4:09:43: Boston 2013 Through the Eyes of the Runners Author: Hal Higdon | Language: English | ISBN:
B00HFEFP04 | Format: PDF
4:09:43: Boston 2013 Through the Eyes of the Runners Description
In the first book on this tragic event, 4:09:43, Hal Higdon, a contributing editor at Runner’s World, tells the tale of the Boston Marathon bombings. The book’s title refers to the numbers on the finish-line clock when the first bomb exploded.
In 4:09:43, Higdon views Boston 2013 through the eyes of those running the race. You will meet George, a runner from Athens, birthplace of the modern marathon, who at sunrise joins the eerie march of silent runners, all aimed at their appointments in Hopkinton, where the marathon starts. You will meet Michele, who at age 2 helped her mother hand water to runners, who first ran the marathon while a student at Wellesley College, and who decided to run Boston again mainly because her daughter Shannon was now a student at Boston University. You will meet Tracy, caught on Boylston Street between the two explosions, running for her life. You will meet Heather, a Canadian, who limped into the Medical Tent with bloody socks from blisters, soon to realize that worse things exist than losing a toenail.
In what may be a first, Hal Higdon used social media in writing 4:09:43. Sunday, not yet expecting what might happen the next day, Higdon posted a good-luck message on his popular Facebook page. “Perfect weather,” the author predicted. “A ‘no-excuses’ day.” Within minutes, runners in Boston responded. Neil suggested that he was “chilling before the carb-a-thon continues.” Christy boasted from her hotel room: “Bring it!”
Then, the explosions on Monday! Like all runners, Higdon wondered whether marathoners would ever feel safe again. Beginning Tuesday, runners told him. They began blogging on the Internet, posting to his Facebook page, offering links to their stories, so very similar, but also so very different. Over the next several hours, days, and weeks, Higdon collected the tales of nearly 75 runners who were there, whose lives forever would be shadowed by the bombs on Boylston Street.
In 4:09:43, Higdon presents these stories, condensing and integrating them into a smooth-flowing narrative that begins with runners boarding the buses at Boston Common, continues with the wait at the Athletes’ Village in Hopkinton, and flows through eight separate towns. The story does not end until the 23,000 participants encounter the terror on Boylston Street. “These are not 75 separate stories,” says Higdon. “This is one story told as it might have been by a single runner with 75 pairs of eyes.”
One warning about reading 4:09:43: You will cry. But you will laugh, too, because for most of those who covered the 26 miles 385 yards from Hopkinton to Boylston Street, this was a joyous journey, albeit one that ended in tragedy. This is a book as much about the race and the runners in the race as it is about a terrorist attack. In future years as people look back on the Boston Marathon bombings, 4:09:43 will be the book that everyone will need to have read.
- File Size: 425 KB
- Print Length: 171 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: B00ELO70OA
- Publisher: Human Kinetics (February 4, 2014)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00HFEFP04
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,230 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #13
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Miscellaneous > Sociology of Sports - #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Miscellaneous > Essays - #29
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Individual Sports > Triathlon
- #13
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Miscellaneous > Sociology of Sports - #17
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Miscellaneous > Essays - #29
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Individual Sports > Triathlon
With Boston 2014 coming up in April, this is an absolute must read for anyone wanting to understand the collective feeling and aftershock of what occurred last year at the Boston Marathon. The book weaves through the hills and turns of the course-map, following different runners from their pre-race hotel room all the way to the finish line and medical tent. Through these intimate, personal accounts, I couldn't help but feel the tension of the inevitable moment of 4:09:43. I felt the clock ticking as I read along, hoping that the runners whose stories I followed would be safe from the explosions at the end. The tears began to build at page 87 when the first bomb explodes. As a reader, I knew it was coming, but I was still in a state of disbelief. That's because the book took me into the marathon and placed me in the shoes of those runners whose minds were far away from the possibility of a bombing. I was carried into the rhythmic cheers of the crowd, the excitement of elites like Shalane Flanagan and Rita Jeptoo as they sped nervously through the course. I was almost lost in the marathon as though I was running it, and if you've run one before you'll likely get the same feeling.
If you haven't run a marathon before, you'll still feel a sense of intimacy with the runners profiled, as well as a sense of dread when you learn that many changed their goal times to 4:10, the time of the race when the first bomb exploded. While these runners believed they were making wise athletic decisions, they remained oblivious to the fact that they were running toward mayhem, not finish-line glory. Higdon writes with accessible detail, at a pace and cadence that's easy to follow, runner or not.
I was shaken by the Boston Marathon bombing, but I felt far removed from it before I read 4:09:43.
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