Bill Iffrig, a veteran distance runner who was knocked to the ground but struggled to his feet after two bombs exploded at the 2013 Boston Marathon, died Jan. 8, his son said. He was 89.
Iffrig died from natural causes at a memory care facility in Marysville, Washington, his son, Mark Iffrig, told The New York Times.
Bill Iffrig, a native of Everett, Washington, and a longtime resident of nearby Lake Stevens, was an accomplished masters runner and competed in more than 50 marathons, the Everett Herald reported.
But he gained national attention on April 15, 2013, when he was knocked off his feet when two homemade pressure-cooker bombs were detonated near the finish line, the Times reported. Three people were killed, 250 were injured and 17 others lost limbs after the blast, according to the newspaper.
The runner was about 20 yards from the finish line when the first bomb exploded, and the moment of Iffrig trying to get up was caught in an iconic photograph by Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki.
In a 2015 interview with MSNBC, Iffrig said that once he realized he was not bleeding or severely injured, he was determined to finish the race.
“I’m going to get up and finish this thing,” he said. “I’d been out there four hours. I didn’t want to quit.”
“I kind of joked that falling down in that race was the best thing that ever happened to him,” longtime running partner Doug Beyerlein told the Herald. “It made him famous for all the wrong reasons. But in local running circles he was famous long before that because of his accomplishments.”
The photograph of Iffrig pulling himself off the ground became the defining image of the 2013 Boston Marathon.
William George Iffrig was born on June 13, 1934, in Everett, the Times reported. He graduated from Everett High School and began working as a carpenter for Weyerhauser, working at the pulp mill for 20 years until it closed down, according to the newspaper.
Iffrig then worked for 20 years as a brick mason for the Scott Paper Company before retiring in 1994, the Herald reported.
He began running at the age of 42 and garnered dozens of national championships in his age group, according to the Times.
At one point Iffrig owned Northwest Runner Magazine’s fastest times for runners in their 70s in the 5-kilometer, 10-kilometer, half marathon and marathon divisions, the Herald reported.
“He was just a phenomenal runner,” Beyerlein said. “He was one of those super-talented people, and he was very hard-working, too. He just really had all the skills and determination to be a really good runner.
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