Lake Stevens Man In Iconic Photo Recounts Marathon Bombing

The force of the first blast at the Boston Marathon threw runner Bill Iffrig of Lake Stevens, Wash. to the ground. The photograph of Iffrig has become an iconic image of Monday’s tragedy.

Iffrig, a 78-year-old retired mason and carpenter, is well known runner around the region. He has run 45 marathons, including his third in Boston. Iffrig recounted his experience with Weekday’s Steve Scher.

Bill Iffrig, Lake Stevens

I had headed towards the finish line and I only had maybe 20 feet to go and I was concentrating on getting this done. I been out here for nearly four hours. And all of a sudden a bomb went off next to me and I was like, oh my God, it was so loud. It took my hearing away it was so loud. I had no idea what it was. At the same time it [was] kind of like the shock waves hit my body and just caused my legs to just buckle up underneath and I felt myself going down to the road and crashed on the road there and laid there a few minutes and started getting my senses back again. In the meantime I’m wondering, hey, maybe this is the end.