'All I Could See Was Smoke, People Running,' Montville Marathoner Says

Montville Township resident Susan Muhaw made a left onto Boylston Street toward the finish of her 13th Boston Marathon on Monday—typically when the sight of balloons and cheering crowds propels exhausted runners to the emotional end of a grueling 26.2-mile race—when she heard a "weird sound" that she had never heard before, she said.

Some thought it might have been a cannon blast, like those sometimes used to start the race, but that did not make sense given the timing.

"We rounded the bend and it was just mass chaos," she said. "All I could see was smoke and people running."

The runners were told to turn around, while other runners were still coming at them. Two girls on a track team were worried about family members at the finish line. A man with a baby was looking for his wife who was in the race.

"It's cold. You don't know what's going on," she said.

Muhaw eventually connected with her neighbor, Montville resident Laura Hingle, who already had finished the race, and members of the Amazing Feet Running Club. Another Montville Township resident, Michele De Vito, also was turned away on the final stretch of the race because of the deadly explosions. The blasts reportedly killed three people and injured more than 100.

On Boylston Street Monday, Muhaw saw people's faces and could tell "something's really, really wrong."

One of the girls on the track team nearby said, "Oh no, my mom and dad are over there." When they realized it was a bombing, they knew they could not stay there and started walking away.

Muhaw, who has helped coach K-8 cross country and track in Montville, said the marathon is a happy, healthy event that is jam-packed with people. In the wake of the bombing, she thought of her children and husband.

"This could have been it," she said. "I wonder why we have to live in such fear now."

Hingle, Muhaw's neighbor, said she was worried about Muhaw until she connected with her, and Hingle felt fortunate her family was not with her.

She did not see the smoke or hear the explosions.

"I was spared the visual," she said.

Hingle, who has coached basketball in Montville, chaired the Health and Wellness Committee for the Morris County Chamber of Commerce and serves on Montville's Economic Development Committee, said she is "thinking about and praying about all those people that are really affected by it."