Irish runner returns to scene of Boston heartbreak
The 50-year old Cork builder was at the 2013 race finish line after completing the Boston course, when two bombs went off, killing three and injuring 250 — but was far enough away to escape injury.
Moved by the experience which he describes as “heartbreaking to witness, but this evil has also brought out the very best in people”, Mr Hilliard has since forged deeper relations with Boston— and Monday will be his 30th marathon run in the 12 months since he last competed in Boston.
“It’s important to go back; it will be very emotional and tense, but also fantastic and a privilege,” he said.
Mr Hilliard has presented the US city with a banner of support, reading ‘Boston, United We Stand’, signed by more than 2,000 people at last December’s Clonakilty Waterfront Marathon which he organises. The coastal course’s last mile has since been christened ‘The Boston Mile’ as a tribute to the city’s resilience in its own iconic race.
Forging even deeper links between Boston and Clonakilty is Boston official race photographer Liz Cardoso, who was metres away from one of the explosions last April, and who witnessed shocking images of mayhem and suffering.
Ms Cardoso attended and photographed the Clonakilty race last December after being invited over by Mr Hilliard, and has written for US media about Clonakilty’s expressions of support across the Atlantic for her city. The large, signed, Clonakilty banner with its messages of support was given this week to the Boston Athletic Association, but hopes to have it displayed along the race route had been ruled out on security grounds.
Prior to Monday’s race, with a record 36,000 registered runners, Bobby and his Swedish-born wife Ia (also lining up to run Monday) are to meet with two of the 2013 blast’s survivors, brothers JP and Paul Norden, who each lost a limb and suffered burns in the attack. Earlier this month, the Norden brothers, who worked as roofers, published a book about their experiences.
The Hilliards are to meet and invite to Clonakilty’s 2014 race a remarkable and inspirational US athletic duo, Dick Hoyt, 73, and his severely disabled son Rick, 51, of Team Hoyt. The father-and-son team competed in more than 1,000 races worldwide, with Dick pushing his son in a special wheelchair. The Hoyts’ association for more than 30 years with the Boston race has been marked with a life-size bronze statue of the two men and wheelchair at the race start line, with the motto ‘Yes You Can’.
“I hope to say that to them when having the honour to meet them, and to invite them to Clonakilty, but I’m not sure they will make it,” said Mr Hilliard. “They’ve said they are not doing any more events outside America but, hopefully, ‘yes, they can’.”
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