May 28, 2013 at 8:18 a.m.
A narrow escape
Rhinelander native tells her tale of 2013 Boston Marathon
A narrow escape
By Cory Dellenbach-
Cullins, a 2000 graduate of Rhinelander High School, was taking part in her first Boston Marathon this year after qualifying at a smaller marathon near her home in Cleveland, Ohio.
"It was my first time (doing the Boston Marathon)," Cullins said. "I had done a couple marathons before and along the way I qualified and I figured since I qualified I would take the opportunity to run it."
Cullins, who is attending grad school in Ohio for a Ph. D. in Neurobiology, has always been involved in sports. In high school she participated in volleyball, basketball and soccer. At the Milwaukee School of Engineering she played volleyball and softball and currently she rows and runs.
"I like the challenge (of sports) and it gives you something to work on and goals to reach," Cullins said. "It's important for a healthy lifestyle to exercise."
The Marathon
Cullins didn't get too excited until just before heading to Boston to take part in the 117th Boston Marathon.
"It got more exciting the closer we got to doing it," Cullins said. "It's something you hear about and there's so much history with that race. It was pretty exciting to head out there to do it."
Training for the race included 15 to 20 mile runs on the weekends and shorter runs during the weekdays in the weeks leading up to the big race.
Cullins mom, Jane, took part in the shorter 5K event the day before the Boston Marathon and watched that Monday after as her daughter took part in the full event.
Cullins finished the race in 3 hours, 45 minutes, 24 minutes, according to her chip-time online.
Just 40 minutes later two bombs exploded near the finish line.
Hearing the news
Cullins and her mom had considered staying in downtown Boston near the finish line after she had finished her race, but decided it would be better to head back to the hotel instead after finishing.
"We were fortunate because before (the bombs went off) we had gotten on a train to leave downtown," Cullins said. "I had finished the race and had met up with my mom. We thought about hanging around downtown, but I was pretty tired and cold and wanted to get back to our hotel, so we got on the train right away."
Riding the train, most passengers still didn't know what had happened at the site of the finish line.
"One lady saw me and started a conversation with me because you could tell I was in the race," Cullins said. "She said they were watching (the race) and heard the explosions and ran. I was just confused because we didn't know what had happened and it was a strange thing for somebody to say."
Cullins and her mom didn't learn the full extent of what happened until their return to their hotel in the suburb of Waltham.
"You don't imagine something like that happening," Cullins said. "We're fortunate we have a fairly boring story compared to others that ran that day, but we came awfully close to the things that happened."
Cullins admitted she thinks about that day and what would have happened if they decided to do things differently after the race.
"If we would have decided on something different, even a little, we would have been there," Cullins said. "The timing and locations they picked were pretty random. There was nothing saying they couldn't have done it when I was finishing 40 minutes earlier."
The futrue
While Cullins still enjoys running - she has competed in a 5K race since the marathon - she has no plans to do another Boston Marathon.
"It was fun, but I don't see myself doing another one," Cullins said.
Instead she'll be focusing on finishing her Ph. D. and then finding a job.
"Hopefully I have very little left to go to finish grad school," Cullins said. "Then I'm hoping to get back to Wisconsin and get a good job because that's hard to do these days."
Cullins is the daughter of Jane and Larry Cullins of Rhinelander.
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