Richmond development coach/Coburg senior coach, Tim Clarke, was caught up in the drama of the Boston Marathon bombing tragedy last week.

Clarke made a lightning trip to Boston following Coburg’s match against Williamstown on April 13 to compete in his third marathon.

It had long been a goal of his to run in the prestigious Boston Marathon and he ended up clocking the highly-impressive time of two hours, 34 minutes, 51 seconds (2.34.51).

After finishing the race, he went for lunch with some friends, one street away from where the bombs exploded.

“When we were walking back to the hotel, we heard it, but weren’t sure what the noise was,” Clarke said.

“Within a couple of minutes, there were hundreds of people running down the street towards us yelling ‘run, run, run’.

“We crossed the road and ran 100 metres before stopping to see what all the panic was about.  We eventually found out that the noise was from two explosions at the finish line.

“Then we decided to get away from the area until we could get more information . . .

“Apart from the panic and the people running around, the only vision we saw was that on the TV.

“Once the police got to the scene, you couldn’t get within four blocks of the finish line.”

Clarke described the general feeling after the bomb blasts that killed three people and injured more than 180 others, as a combination of panic, fear and disappointment.

“There was great disappointment at how such a great event could be tarnished by such a shameful act of violence,” he said.

“I was very disappointed in what had happened and a little worried, however, I didn’t feel at risk once the initial panic had passed.

“My wife, Bec, was working with her company on the event, but had no race-day role.  Her work was all done in the lead-up to the day.

“The scary part, from her point of view, was that she, and a few friends, had been sitting just 30 metres opposite from the blast only 90 minutes earlier, when I was finishing the race.

“They have pictures of me running past the shop-front that the bomb was placed in front of . . .”