By Ron P. Coderre

In 2013 when tragedy struck the finish line at the Boston Marathon in the form of two bombs exploding, which killed three people and maimed hundreds, Father David Choquette, pastor of St. Mary Church in Putnam, was about a half hour removed from the horrible scene.

Father Choquette had traveled to Boston with his friend Maj. Rick Fox of the Connecticut State Police and Fox’s family to support Fox in his run.  This year the scenario was similar but the scene as one would imagine was much different than last year.

The plan this year was for Father Choquette to accompany Fox’s wife Lynn and his children Ryan and Amanda, while Rick Fox went ahead to Hopkinton with another running buddy to prep for the start of the race.  The initial plan went off like clockwork.

The quartet situated themselves in Brighton at the 22-mile mark near St. John’s Seminary, where Father Choquette had studied for the priesthood.  The idea was to watch Fox run through Brighton and then grab a train for downtown to meet him after he finished the 26.3 mile run.  

“Everything went well as we had planned.  Driving in we all felt good about going to Boston despite the events of last year.  We saw security everywhere and knew that the situation was safe.  Unfortunately the one thing we didn’t plan on was the size of the crowd this year,” said Father Choquette.

More than 36,000 runners participated in this year’s marathon as part of the effort and demonstration of “Boston Strong.”  The crowd of spectators for the race was estimated at more than one millions, again as a demonstration that Boston and its people and friends were demonstrating their resiliency and strength as a community.

After Rick Fox ran by to their cheers and exultations of his supporters, Father Choquette and the Fox family headed to Reservoir Station to grab the T, hoping to catch up with Maj. Fox in Boston.  Much to their disappointment thousands of others had the same idea and it became impossible to get on the train.  Turning to the automobile they ran into the same quandary, as cars were backed up for two miles along and around Rte. 128 and surrounding areas.

“Much to our disappointment we decided that the best thing to do was to head home, which is the course we opted for.  We never got to see the area of the finish line or Maj. Fox following his run.  Despite the disappointment we were happy to have been part of the historic day,” said Father Choquette.

It wasn’t until later that everyone heard from Maj. Fox.  They found out that he had run the marathon in 3:05.20, which was a full two minutes faster than his time in 2013.  Although the day didn’t go quite as planned everyone was thankful that there wasn’t any recurrence of the events of last year.  And the Fox family, Father Choquette, the people of Boston and their friends are proud to have been a part of historic “Boston Strong.”