26.2 - Austin to Boston

Narrator: International track star Steve Prefontaine once said "Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts." My husband William knows a thing or two about guts. He's a legally blind long-distance runner. Will started running about 10 years ago as a hobby. Then he began entering races- 5ks, 10ks, and eventually, marathons. In 2012, Will qualified to run the Boston Marathon, the oldest and most prestigious in the U.S. In preparing for this run, Will contacted Team with a Vision, a running initiative for the visually impaired in Massachusetts To our surprise, Team with a Vision hooked Will up with a celebrity sighted guide to run with him- Peter Sagal, the host of NPR's game show "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" I got the chance to sit down with Will and Peter before the big day and ask them a couple questions. Narrator: Ok, so why do you do it? Is it the fame? The fortune? The groupies? Peter: Oh yeah, I've made... I've made... Oh gosh, Tens of dollars...! [all laugh] Peter: Well, you know, that's a good question. Everybody asks why you do it. William, it's harder for you. I can see. William: Well, I do it... to do it. To run the 26 miles. Peter: One of the peculiar things about marathon running is that neither William or I will win this race tomorrow. I assume... maybe you could... you could place in the visually impaired, what do you think? William: There are some really fast, really fast runners, I'm hearing under 3 hours. Peter: Well, so let me say this with some... ... we're not gonna win the visually impaired! But, um, so you do this... and I'm never gonna win anything, so you do this not to succeed or beat somebody else, but really just to test yourself. Narrator: What does a sighted guide do, exactly? And why didn't you have sighted guides during your previous 6 marathons? William: Sighted guides do 2 things. They tell you where things are on the course- if you need to turn left or turn right- let you know when that's coming up. And also, alert you about obstacles in the course. I haven't used a sighted guide before because the first time I tried to run a marathon, I was aiming for a 9-minute mile, and the only one who was willing to be a sighted guide was running at a 10-minute mile. Narrator: So you couldn't find anyone fast enough! William: Couldn't find anyone fast enough. I did San Francisco without a sighted guide. Was able to find it, follow the course without too much trouble just by following the crowd. But I thought, well I'm coming to Boston, I was a little bit nervous in San Francisco, let's get a sighted guide 'cause I want to concentrate on running the course, not on am I sure I'm on the right path? It's also good to make sure that we won't get separated by crowds, or at least as little as possible. Peter: Well, we're supposed to be within I think 20 inches of each other, so we'll... ... I'll have a big thing that says "guide," you'll have a thing that says "blind runner," so hopefully people give us a break. Narrator: William, as a sighted guide, what would you strongly urge Peter not to do? William: Well it won't help me if you point to an obstacle and say, look out for that. Peter: 'Cause if you could see it, there wouldn't be a problem. William: Exactly! Narrator: Peter, you've never been a sighted guide before. Peter: Never once. Narrator: What inspired you to do this this time? Peter: Well they asked. Narrator: Oh, wow. Peter: It was a confluence of very happy events. For one thing, I had wanted to do the marathon this year and hadn't frankly done enough planning to enter. And then it just so happens that earlier this year I ran a very silly race for charity an underwear run for about a mile in the street of St. Louis around Valentine's Day. And I raised about $4,000 for a charity. And I found it so fun and weirdly fulfilling that I had a chance to, ya know of the thousands of miles I've run, I finally ran one for somebody else. And so when they asked me- when Team with a Vision asked me to do it, it just seemed like a perfect way to extend that experience. Narrator: Peter, as a sighted guide for the Boston Marathon, you have a unique responsibility to alert Will when feral lobsters may suddenly rush across the road... Peter: Yeah, this got out and I'm really unhappy about this, because, a) a marathon is a long time. And, you're out there for a while. We're gonna be together, ya know. And so, I feel the need, I'm an entertainer, to entertain him, and so my plan was to simply make stuff up. For the entire race. And apparently, I leaked that to an Austin TV station, so now he knows. So I'll have to be more subtle about it. Narrator: So if you happen to see anything unusual, like, ya know a herd of lobsters actually cross the road... Peter: Then, he won't believe me! Isn't that gonna be awful! I mean if that happens tomorrow... It's actually true, if something really bizarre happens tomorrow, he probably won't believe me. [all laugh] Narrator: Something out of the ordinary did happen. The bombs exploded only a few minutes after Will and Peter crossed the finish line. On April 16th, the day after the marathon, Will and I turned our camera back on to document what had happened. Ellen: It was a beautiful day, the streets were filled with really happy people. William: Lots of enthusiasm. Lots of support from the crowds. I was moving at a really good pace for most of the race. Ellen: I was right at the barricade and Will and Peter Sagal went flying by! And they looked pretty good! They looked like they were doing well. William: I felt really triumphant when I picked up the medal. That felt really really good. Ellen: Did either one of you have any sense at that point that anything unusual was about to happen, once you crossed the finish line? William: When we were walking to get the medal, or maybe it was after we picked up the medal, we heard a loud boom. Ellen: After I heard the explosions, I still didn't realize anything was wrong. William: Then shortly after that, we heard a second boom. Ellen: I thought they were fireworks. Or, ya know, little cannons going off to celebrate people crossing the finish line. And then I noticed that a lot of people had cell phones. And I smelled smoke. And then I saw the most terrifying thing, which was one ambulance after another ambulance, after another ambulance, after another ambulance shooting down Boylston Street towards the finish line. And there were... suddenly there were police everywhere. William: One of the scariest things that I saw, when I realized how bad things were, was when we were walking to the subway, and I saw a police officer with an assault rifle. Ellen: Did policemen come in and tell you anything or do anything? William: No police officers gave us any information, no one told us anything. Ellen: They said that something was going on, but nobody really knew what it was. William: The only news we could get was off of the Internet from cell phones. First we heard there were 2. Then we heard there were 3. Then we heard there were 4 explosions. Then we heard there were 2 explosions and 2 suspicious devices. We did not start to get more definitive answers until much later on in the evening. But some officials contacted Josh Warren, who is the person leading Team with a Vision, and told him that the runners who hadn't completed the course could not, and he had to go and find a way to get in touch with them. And, I didn't know where you were. Nobody knew where you were. There were several other people who were supposed to meet us that could not be found. And everyone was trying to track people down. I didn't have my cell phone so I couldn't call you. I had one person call your cell phone, one person text you, one person call my cell phone number. Ellen: My cell phone was useless. I couldn't get through to anybody. I couldn't get email, I couldn't get text messages, I couldn't call out and have a call successfully go through to anyone. William: After about an hour, you found your way close to us and someone from Team with a Vision was calling out your name. Ellen: I was walking over to the family and friends area when Josh yelled out my name as loud as he could and I saw him. And then I saw you. And I just... opened my arms and ran towards you. I was so happy to see you, I can't tell you. Because I know that whatever had happened had happened just after you guys had crossed the finish line. Ellen: Are you... Would you consider coming back and running this marathon again in the future? William: There's no question about that. That is going to happen. Because if I don't, that means the people who did this horrible act will have beaten the marathon and have beaten the people.