Running of the Bears takes place Saturday
April 17, 2013
NSU, LSU net hoops signees
April 23, 2013
Houma native Felicia Guidry knew going in that this would be the most memorable Boston Marathon of her life.
But she had no idea that by being in Boston on April 15, 2013, she would forever be a part of history.
Guidry, 59, ran the marathon for the third time last Monday, completing the more than 26-mile trek in three hours, 45 minutes and 13 seconds.
She finished the race at 2:25 p.m. local time, according to the marathon’s website.
Twenty-five minutes later, the first of two bombs detonated next to the finish line – blasts that killed three and injured more than 100.
Home safely after the terrorist attack, Guidry shared her story with the Tri-Parish Times this week, and said she was “heartbroken” and “extremely shocked” watching the footage on TV throughout the week.
She said she was right – this was indeed the most memorable of her Boston trips.
After the tragedy rocked the northeastern city, she is happy to be alive.
“As time goes on, things dawn on you,” Guidry said. “But so many people were injured – a handful were killed. It just makes you realize how lucky you are each day to be alive.
“The world is a place where, unfortunately, crazy things can happen. But you can’t live afraid. You just keep going and play the cards as they are dealt.”
“This one was special for me”
The stage was set for this to be an amazing day for Guidry.
Her participation in the marathon was set up to be the icing on the cake of her comeback story.
Guidry fell and sustained injuries in a run months ago.
The Boston race would be her biggest test yet since that injury.
“This one was special for me,” Guidry said. “I had done the race two times before, but this was like my comeback race. I’m getting older, so each time gets more and more special.”
Guidry and her daughter Renee Williams arrived in Boston on Friday and enjoyed a “lovely weekend” in the city.
The two shopped, caught a Red Sox game and visited many of the city’s most unique restaurants.
“We ate at 5 Napkin Burger,” Guidry said with a laugh. “It was just a lovely weekend.”
The best part of the weekend for both was a 5K run the mother and daughter shared – which ended at the Boston Marathon’s famed finish line.
“That was so fun,” Williams remembers. “We had a great time.”
As the weekend started to close, it was getting closer and closer to business – Monday’s marathon.
Guidry said she went back to her room early on Sunday to rest for the big day.
By the time Monday came around, she said her body felt refreshed. But her mind was playing its usual race-day tricks.
“I was a nervous wreck – I get nervous before I run,” Guidry said. “It didn’t have anything to do with what was about to happen – I just always have butterflies before I compete in a big race.”
Guidry may have been a ball of nerves, but she said Boston was a scenic beauty on this Monday.
Temperatures last Monday were 50 degrees and a bright sun highlighted a clear blue sky.
“It was beautiful,” Guidry said. “There were just so many people out there. It was a great thing to see. It’s such a family day. There are families with their kids. Everyone is having fun.”
After spending Monday morning scrambling to get to the right place to compete in the race, Guidry got situated and was ready to take off.
She competed in the third wave – which got under way at 10:40 a.m.
Guidry got on her mark. She got set.
Bang.
The gun sounded and she was on her way.
No one knew at the time that the innocent smack of the gun would be a foreshadowing of things to come.
“There’s nothing like turning that corner and seeing the finish line”
In most races, Guidry doesn’t listen to music – she cruises along with just the ambient sound of the crowd and her feet pounding the track.
But in this race, she used her iPhone to pipe music into her ears.
“I never do that,” she said. “But this race, I ran to my music.”
Whether it was the tunes, her excitement to be back in Boston or something else entirely, Guidry was on fire.
She said she maintained her appropriate corral and was running a wonderful race – well in line with the goals she set for herself prior to arriving in Boston.
“For a runner like me, you’re really just running against yourself,” she said. “I’ll never see an elite runner cross the finish line. You’re always way, way, way back at the beginning when that happens. So for a runner like me, you just make your goals, and sometimes they are pretty steep and lofty. But you chase them and do as best you can.”
Away from the competitive spirit of the race, Guidry said she loves seeing the family atmosphere of the race.
Historically, up to 500,000 people attend the race each year to celebrate Patriot’s Day.
“These children will come against the rail and they will tell you to hit their hand as you pass by, so you see them touching everyone’s hands and encouraging them – they are just so cute,” Guidry said. “It’s a family atmosphere. Everyone’s having fun. It’s similar to our Mardi Gras here – it’s just a celebration.”
Guidry enjoyed the best of Boston and was putting together a solid run.
She stayed in line with her goals as she reached the final half-mile of the race.
“When you do a Boston, you’re always looking for the Citco sign,” Guidry said. “When you see that Citco sign, you’re coming into downtown Boston. There’s nothing like turning that corner and seeing the finish line.”
But this time around, the final few strides of the race weren’t glorious for Guidry.
Right as she turned the corner and readied herself for the last stretch, something unexpected happened.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “I always pay real good attention to my feet, because I have a history of falling. But this time, I don’t know what happened. I just didn’t pick up my foot. And then bam, I fell flat on the concrete.”
There was just a half of a block left in the race.
“A policeman came up to me and asked me if I was OK. He wanted to know if I could get up and walk,” Guidry said. “I sat up, saw blood on the ground and said, ‘Let me see.’ I had to make sure half of my face wasn’t missing first.”
Guidry laughs when talking about her face being cut – she suffered minor bumps and bruises to her head in the fall – enough to leave scratches and a small shiner days after the race.
But the real trouble was her arm. In the fall, her weight fell on the arm, which was causing extreme discomfort.
“The cop told me, ‘You need to get up and finish,’” she said. “So he helped me up, and I shook the cobwebs out, and I got going again.
“The crowd around me was really helpful, because they were so encouraging. They really wanted me to be OK. They really were cheering for me to finish the race.”
Guidry did get back to the track and endured the final steps of the marathon in pain.
Because she knew her arm was severely damaged, she immediately sought medical attention.
“We all got the chills at the same time. We knew something had gone seriously wrong”
Guidry went straight to a medical tent following the race.
Once there, she was diagnosed with a broken arm. She had surgery to repair the broken limb on Monday.
After being diagnosed, she called her daughter to tell her that she was going to the hospital for her injury.
Following that call, Guidry said she was giving her personal information to a hospital worker in the tent when something unexpected happened.
“Boom,” Guidry remembers hearing. “It was a giant boom. We heard it, looked at each other, and said to ourselves, ‘What was that?’
The first bomb had detonated near the finish line, injuring more than 100 people – setting the past week’s chaos into motion.
On the scene, an act of terrorism had officially been launched.
But in the tent, they still didn’t have any idea the magnitude of the situation – until it happened again.
“The worker put his head back down to start to write again, and then – boom. We heard another one,” Guidry said. “Then the radio started burning up, asking, ‘We need all available personnel immediately. We need anyone who can help us immediately.’ We all got the chills at the same time. We knew something had gone seriously wrong.”
Guidry said her first focus was her daughter – making sure she was OK.
The daughter’s focus was the same. She sat in her room and immediately wanted to make sure Mom was far away from the danger.
They were initially unable to connect.
“I tried to call,” Williams said. “They had already shut down the phone lines.”
In the medical tent, Guidry awaited transportation to the hospital.
While she yielded to more severe injuries, she saw the severity of the damages – some of the most horrific scenes of her life.
“They were wheeling people in – so many of them didn’t have arms or legs,” Guidry said. “There was this other man. He was just covered in blood from head to toe.
“It was so terrifying to me for two reasons. The first was because as a runner, I had to think to myself just how painful it has to be for these other runners knowing they don’t have their legs anymore. For us, this is what we do. I can’t imagine what it would be like to not have the option to run anymore. That’s horrifying to me. I feel so terribly for those people. Second, I cleared my mind and then I thought of when I was lying on that pavement after I fell. That was so close to the finish line. Those same people who were gracious enough to cheer for me were probably some of those hurt. That broke my heart.”
Guidry said her turn came and she was transported to the hospital.
She was able to get reconnected with her daughter – who was safe in the family’s room the whole time.
It was a feeling of relief knowing her daughter was OK. With that in her mind, she said the gravity of the situation finally started to sink in.
“It took some time for it to register – this was a terrorist attack,” Guidry said. “I was tired, I was nauseated. I had just run a marathon. But you locate your family and you make sure they are OK, and then you sit there and then it finally hits you – this is something we will remember forever. Not me personally, but all of America – we will remember this forever. And I was there.”
Guidry got treated for her injuries Monday and the family was able to come home a day later.
It was indeed the most memorable Boston Marathon of her life.
“I was right – it was my most memorable race,” she said. “Just for all the wrong reasons.”
She said she’s been glued to the TV since she returned, following all of the twists and turns of the explosion, subsequent manhunt and all of the other drama with the story.
“I want him alive,” Guidry said Friday when police were still searching for 19-year-old Dzokhar Tsarnaev. “I want him alive because I want to know why he did this. I want to know what could make a person do something so cruel to hurt so many people.
“It just makes you wonder and think because if this can happen there, why can’t it happen here for Mardi Gras or something like that? It really makes you just think about everything.
“I’d be so sad if I couldn’t go back next year”
A long road stands in the way of Guidry and another marathon.
Her broken arm will prevent her from running for several weeks.
She plans to ease her way back slowly on a treadmill before getting back on the track.
“They will give me something to wear so I can move my arms back and forth so that I can feed my addiction,” Guidry said with a laugh.
“She needs to be able to get her fix as soon as possible,” Williams added with more laughter.
But while rehabbing, Guidry said her eyes will be on a return trip to Boston.
Even with everything that happened in the 2013 race, she said she would love to run the race again.
Guidry said she believes the 2014 race will be the most special one in the more than 100-year history.
“I want to go back – so badly,” she said. “I’d be so sad if I couldn’t go back next year. It’s going to be so special.
“Evil is around you everywhere you look. It’d be really easy for me to never go again because of what happened. But if you live that way, you’re letting them win. I want to go back. I want to race there again. I’d be heartbroken if I couldn’t run in the 2014 race.”
But like a good mother, she has one thing she would do different next time around.
“I just probably wouldn’t bring anyone with me again,” she said with a laugh.
“You’re so silly, Mom,” Williams quickly fires back with a smile.
For a minute, mother and daughter were able to be normal.
That was a rare occasion for the two women this week, as they witnessed American history unfold in person.
Houma runner Felicia Guidry poses with her Boston Marathon attire and her identification tag. The local runner shared her experience at the marathon this week, saying she is saddened by last week’s events.
