Ladd Clifford says he was with a group of ten runners from Medina. He says he had just wrapped up the race when suddenly….
“I heard two explosions, and just spun around and it just looked like mushroom clouds coming right out of the center of the street," he recalls. "And when I turned around my first thought was terrorist attack. Because there was a plume of smoke in the middle of the road where I had just come from. I mean, I just stood there and texted my wife, ‘I just heard two explosions.’ And then I couldn’t get through ten minutes later.”
Clifford says he soon had 45 text messages from worried relatives and friends, that he wasn’t able to return because authorities had shut down all the cell phone towers in the immediate area. He plans to come home tomorrow night and spend time with his wife, Marsha.
Clifford says all of his fellow Medina runners are okay…and that he's still committed to running two upcoming marathons, in Akron and Cleveland.
And a University Heights man was on the scene after the powerful explosions went off.
50-year-old Kevin Goodman says he was soaking in his hotel bath tub, recuperating from finishing his race, when he heard explosions and felt the building shake.
“And definitely knew that there were no fireworks," says Goodman. "(I) got up, got outside, and right outside the Fairmont Copley Hotel....certainly was a very gruesome sight. Most difficult when children are hurt. Uhm, glass, blood, very difficult scenario. And we hope and pray that our freedoms remain secure.”
Goodman says he helped tend to the wounded until authorities cleared everyone out of the area. He says he was impressed at the coordination as injured spectators and runners were carried off in ambulances and wheelchairs.
Goodman adds that this was his second Boston Marathon. His first was last year in 90 degree heat. He says he’d gladly trade that “miserable” day plus 10 degrees more, than to experience what happened today.