Glen Arbor part-time resident John Farah’s account of Boston Marathon tragedy

By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor

Glen Arbor residents might recognize John Farah. The dentist from Ann Arbor owns a condominium at the Homestead Resort and likes to jog a 15-mile route around Big Glen Lake during his summer visits up north.

But to call Farah a jogger is a gross understatement. He has run the Boston Marathon 18 times, and last year he co-authored the book Let’s Pick it Up a Bit — an everyday man’s guide to running. The book offers glimpses of Farah’s early life as a Christian Palestinian living in the Israeli section of Jerusalem, his move to Michigan, and his evolution as a marathon runner.

On Monday in Boston, Farah was maintaining a solid pace, despite nagging small injuries that had interrupted his training cycle of late. He was hoping to finish the marathon at 4 hours and 15 minutes, and then greet his wife Jackie and her daughter Erin at the finish line. The plan was to take a train to Erin’s apartment so Farah could shower and change, and then head to Logan Airport for a flight back to Detroit.

Farah was a couple hundred yards from the finish line, and just about to turn right on Hereford Street before finishing the race on Boylston Street, when the first bomb went off. “I heard something and couldn’t tell what it was — a blast of some sort,” he said. “But there were thousands of spectators cheering everywhere. My first thought was that bleachers along the route had collapsed.”

As he approached Hereford, two policemen stopped him and five other runners and told them they couldn’t go any further, even though they had almost completed the race. Farah figured that a car was simply picking up someone who had been injured. But after a minute or two, he heard ambulances, firetrucks and police sirens, and knew something was wrong. For over an hour they waited with little information, and no cellular phone service, though he periodically tried to call or text Jackie. Meanwhile, ambulances were screaming up and down the road.

An hour and 15 minutes after the explosions, Farah was allowed to backtrack to the school buses that had dropped them off at the marathon to retrieve his belongings and clothes in a clearly marked bag. His legs felt OK, but understanding by then that two bombs had exploded near the finish line, he was worried about Jackie and Erin.

As he was leaving the bus, he saw someone talking on his cell phone who clearly had a connection. Farah asked to borrow the phone and called Jackie once more. This time he got through to her. “A huge, huge relief on both sides,” he said. “She knew I was OK, but I didn’t know where she was. … and at that point everyone was worried about (the possibility of) more bombs.”

This was the fourth Boston Marathon that Jackie had attended. In the first three, she had waited at the finish line, on the left side of Boylston Street, to watch John complete the race. This year, she decided to wait on the right side of the street, to make it easier for them to catch a train to Erin’s apartment. The decision was fortuitous. The first bomb went off on the left side of Boylston Street — 50 yards away from Jackie and Erin.

“She was lucky,” Farah said. “She could have been seriously injured — or worse.”

On a harrowing day in Boston, John and Jacky’s luck continued. They made it to Erin’s apartment and then to the airport. Though Logan had been shut down immediately after the bombings, they traveled home to Ann Arbor Monday night.

“Initially, the whole thing feels like you’re in a movie shoot,” Farah said. “Reality doesn’t hit you, because you’re in shock. It wasn’t until I began seeing pictures on TV in Erin’s apartment that I realized how devastating it was.”

Yesterday, back at the dentist office, the news hit him, and he choked up. His email inbox was flooded with over 300 mails and dozens of text messages. “People were concerned. When it happened, all the runners were looking for family, worried. Some had 10 friends waiting for them at the finish line.”

Now, as the world waits to hear who committed this act of terrorism, and why, Farah faces another fear.

“Being Palestinian and having grown up in Israel, with all the issues that entails, you don’t want (terrorist attacks) to happen in the first place,” said Farah. “Secondly, you’re hoping it’s not someone from the Middle East. I cannot understand the motive or reason behind it. I cannot understand how any individual can commit an act this evil, no matter who they are or where they come from.”

“The only conciliation I have is that I know there are many, many people who are just decent, caring people out there. I was choking up yesterday just talking to people. You could sense their concern for people’s well being. There are so many decent people out there, and we can’t let that overshadow these nasty acts of terrorism.”

“This was a sad day in our history, and definitely a sad day for runners,” said Farah. “The next marathon, especially the Boston Marathon when I run it, I’ll be thinking about what happened. But it won’t stop me.”