“I had so much joy. I was physically drained and emotionally ecstatic,” Kevin Walton said. “And then I looked at the television. I went from joy to devastation.”
Forty-seven minutes after the Hillsdale resident completed the Boston Marathon, two explosions went off near the finish line. At least three people were killed, and more than 170 were wounded, while Walton and his family and friends who had gathered to watch him were safe.
Walton crossed the finish line with a time of three hours and 24 minutes and met his family in a meeting area a block and a half away.
“There were quite a few buildings between us and the explosion,” he said.
By the time the ticker read 4:07 and the explosions went off, Walton, his wife Barb, and his children – Claire, 10, Grant, 8, and Ella, 5 – were walking to their hotel. Though he did not see smoke, he saw emergency vehicles speeding past him. But they did not realize what had happen until they saw the news on the TV in their hotel.
“I didn’t think I’d ever be put in that situation,” he said.
The family left the city at 5 p.m to return to Hillsdale.
“They were evacuating the whole area,” Walton said. “The hardest thing was knowing that my kids would have to realize what happened and that my kids would have to question it.”
Walton Chiropractic, where the Hillsdale resident has practiced since 1997, received 60 phone calls checking to see if the family was safe.
“It’s a tragedy that some individual can take such a joyous occasion and take it all away,” he said. “My heart and prayers
go out. I hope they can heal from some of this but it will always affect them.”
Walton ran his first marathon in October of 2009, completing three more before qualifying to the Boston race. Running the 2011 Chicago marathon in three hours and 10 minutes secured his spot amongst the thousands from across the globe competing in the race.
“It’s tough to get in. You have to run one in a certain time,” Walton said. “Boston has been around for 117 years. It’s a very prestigious race. People come from all over the world.”
Walton ran more than 60 miles a week for 24 weeks in order to train for the race. He began the marathon feeling jittery and nervous.
“You want this day to be so wonderful when you train for five years,” he said.
The Boston Marathon is particularly difficult because of how hilly the course is.
“That really starts to wear on you,” Walton said. “It becomes very emotional when your body wants to shut down.”
Walton decided to run the Boston Marathon not only to fulfill a personal goal but also to raise money for the King’s Kupboard Food Pantry, a ministry of Trinity Lutheran Church.
“The main goal was to raise money. My team raised $8,500,” Walton said. “King’s Kupboard is filled with wonderful people – local volunteers, college students – what help the needy people of Hillsdale.”
