Lynn man escapes marathon explosion

LYNN – The blast that shook America is still reverberating through a Lynn resident who was standing feet away from the epicenter of the first explosion Monday.”It was so weird, we were so close,” said the man, 39, who declined to give his name because he doesn’t want his children to find out just how near to injury and death he came.The resident and his girlfriend had driven into Boston about halfway through the marathon to watch a friend’s husband cross the finish line.They found a parking spot downtown and began walking down Boylston Street, toward the bleachers marking the end of the marathon.As they neared the bleachers, the resident said he heard an enormous boom that deafened him and everyone around him.”It was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said, noting his eardrums were sore 24 hours later from the blast.It took him and his girlfriend a minute or two to realize the unthinkable had just occurred five feet in front of them.”I can’t even explain it because nothing has ever happened to me like this,” he said. “First of all, this doesn’t happen around here, to just be walking down the street ?”Fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, and the man grabbed his girlfriend’s hand and started running as bodies fell to the ground in front of them.They veered right onto the first street they could find – a move that possibly saved their lives.”If we had started running back the way we came, we would have ran into another bomb,” he said.The two hopped in their car and sped out of Boston, home to Lynn.It wasn’t until they got home they realized the extent of what happened. The man saw a photo of where both bombs exploded and shuddered to think how close they were.”Ten seconds more in any direction, we would have been right in the middle of the blast,” he said.He said he’s also suffering from survivor’s guilt.”I don’t know whether to be happy, because I’m so lucky, then I feel so bad that all those people that were laying around at my feet, I just ran,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave them there, but I just wanted to get my girlfriend out of there.”He said it will take some time before the shock, fear and remorse wears off.”I cannot believe it,” he said.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].