Garry Harrington of Colorado Springs did not run in the Boston Marathon on Monday, but he walked by the race finish line only 20 minutes before a pair of explosions rocked the area.

"I help coach a girl (Jamie Mialkowski) who ran and I was watching at Mile 25, then walked to the finish to meet her," Harrington said. "I went right through the blast zone."
Mialkowski crossed the line five minutes before the explosions. By that time Harrington was about four blocks away.

"The explosions were really loud," he said. "The person next to me said, 'what was that?' I said, I don't know, but I know it's not good. We couldn't tell if a building collapsed or really what happened."

News stations in Boston report that three people died, including an 8-year-old boy, and as many as 150 were injured - several requiring amputations.

There currently are no suspects in the bombing.

About 45 runners from the Pikes Peak Region participated in the race. So far there are no reports that any area residents were injured. Cell phone coverage in the area was down following the explosions preventing runners and their families from connecting.

There were about 25,000 runners in the Boston Marathon, considered the world's premier running event. More than half of them had finished when the explosions occurred.

Harrington said there were dozens if not hundreds of spectators in the blast area when he walked by. He also said most of the spectators were across the street from the bomb area.

"I think a lot more people would have been hurt if the bombs would have been on the other side of the street," he said.

As he recalls, it took several minutes for emergency vehicles to arrive at the scene, "but when they responded, they responded big time. Then the shit hit the fan, it was total chaos." He said nobody was allowed near the blast area and the race volunteers did a "tremendous job" of escorting runners away from the area.

Harrington, an ultra runner, who had participated in a 50K race on Sunday, was watching the news at a packed bar when PikesPeakSports.us reached him. He said everyone there is glued to the TV, but the mood is somber.

"The city is kind of in shock," Harrington said. "In some cases there is lock down, people can't leave their hotels. The subway stations are closed."

Amy Perez of Colorado Springs ran in the Boston Marathon, but finished well before the bomb exploded. She and area runners Josh and Lauren Johnson, Wes Thurman and Liz Sanchez were "locked down" in the nearby Loews Hotel for nearly five hours.

"Thank God they had food and water here," she said.

Perez said police are still searching for bombs that may have been planted along the course. There was still a bomb squad outside the group's hotel at 8:30 p.m. (EDT).

"Two police officers came in to the hotel and I shook their hands," she said. "I just hope the people here get praise for their disaster management, because the emergency people, the volunteers, everybody has handled this really well."

Perez said she has very mixed emotions about the whole day.

"The sad thing is, it was a great day, wrecked by bad people," she said.

Harrington said the explosions gave him pause.

"It kind of makes you think, it's a running race and not very important in the grand scheme of things," he said.