Boston Marathon Bombing: 4 Racine-Area Runners Entered Race

Town of Raymond resident Michael Beix, a teacher at Yorkville Elementary School, had just finished the Boston Marathon about an hour before he heard a loud boom.

On a street a couple of blocks away, the blast sounded like a large truck going over a bump or a cannon blast. The furthest thing from his mind was that two bombs had gone off in downtown Boston.

After completing the race Monday, this was Beix's fourth Boston Marathon race.

Then he went back to his hotel on a perfectly sunny day to learn that just a few blocks away from where he sat the unthinkable had happened.

“I never thought in a million years that it would happen here,” Beix said.

Beix didn't learn that a bomb had gone off until he had returned to his hotel and turned the television on.

"It was scary," he said. "We were far enough away, but then you play 'What if..' and you think, if I was an hour later... You want to disbelieve that something like this would happen at such great event."

Two explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon had people carrying bloody spectators into the medical tent set up for runners, according to an Associated Press report on the Pocono Record website.

"There are a lot of people down," the AP quoted one man saying. The explosions happened about three hours after the winners crossed the finish line.

At least two people were killed in the explosions and nearly 100 injured.

NBC News reported fire engines, police and emergency medical personnel were headed to the scene. An affiliate reporter told NBC News she heard two loud explosions, and that "everybody kind of ducked and hit the ground," and Jackie Bruno, reporter for New England Cable News said she saw people with significant injuries, including one person with a leg blown off.

"Runners were coming in and saw unspeakable horror," Bruno said.  

Beix said he's safe in his hotel, but the police commissioner for Boston told the runners they should stay in their hotel.

Patch is following this breaking story

The Boston Athletic Association website lists the following Racine-area entrants:

Caledonia

• Juan Martinez

Franksville

• Brady Dangelser, a family member said that Brady is OK and is safe and sound, and back in Wisconsin.
• James Tierney

Racine

• Michelle Zerzanek, 31, had just finished the race when the bombs went off, according to a story by the Journal Times.

Other runners from the county included: Michael Beix, Cory Harris, Brian French and Therese Kern. 

All the Racine-area runners have finish times recorded on the Boston Marathon website. Zerzanek teaches at Gilmore Middle School, and was profiled in The Journal Times this week, for her participation in the marathon.