Fateful Decisions Kept CCM Professor from Boston Blast Site

County College of Morris History Professor Mark Washburne was a block away from explosions that rocked the Boston Marathon.

To say that Washburne is persistent might be an understatement. As a streak runner, the Mendham resident has run three miles a day since Dec. 31, 1989. His performance in Monday’s Boston Marathon continued a streak of 8,508 days.

Washburne had finished the race at 2:14 p.m. and was in the middle of the post-marathon cool-down ritual when he made a fateful decision.

“Anytime you finish a marathon they get you walking. You get your Mylar covering and your medal and you go to your Gatorade station, your water station,” Washburne said. “The whole process takes about a half hour.”

Washburne said he had called his girlfriend and told her he was done and they made a decision to meet at the Sheraton Hotel where they were staying, rather than meet at the family reunion area.

“If she had gone there to meet me we would have been much closer to the explosions,” Washburne said.

He said the marathon itself wasn’t very eventful. 

“I kept saying to myself you are feeling pain but just trying to finish it,” he explained.

The fates had aligned for him on Monday, as earlier in the race he happened upon a friend when he was cramping up.

“I started cramping at the 16-mile mark,” Washburne recalled. “And it was something because I hadn’t seen anyone until then. And this friend of mine gave me a salt tablet which kept me going.”

The salt tablet, the choice to meet at the Sheraton placed Washburne, and his girlfriend Diane Naughton, one street over from the finish line on Boylston Street when the bombs went off.

“I have never heard anything that loud before,” Washburne said. “One of the people we were walking with said it sounded like one of the helicopters that had been overhead crashed into a building.”

Washburne said the second explosion followed shortly after, “just as loud as the first.”

“Soon I witnessed a mass rush of spectators, some crying, running from Boylston,” Washburne said. “There was this mass of people running down the side streets, and it was just chaotic.”

Washburne said he and Naughton exited Boston as quickly as possible, but were bogged down by traffic as ambulances and police sped past.

“We are glad to be home,” Washburne said.

For his part, Washburne said the bombing at the marathon did not put him off running next year. In fact, the Streak Runners International Founder and Do Run Runners member said he already qualified for 2014.

“Yes, I am going back. I love running,” Washburne said. “I am not going to let the terrorists win. I am definitely going back.”