Resident Runs Double Marathon, Reacts to Explosions

North Reading resident Thor Kirleis, 43, ran a double marathon Monday and was just over a half mile away from the explosions that devastated Boston.

Why he runs

Kirleis started running when he was 19-years-old. After realizing that studying engineering in college and playing on the soccer team was nearly impossible, something had to give. He quit the soccer team and started running to "fill that void."

He ran his first marathon in the early 90's and has completed 88 marathons since, including triathlons despite a childhood water accident.

Friend of Kirleis and resident John Intorcio said that he inspires a lot of people by his "continued dedication to his sport."

"He thinks of himself as just another runner, but he has some pretty phenomenal accomplishments," Intorcio said.

He added that Kirleis had overcome an injury that jeopardized his running career and even his ability to walk. 

Just before 9/11, Kirleis accidentally fell on glass and severed the peroneal nerve in his left leg at the knee.

"I lost all feeling and movement in the left leg from the knee down," Kirleis said.

He went through five hours of surgery, and still was not able to move his foot. He was told he may never walk normally again, never mind run. However, about nine months after the surgery, the nerves started regenerating, he explained.

"I’ll never forget the day I moved my foot for the first time," he said.

Kirleis spent the next two years getting movement back and can now run normally again. Although, there are still spots on his left leg, below the knee, that are numb to the touch.

"There was a moment when I thought I'd never be able to run again, never mind walk normally," he said. "I really do believe that is what keeps me motivated."

He says his running is now a celebration of his health.

The double marathon

Kirleis had run the Boston Marathon 13 times before. This year, he decided to take on a different challenge. Given that he qualified for the Boston Marathon this year and next by running the Smutty Nose marathon in New Hampshire in 2012, his running time this year was not his focus. Naturally, you don’t run as fast if you are running two marathons, he said.

"It never gets old," he said of the marathon. "But I am always looking for another challenge."

He'd heard of someone running a double marathon before, so he thought he would give it a try.

"I just decided that would be my challenge this year," he said, nonchalantly.

He left the "finish line" in Boston at 5:15 a.m. and arrived in Hopkinton four hours later at 9:15 a.m. Some of his friends met him along the course with water and energy gels to keep him going during the first half of his venture.

"That gave me enough to run the complete course,” he said.

He took a 45-minute break in Hopkinton and then ran with the first wave of runners back to the finish line. He ran the second half of his double marathon in three hours and 51 minutes.

All together, he ran 52.4 miles in under eight hours.

The explosions

Although he cleared the finish line about an hour before the explosions happened, the events still affected him.

"It was really scary," he said.

Kirleis was at a pub just over half of a mile away from the finish line with his wife Heather, six-month-old son Camden and friends. 

When the news broke on television, he wasn't sure exactly what had caused the explosions.

"The severity hadn’t set in," he told Patch.

When he realized that he didn't have cell service inside, he went outside to call family and friends to let them know he was okay.

Before he even looked at his phone, he was astonished by the crowded streets. We go there every year, he said, and that area is never crowded the way it was Monday.

"People were walking away as quickly as they could from that area," he said. “Every third person was in absolute tears."

He saw people embracing one another and others hysterical because of what they had seen. He heard people saying that there were body parts everywhere.

"The blow hit me like it did on 9/11, not as hard as 9/11, did but it was very similar," he said.

He never was able to make those phone calls, but he was able to get out of the city and home safely.

"I spent the rest of the day trying to contact people to make sure everyone was accounted for," he said.

He knows a lot of runners, and everyone but two are accounted for. He is sure the other two are safe, he said, but he has not heard from them.