Wow: Runner Escapes Boston Bombs, Texas Blast

Joe Berti was there for both
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 18, 2013 7:39 PM CDT
Wow: Runner Escapes Boston Bombs, Texas Blast
Marathon runner Joe Berti poses for a photo in Austin, Texas, Thursday.   (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Not too many people can relate to this week better than Austin's Joe Berti. He raced in the Boston Marathon and figures he crossed the finish line about 30 seconds before the first bomb went off, reports AP. His wife got hit with shrapnel but escaped serious injury. The Bertis returned to Texas on Tuesday, and the next night, as he drove home from a meeting in Dallas on I-35, Joe's car got rocked by the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, Texas. He survived that, too, even pulling over to snap a photo of the plume—as debris hit his car. (See the image in the story's photo gallery.)

"People keep saying, 'Don't you feel unlucky?' and I was actually the opposite—saying not only do I not feel unlucky, but I feel blessed that my wife could be 10 yards from the explosion and not have a scratch." So will he be staying home for a while? "We need to keep him moving," says his wife, Amy. "Maybe he just needs to stand in an open field." (More Joe Berti stories.)

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