Community Corner

Concord Man Describes Boston Marathon Experience Following Explosions

Jim Mann of the Northeast Running Club in Mentor describes what he saw on the streets of Boston following explosions.

A drink offer from a couple good Samaritans may have saved the life of a Concord Township man who participated in the Boston Marathon.

Jim Mann, a member of the Northeast Running Club in Mentor, finished the marathon nearly an hour and a half before bombs caused explosions near the finish line Monday, claiming three lives and injuring more than 170 others. A couple visiting Boston saw Mann shortly after he finished and wanted to congratulate him by buying him a drink.

He is glad he accepted — he had planned to stop by Marathon Sports, where one of the explosions went off around 2.50 p.m.

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He found out about the explosions as he sat in a hotel restaurant. He called his wife, who instructed him not to go back to the area. The staff at the hotel where he stayed put guests on lockdown for a while, but he eventually went outside and saw some of the chaos.

Mann traveled back to Northeast Ohio on Tuesday. He reflects on what he saw in the video above, shot following the Mentor running community's Tuesday night candlelight vigil for the explosion victims.

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