BOSTON (AP) – Ever since Meb Keflezighi won last year’s Boston Marathon, the first race after the finish-line bombings and the first win for an American man in more than 30 years, fans have been gravitating to him wherever he goes.
It hasn’t been the usual victory lap.
“It’s not even ‘Congratulations.’ It’s ‘Thank you,'” he said last week as he reflected on his cathartic victory. “You never know what crossing that finish line will bring you. But I feel so blessed that I was able to pull it off.”
A native Eritrean who came to the United States at the age of 12 to escape war and poverty, Keflezighi reacted to the bombings in the same way as many others in his adopted homeland: He wanted to do something for the victims.
Not just the families of the four who died or the 260 others who were wounded, but the people of Boston and runners around the world who were stunned by the attacks on the world’s most prestigious road race.