Cinnaminson Alum Narrowly Missed Bombs in Boston Marathon

Whether it was luck, coincidence or some deeper force at work, Cinnaminson alumnus Michael Atkinson doesn't care: He's just glad to be alive.

Atkinson, who graduated from Cinnaminson High School last year and now attends Boston College, was about a half-mile away from the finish line of the Boston Marathon when a pair of bombs went off Monday, killing three and injuring more than 150 people. 

The 19-year-old said he spoke with his father as he came down the final stretch, and the elder Atkinson, who'd heard a couple "pops," told his son "something might be going on," the teen said. Atkinson was running with headphones and hadn't heard a thing.

Moments later, he and other runners encountered police who told them there'd been an explosion, the race was over, to clear the area.

"It was a very strange feeling, because you never really think that it can happen to you, and when it does it’s just such a scary situation," said Atkinson. "Especially because shortly after I talked to the police, there were people sprinting the other way, back from the finish line. Some people were crying. It was a very panicked situation."

Even though he was very young at the time of the attacks, Atkinson said the scene in Boston Monday was probably "reminiscent of what people went through with 9/11. Immediately you could tell no one thought it was an accident."

Atkinson was one of about 300 running on behalf of the Campus School, a program at Boston College that educates students with multiple disabilities. He and many of his running mates ended up at the home of a friend of one of the Campus School organizers, where they got water and blankets, and watched the news together. 

Eventually, once cell phone service was restored in the area, Atkinson got in touch with his father, who he'd been separated from in the chaos that immediately followed the bombings, and the rest of his family. 

Speaking from campus Tuesday afternoon, Atkinson said, "Everyone’s been shaken by it. I've never really seen the city, or the campus for that matter, really this disheartened, and in a state of grief like it is now."

Now, he's left to ponder all the turns of chance that occurred that day:

His father had planned to wait for him right at the finish line, then changed his mind at the last minute and came to meet him about a mile before. A friend had sustained a knee injury that held him back during the race, keeping him from finishing the race. And Atkinson himself had cramped up around mile 14, setting him back so he wasn't at the finish line when the bombs went off.

Was it luck, coincidence, or was there something deeper at work that spared him and the people he cares about?

"I'd like to believe there’s something more meaningful," said Atkinson. "But, to be honest, if it is luck or if it is something more, it really doesn’t matter to me because I’m here and I’m alive ... 

I’m happy I’m alive and I’m safe and that my friends and family are safe. I really can’t ask for anything more."