Crime & Safety

Somerville Marathoner Guides Blind Runner Yards Away from Explosions

Ray Charbonneau finished the Boston Marathon minutes before Monday's explosions. He was guiding a blind runner from Texas. Their long day was just beginning.

Posted April 15, 2013
By Chris Orchard

A Somerville running club member, Ray Charbonneau, was serving as a guide for a blind marathoner from Texas, and the two of them had just finished the Boston Marathon.

"We were 50, 75 yards past the finish line, and all of a sudden there was a loud noise, there was smoke," he said. "Boom."

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"You have very few choices at that point … it's crowded and people could barely move," he said.

Charbonneau is an Arlington resident, but he runs with the Somerville Road Runners.

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He had a momentary sense that people might panic, so he took his blind colleague, Mike Merino, off to the side of the street, through "a gap in the piles of junk." If there were a stampede, it could be dangerous for a blind man.

But most of the people, because they had just finished a marathon, we too tired to panic, he said. Plus, "The [Boston Athletic Association] volunteers were great … they were just wonderful."

Trying to find a way home

When the explosions went off, "No one was sure it was a bomb," Charbonneau said.

After the shock of what happened, he and Merino wandered the streets and worked their way toward Boston Common, "hoping to catch a cab."

"My wife was back at the 30K mark"—at about mile 18.5—he said.

After wandering through the crowds for an "extended period" of time, they finally made it to Team with a Vision tent, a base for blind runners.

"Sometimes it's helpful to have a blind guy there. Police will let you do things," Charbonneau said.

Once there, a good 45 minutes if not more after the explosions, Charbonneau and Merino were able to get access to Charbonneau's phone and some clothes, "so we weren't freezing." He was able to call his wife.

The runners then began to wander again, walking toward Charles/MGH Station, trying to get a cab along the way. Eventually they got one and made it back to Arlington.

But the day wasn't over. "Mike had a flight at 7:35," Charbonneau said.

After arriving in Arlington they got in Charbonneau's car and drove to Brookline, where Merino was storing his luggage at the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired office.

"We got to the airport somehow in time for his flight," Charbonneau said. "I hope he gets back home."

Other Somerville Road Runners doing okay

In the hours since the explosions that ended the 2013 Boston Marathon, Charbonneau and his friends at the running club tried to collect information about all their fellow runners, family and friends who were at the marathon.

"Everybody we know about is okay," he said, speaking at about 8 p.m. Monday, having seen a flurry of emails and Facebook posts. Somewhere between 60 and 70 members of the club were at the marathon.

Charbonneau and Merino finished less than 10 minutes before the explosions, but other runners didn't finish.

"Once the bomb went off … they did start turning people around," he said. "They were saying, 'Sorry, you can't finish, go home.'"

"I'm going to be at the marathon next year"

Charbonneau was feeling exhausted when he spoke. He's run 23 marathons, and guiding a blind runner is more intense than normal running, because "you spend a lot of time going sideways," dodging other runners. "Toward the end we were pushing it," he said.

"I just hope they really catch the person" who committed the attack, Charbonneau said. He also hopes the government doesn't use the incident as a reason to clamp down on personal liberties.

"I'm going to be at the marathon next year," he promised.


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