Ben Howell and Terri Long had been in contact with their families. Howell's wife, Molly said she contacted the hotel where her husband was staying to learn he was safe. Long had been in contact with family and said her group had been away from the area of explosions for hours.
A third Greer runner, Kitti Summey, told the Greenville News she decided Friday night not to run in today's marathon.
The Greenville Track Club spent the afternoon trying to locate its 6-8 members who ran in the Marathon. "My phone has been ringing off the line and we're trying to locate our runners who are there," said Michael Burchett, President of the Greenville Track Club. Burchett said runners typically don’t take cell phones to the race. “We haven’t heard of anything yet.”
At least two deaths and over 30 injured were reported by news organizations from the Boston Marathon just hours after the explosions.
The Associated Press reported there were "a lot of runners down". The race was stopped immediately and the marathon headquarters was locked down.
A fire was reported at the JFK Library later this afternoon.
There were about 27,000 runners in the field for the annual Patriots Day race.