Advertisement

78-year-old Boston runner in viral photo: 'It was really loud'

By KATE STANTON, UPI.com

As the world learned of Monday's shocking blasts at the Boston Marathon, one particularly moving image stood out on social media -- that of an elderly runner knocked down by the blast near the finish line as police officers rushed to help the wounded. Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki captured the moment, taken seconds after one of the explosions, in a photograph shared widely on Twitter Monday afternoon.

The runner in the photo was Bill Iffrig, a 78-year-old retired mason worker resident of Lake Stevens, Wash., according to The Herald of Everett, Wash.

Advertisement

"It was only ... feet away from me," Iffrig said of the explosion. "It was really loud."

Iffrig only received a scrape on his knee from the fall and said that a marathon official helped him cross the finish line.

"I ended up second in my division," he said. "After you've run 26 miles you're not going to stop there."

You can see Iffrig's fall in the following Vine video circulated widely after the blast:

Latest Headlines

Advertisement

Trending Stories

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement