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Local Runner Shares Boston Marathon Bombing Experience

Wayne Baker
/
WYSO

It’s the one year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. Over a dozen runners from the Miami Valley will participate in this year’s race, which will take place next week. Leslie Wedderburn from Xenia is one of them.

Wedderburn had always wanted to run in the Boston Marathon. She loves to run and had done some shorter races before in preparation. Last year's event would be her first full marathon.

She started race at 10:20 a.m. and finished three hours and 11 minutes later. Afterwards, Wedderburn was enjoying lunch at a nearby restaurant with family when the first of two bombs went off that killed three people and wounded 260 others.

"We heard it and we didn't think much of it. You wouldn't think much of it. You wouldn't think bomb and then we heard another noise and that was the second one," she said. "We still didn't know until our family called from Ohio and they had seen it on the news before we actually found out what it was and then there was kind of chaos. Going back and thinking about it now kind of leaves an eerie memory."

Wedderburn is one of many who will compete in Boston again. She says she has no fear of going back,  adding that she’ll feel comfort in the close knit running community, while adopting the city's message of Boston Strong.

"I think the running community in general is very supportive of one another, you saw that, that day," Wedderburn said. "Everybody will be there to support each other this year."

Boston Marathon officials say that 36,000 runners will compete on April 21, which is 9,000 more than last year.