West Hartford Runner: Boston Marathon Spirit Cannot Be Destroyed

West Hartford resident and veteran runner Christine Brooks was about a minute and a half away from finishing Monday’s Boston Marathon when the first bomb went off.

“I was projected to finish right at the time the bombs went off, but it just happened I was having a slow day,” Brooks said Wednesday night, still emotional about the experience.

Now, as she tries to return to her normal life as owner of Sweet Domestics, a company that sells gingerbread house kits, Brooks’ message is a positive one – about the extraordinary outpouring of kindness and concern she has experienced from friends all over the world, and how to her, the Boston Marathon represents “the best of America, the best of humanity.”

Earlier this week Brooks thought she could never bring herself to run Boston again – a race she loves and has run nine times since she first qualified in 2003. She has run 34 full marathons since she ran her first in October 2000.

But Wednesday morning, she said, “I woke up and I said there’s no way I can’t run if I qualify. I’m running! They’re not going to let this destroy that open-heartedness, that generosity, that kindness.”

Brooks firmly believes that the marathon’s spirit is to encourage people to pull together – people from all over the world, of all races and cultures. That’s the experience she was enjoying as she raced Monday, chatting with other runners, sharing stories and encouraging each other.

Then she heard a big boom. “I was heading into the finish, and I saw a huge cloud of smoke. Then another big boom. That one was closer to me. I smelled smoke,” Brooks said.

Before the noise of the bombs, the atmosphere was filled with energy, the sound of thousands of spectators cheering the runners on as they neared the finish line, she said. “Then suddenly –  silence.”

Brooks said runners stopped, and everyone was really quiet, checking cell phones to see what had happened. “Then the police came racing by on foot, and then the fire engines,” she said. The police were very calm, escorting everyone out of the area, she recalled.

She was able to borrow a cell phone and call her husband to let him know she was okay, but then it was hours before she made her way back to the hotel that served as the meeting place for the Hartford Track Club. “When I got there, they looked at me like I was a ghost,” Brooks said.

She was still soaking wet (she had poured water over herself during the race to cool off) and freezing, and wearing extra clothing that generous strangers had given to her as she wandered the streets of Boston in her t-shirt and shorts, trying to make her way back to the hotel where all of her possessions had been left.

Brooks was the last member of the group unaccounted for. From her splits, the Hartford Track Club contingent knew she was projected to finish right about the time the bombs went off, but they wouldn’t return to Connecticut without knowing where she was.

She has been overwhelmed by the endless generosity, compassion, caring, and support that she received, and that, she said, is what the Boston Marathon is always about.

It’s an international event, bringing people together from not only every state, but places such as Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, England, France, she said. “The marathon is not just about the runners. It’s about everyone who is there. They care for you no matter what.”

After Monday’s tragedy, she said, it was “generosity amplified” with runners heading straight to the hospital to give blood, people opening their hearts and homes, giving shelter. “So many acts of kindness,” she said.

To Brooks, the message of the Boston Marathon is “the spirit of the people. It’s the best of  humanity, and I want to keep that spirit alive.”

“I’m not going to let evil, hate-filled crazy people destroy that. Boston is about taking care of each other, our common humanity. I won’t give in.”