Creve Coeur Hotel Executive Describes Scene At Boston Marathon

One of the many St. Louis area residents in Boston during Monday's marathon was Eric Strand. Strand, an executive for Creve Coeur-based Drury Hotels, is a veteran of marathon runner. He Tweeted out a photo from the scene as the first explosion hit, roughly 10 minutes after he crossed the finish line.

Tuesday morning, he shared his impressions about what happened via email:

"I just ran into one other St. Louis-area runner soon after the finish of the race, Mark Volkmann from St. Charles.  He had run a great race and was elated, as were most of the other runners in the finishers chutes.  The mood changed with the first explosion.  Some questioned whether it was part of a celebration . . . I was pretty sure something bad had happened immediately. After the second explosion, police calmly moved the runners along out of the finishers chutes away from the blasts. It took about 5 minutes before the city erupted in sirens and flashing lights.

 Very sorry for the victims and their families. The Boston Marathon is truly a celebration of human spirit and man’s desire to persevere and excel . . . the city of Boston embraces the race and those attributes.  They will never forget this terrible day, but they will persevere."

Staff at  tells Patch the following members of the Swim, Bike, Run Tri Club were at the marathon, but have been accounted for and are safe.

• Doug Havlin, who is also a Swim, Bike, Run employee
• Brigitte Strotter
• Flavia Bader
• Katherine Buchowski
• Wayne Moore

"They're all OK We found a  lot of posts on Facebook saying  they're ok,"  Swim, Bike Run store owner Sally Drake told Patch.

For reporting from the Boston area, check out Fenway-Kenmore Patch.

Local Editor Gabrielle Biondo contributed information for this report