Wall Runner: 'They Had Time to Plan It'

Krissy Suckow, who ran in the Boston Marathon on Monday, had time on the drive home to the Jersey Shore to think about how someone planned the bombing that left three dead, including an 8-year-old child, and at least 141 wounded.

And she just kept thinking about the 5K race that was run the day before.

"They had a 5K race the day before set up on the marathon course," Suckow said, as she rode in her father's car as he drove them home to Wall on Monday evening.

"The finish line and everything were all set up for the marathon the next day, so anyone could see the whole course the day before and plan exactly where they wanted to do this," said Suckow, 29, a seventh and eighth grade teacher at Rahway Academy in Union County.

And plan they did. The bomb went off near the finish line right around the time in the race when most of the runners would be finishing, Suckow said.

Fortunately, Suckow had been inspired to beat her time last year, which was the first time she had run in the Boston Marathon. She spent time working out for the past year at Shore Point Fitness, Bridge Avenue, Point Pleasant Borough, to increase her strength so she could run faster. It worked.

"I ran a few minutes faster than last year, that was an excellent time for me," she said. Suckow had finished the race at 3:40 on the clock, or just after 2 p.m., about 20 minutes before the first of two bombs went off.

It's obvious how warmly her "teammates," as she calls them, at the gym feel about Suckow. They posted a good luck photo and message (see attached) to her before the race on the gym Facebook page.

Afterwards, a status was posted: "FYI...Krissy is fine and on her way home. Finished 20 minutes before the chaos. Xoxo." A few people expressed relief and thanks and Suckow later responded, "I love my SPF FAMILY!!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!"

After Suckow finished the race, she  and her father decided to take a cab, rather than walk to the hotel as they had planned. As luck would have it, when Krissy met up with her father, Arthur Suckow, there happened to be an empty cab at the corner right next to them.

"The cab was stopped at a red light, so we got in," she said.

It was not until they got back to their hotel, walked in and saw the chaotic scene on a television screen that they realized what had happened and later figured out that the first bomb had detonated just as they had been getting into the cab. At the time, they never heard the explosions.

"There are cars, buses, police directing traffic, all the athletes who finished the race are there, there is so much noise and so much commotion in that area that we never heard the bombs," she said.

Looking back now, she's glad the last-minute decision to grab the cab got them away from the race site that much quicker.

"At first, people thought it might be a gas explosion," said Suckow, of the two bomb explosions that the FBI would later call a terrorist attack. "We said 'Let's get in the car, we're outta here.' "

"I'm so shaken up," she said. "You think you are in the safest place in the world there. They have an Athlete's Village with armed cops, dogs and Army officers all over the place. They make announcements that you can't pet the dogs because they're working dogs.

"So it's really scary that even with all of the security they have there, that something like this could happen," Suckow said. "They really did everything they could. Then something like this happens and you wonder, 'Is there anyplace that's safe anymore?' "

Suckow, who lives on Hayes Street, said a few other members of the Jersey Shore Running Club she belongs to are also fine and that she didn't personally know anyone who was injured or unaccounted for.

Suckow said she cannot imagine what other precautions could have been taken at a 26 mile site with hundreds of thousands of runners, spectators and people milling about on city streets where schools and government offices were shut down for what's become a city holiday in Boston.

It's not as though anyone with a bag or backpack should be considered suspicious, she said.

"Everyone has bags, my dad has a bag, a lot of families have bags with clothes for their runners to put on after the race," Suckow said.

Suckow does not think she will return to run the Boston event again, an event that you have to qualify for, that attracts the top 30,000 runners in the U.S.

"No, I don't think I'll go back," she said.

But she is traveling in a few weeks with friends to run a similar type of marathon in Nashville, another event that attracts around 30,000 to 40,000 as well.

"Yes, I'm going," she said, sounding tentative. "You can't live life under a rock. You just have to hope it never happens again."