Durban - Kloof attorney Raymond Meyer is thankful his sore knees failed him midway through the Boston Marathon - his target was 4h10m, the time the first of two bombs exploded near the finishing line.
“When I think about what happened, it’s quite unbelievable,” he said on Tuesday from New York, after his flight from Boston.
Meyer had wanted his run in Boston to be a special one - it was going to be the last marathon race in his 46 years in the sport - and he was doing so to raise funds for the Durban Children’s Home.
“When I crossed the halfway mark I had predicted that I would finish at 4h10m, which would have been when the first bomb went off. By 4h14m, officials were on the road telling us the race was over,” he said.
“I was about half a mile (800m) away when that happened.”
The runner was slowed down by his ailing legs and knees, and for parts of the marathon after the halfway mark, began to walk and stumble along, causing him to miss his target time.
The two bomb explosions killed three people and injured more than 180.
“I am very sad that I did not finish the race, but I think people who have contributed money so that I could take part in this race will understand,” said Meyer, a partner at Browne Brodie Attorneys in Durban.
“It has always been an ambition of mine to take part in the Boston Marathon and complete it, but that will definitely never happen now,” he said.
Meyer, a member of the Savages Running Club, said he only realised what had happened when he turned on the television later.
He said they had to walk to their hotels because the subways were closed for security reasons and they were told by police to vacate Boston as soon as possible because they feared there would be more explosions.
“When I watched (the incident) on TV I saw the blood all over the place.
“It makes you sick to see what happens in a terrorist attack.”
Meyer, who has completed 11 Comrades Marathons and 60 other marathons around the world, said he was planning to return to Durban next week, but would spend the next few days in Texas where he would visit a friend.
The director of the Durban Children’s Home, Mandy Goble, said yesterday that the children and staff had been eagerly awaiting the outcome of Meyer’s race.
They were “understandably shaken and wish Raymond a safe return to South Africa”, she said.
Goble described Meyer as someone who had been a “friend” of the home for the past three years, adding they had been thrilled when they heard he was going to run the Boston Marathon to raise funds for the centre.
“There are absolutely no words to express how shocked we were by this horrific and tragic event, and aside from our deepest condolences for the families affected, we were extremely relieved to hear that Raymond Meyer was unharmed,” Goble said.
The athlete’s niece, Jenny Meyer, also told of how she waited anxiously to hear from her uncle after learning of the explosions.
“I had been tracking his progress online (during the race). I saw that he was doing well and had made it to the 40km mark so I thought that he was on the home stretch,” she said. “I then received a text message from my dad, (Meyer’s brother, who lives in New Zealand) to inform me about the explosions and I started following the reports on news sites and social media.”
Meyer said she was shocked to learn of the explosions and was “extremely anxious and worried” about her uncle as she knew that he had been close to the finishing line when the explosions occurred.
She said that her uncle’s online tracking results showed at the time that he had not crossed the finishing line.
“I waited in anticipation to get a response from him or my dad to say that he was okay… I was extremely relieved when I finally heard back from Raymond at about 1am South African time to say that the race had stopped and he had been diverted half a kilometre before the finish
,” she said.
Jenny said the family was relieved that he had been slightly slower at the end, “otherwise he would have been in the thick of it”.
She expressed sympathy for the families of the dead.
South African athlete, Rene Kalmer of Johannesburg, said when the explosions occurred she had been at her hotel having lunch.
“When we heard the explosions we initially thought it was the celebrations, but as soon as we heard the sirens we knew something was wrong.”
She said most of the runners were still in shock yesterday.
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