Marathon runner in tears after the two explosions at the Boston Marathon. Source: Supplied
COBURG VFL coach Tim Clarke was less than 200m from the second bomb blast in the Boston Marathon terror attack, when the panic set in.
One of Richmond coach Damien Hardwick's lieutenants, Clarke had flown to Boston after the April 13 VFL match and run the marathon in an impressive 2hr 32min 50sec.
But that high was soon rocked by the explosions one street away from his hotel.
Clarke, who played 96 games for Hawthorn, was finishing lunch with his wife and friends when the tragedy occurred.
"You heard the big bang and initially we didn't know what to make of it," he told the Sunday Herald Sun.
"One of our friends thought it was lightning or maybe something had fallen off a crane.
"Then, in about a minute, a whole heap of people were running out of a side street into our street, so there was a swarm of people running at us, telling us just to run.
"We weren't sure what we were running from.
"We couldn't see any smoke but once we started talking to people and looked on our phones we realised that it was a couple of bombs.
"Once we found that we got three or four blocks away just to be safe.
"Your heart goes out to the people who were injured and the families of those who were killed."
Clarke shelved plans to tour Boston and caught an early flight home.
One of his friends was 400m from the finish line when one of the explosions that killed three people occurred only 50m from her.
"Once she saw the second one just in front of her, she felt under attack, so she made a bee-line right for the hotel," he said.
"She was a bit more rattled. It would be a tough memory to get out of your mind if you saw it all."
But the terror attack won't stop Clarke from running more big events. Clarke, who had elite endurance in his junior and playing days, completed the Hawaii ironman in 8hr25min two years ago, despite being in a serious road cycling accident only six weeks earlier.
Next on his agenda is the New York marathon, hopefully in a sub-2hr 30min time. The Australian Olympic qualifying time is 2hr 12min.
"I just love to train and train with people who are motivated," he said.
At Punt Rd, he is relishing learning from Hardwick in a dual Coburg-Richmond development role.
"I love to coach, I love sport, I love the game of football, and I get up every morning and you love coming to work," he said.
"Richmond is a fantastic footy club and a really good environment to be in and coaching Coburg, it's a really proud footy club, the people are fantastic."
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