DETROIT – Before any of the tragic news from Boston hit TV or Twitter, former Detroit Free Press Marathon director Doug Kurtis knew what had gone down.
Kurtis had just called his brother who was in Boston with Kurtis' wife, Anne, who was running the Boston Marathon.
"So I just called to say, 'Hey, did you see them cross the finish line?' That's all I was calling to do, and he goes, 'This explosion just happened,' literally, I didn't know it until he told me," said Kurtis.
Just before the explosions, Kurtis' wife crossed the finish line and got on her phone to let her husband know she was OK.
"She said, 'Oh my god, this is awful. I am watching these people who got hurt who were cheering for me just a minute ago.' I just talked to her 10 minutes ago. She is still really shaken and nervous. The hotel told everybody to stay in their rooms," Kurtis said.
She was within yards of the explosion.
In addition to being a former director for the Detroit Free Press Marathon, Kurtis is an accomplished marathoner himself. He has run the Boston Marathon and describes the area where the explosions happened in two words: tight security.
"And there is police officers everywhere, much more for crowd control. They are just there to make sure that there is no issue with crowds. So you see police officers just everywhere along that finish line area," he said.