Boston blast runner from Chichester reassures family

Veteran marathon man Nick Bailey, 56, from Bracklesham, was a mile from the finish line when Monday’s (April 15) second bomb went off, killing three people, leaving 17 fighting for their lives and dozens more injured.

Mr Bailey, caretaker at Westbourne Primary School, updated his Facebook page on Tuesday morning informing his family he was safe and well.

“I am fine, sometimes it’s good to be a little slow,” he posted. “I was about a mile from the finish when the second bomb went off so we were stopped and evacuated six miles out and it’s taken well over four hours to get things sorted like the bags.

“If I hadn’t had a muscle pull on heartbreak hill and slowed down who knows. My sympathies go out to all the runners that died and those who lost their legs. ‘Thanks be to god’.”

Mr Bailey’s family were eagerly tracking his finishing time and awaiting news of his whereabouts.

“We tried the hotline and that didn’t help and Google messaging and all that did show was him finishing, we just thought ‘Where is he?’” said his son, Dan, a triathlete.

“He got to a certain position and hadn’t finished, we thought ‘What is happening? Why hasn’t he finished?’. We were very unsure what happened with the time difference.

“It was all guns blazing trying to find out what people knew, we were looking up Facebook because a lot of people know him, he is the local daredevil when it comes to running. We tried ringing him. It was a bit of a waiting game, it is such a relief now.

“We weren’t that troubled or worried about him in the first place. He is quite a resilient person, that kind of thing would not have shaken him. It puts our mind at ease but as an athlete, it is very sad that something like this has taken place in such a big event, it now puts people off.”

His family are eagerly awaiting his return from Boston. “It will be nice to speak to him and see how he is feeling, he is on his own out there,” Dan added.