in some way that’s always going to be a part of the history of that traditional race.”

Iantorno also said she looked forward to the Marathon’s future, calling it “one of the best athletic events I have ever been part of.”

“Going forward, I hope the spirit of Boston and the runners' association won’t be crushed in the memories of the bombing,” she said. Sternhagen described the annual tradition of the Boston Marathon a “beautiful display of the human spirit.”

“Everyone who crosses that line, whether they do it in two hours or six hours, has to have so much heart,” she said. “That’s what the race is supposed to be about – a celebration about heart, and to have it destroyed like that — everyone was pretty heartbroken.”

In addition to Iantorno, Sternhagen and those names already reported, Gayle Love ’06, Dawn Leaness ’06 and Juan Lopez ’06 were confirmed safe.

In addition to Henderson and those names already reported, spectator Hugo Arellano Santoyo ’09 has been confirmed safe.