Local marathoner dodges Boston blast

Atlantic Beach resident Jodi Brodsky ran the Five Towns 5K this past Sunday, winning first place in her category just days after completing the Boston Marathon two minutes before a bomb exploded at the finish line.

“I’ve been running marathons since college,” said Brodsky. “I’m married 33 years, running 35 years. I ran the New York marathon when I was first married. Boston was my 41st marathon.” She said she’s been running her “whole life,” through law school; she runs everyday and she runs with her husband, Richard. She noted that to qualify for the Boston race she “ran something really hard to get the times she needed” to qualify. She did that on the Long Island Marathon.

“I was pretty close to the finish line,” she said, recounting the events of that Monday at the Boston Marathon. “The whole town turns out. I wrote my mane on my shirt, people were screaming my name. It was so wonderful. I was exhilarated, happy, I had tears of joy.” Two minutes after she crossed the finish line it happened.

“I heard a giant blast,” she recalled, speaking rapidly. “I looked at the girl next to me and we exchanged a look ‘what was that?’ I thought, maybe a gas main? People were looking shocked and then 12 seconds later a tremendous blast, a billow of smoke. I was right over the finish line, half way down the block. They were herding us the other way.” She said she couldn’t see what was happening at the bomb site, they were given water and they put a medal on her, and gave her a snack pack, standard post marathon procedure. “Then people started running, ambulances were coming in; there was hysteria there.” She couldn’t find her husband initially, the cell phones were not working, she overheard a police radio call to “get everyone out of the street.’ She stood in the middle of the street, praying and hoping--she felt calm in the middle of the chaos. She was not injured. When she got to the bus where she had left her belongings she saw that she had received a call from her husband; amazingly her phone worked and she was able to locate her husband.

“Running is therapy for me,” she explained. She runs about 60 miles a week, running for an hour, six miles a day. “I’m not going to be afraid. I’m going to run in Boston next year. I ran in New York after September 11th. I won’t stay home; I’m not going to live in fear. Something could happen anywhere.”

“Never say never,” she declared. “There is no finish line. Always look for some other challenge. It motivates me. There is nothing you can’t do. You can tackle a lot of other obstacles. It’s a part of my life.”