Community Corner

'It Got Insane': West Chester Councilman Ran in Boston

Marathoner John Manion was in Boston with his family when the bombs went off.

John Manion was in his hotel room when the first bomb went off.

The West Chester Borough Councilman had finished the Boston Marathon, his fourth, with a time of 3.02:16 and was cleaning up at the Boston Marriot, approximately half a mile from the finish line, with his family when he says he heard a “tremendous boom.”

“My daughter, she’s 9, said, ‘What was that?’ I told her it was a dump truck dropping its haul,” Manion, who was one of 24 West Chester runners in Boston on Monday, explained.

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Then they heard the second blast.

“I went out into the hall and looked out the window. You could see, not panic, but there was definitely commotion. The cops started pouring in…it got insane.”

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Manion composed himself and tried to follow the events on television—in the immediate aftermath of the blasts, the Marriot wouldn’t let anyone leave the hotel—but turned off the news when it began to upset his wife and three children, aged 5, 9, and 11.

“It was surreal,” he said. “There were little ripples of panic going through everything.”

While the councilman was disgusted by the acts—“It’s beyond vile,” he sighed—he said he saw a silver lining in the chaos: people helping people.

“When something like this happens, you have all these other people, the vast majority of people, saying, ‘Are you OK? Do you need anything?’ It was heartwarming to see these people support each other.”

When asked if he would consider returning to Boston for his fifth marathon, the 39-year-old paused. The tragedy might actually make him more likely to go back, he conceded.

“At the start of the race I said, it’s a pain dragging these kids up here, it’s a long drive, and it’s not cheap. But I think now, yes, I might have to go back up there to show resolve. I’m not going to be dissuaded by a small, small minority of terrible people.”


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