Adams and Reese attorney Phil Kirkpatrick, Special Counsel in the firm’s Nashville office, was interviewed by two local television stations about his experience at the 2013 Boston Marathon, where 260 people were injured, including Kirkpatrick, who was near the finish line taking photos of his girlfriend, Vicki Schmidt, who was finishing the race.
Kirkpatrick was interviewed by WTVF-TV Nashville Channel 5 and WKRN-TV Nashville Channel 2.
The explosion injured Kirkpatrick’s ears, causing him to now be 50 percent deaf in one ear and 25 percent in the other and also a recurring ringing in both ears. Kirkpatrick, though, received an invitational entry into the 2014 Boston Marathon, and for the last four months, he has trained to participate in the race and be a part of the “Boston Strong” efforts.
“There was a white fireball light and the loudest explosion that I have ever heard. … They hit on the most innocent of events, a foot race,” Kirkpatrick said. “This just happened to be on the little speck of the planet where this hideous part of history rolled out.”
Kirkpatrick added: “Any of us who were injured who could train and do this and give it all we got, need to do it. We need to do it. … This year I have to do it. Boston Strong; that’s what it is all about. It’s just a chance and it’s a once in a lifetime chance to do something small that’s going to really be part of something big.”
The television anchor said about Kirkpatrick: “60 years old, two artificial hips and two ears that barely work, Phil has been out here every day for the last two months. He has never run a marathon and probably will never run again. Phil though isn’t running a 26.2-mile race. He’s making a 26.2-mile statement.”
At Adams and Reese, Kirkpatrick is an Entertainment and Intellectual Property/Technology Litigation attorney in the firm’s Nashville downtown and Music Row offices. Practicing his entire career in Nashville, he has been a Federal Court litigator since 1979.