Monday's running of the Boston Marathon was supposed to be the last time at the iconic event for Richmond's Tracy Marshall.
After all, this was the third race on the historic course for the veteran runner, who had already racked up a total of 91 races across North America.
But the tragic events Monday - a pair of bombs exploding at the finish line that killed three and injured 170 or so others - has inspired her to make a return in 2014.
"I wasn't planning on going back to Boston. But I definitely want to go back next year," said the 48-year-old Wednesday in an interview with the Richmond News. "I don't know if it's closure that I want. But I want to go back."
What she is sure of, though, is the welcoming feeling runners experience when they arrive for the race in Boston which has been held since 1897. It's that genuine expression of hospitality which weighs on her heart like a debt that needs settling.
"The way Boston embraces us (runners) and makes us feel special and welcome -there's something about that which makes you want to go back and, I don't know, repay them and make it right again."
Marshall, who is a Grade 3 and 4 teacher at Waverley elementary in Vancouver, said she is also going to try and get a late registration for this weekend's Vancouver Sun Run that has experienced a swell of people signing up for one of Canada's largest community 10 km events.
Still filled with emotion from the tragic events in Boston, Marshall said it took a while to fully understand how close she came to being at the epicentre of the two explosions.
Luckily for her she crossed the finish line just minutes before the bombs were detonated.
The timing was owed in part to a nasty blister that had formed on her foot.
"I had a bit of a sore back during the race, so I was going to run the race slowly," said Marshall, who as a youngster was inspired to take up running after seeing Terry Fox embark on his Marathon of Hope. "But as the race progressed, I started to get a blister on my foot.
"So, I thought to myself that I was going to speed up and get this thing done and get my foot looked at. It was just before Heart Break Hill, that's when my blister burst."
With five miles to go Marshall picked up the pace on what she called the most exhilarating stretch of the 26-mile course.
"You get to the last stretch, it's really exciting and you're exhausted and happy," she said, adding she found out later that the final mile was dedicated to the shooting victims at Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, Connecticut last December when six adults and 20 children were killed by a lone gunman.
"When I heard that, it made things feel all that much creepier," Marshall said. "But I crossed the finish line at 4: 05, and I just veered to the right where there was a medical tent."
She entered, sat down and just minutes later heard a loud bang.
"I was sitting on the little hospital bed having them take my medical information and suddenly heard those two explosions, literally one right after the other," she said. "I didn't know what it was. Several things went through my mind, but it just sounded too quiet to be a bomb. I mean, how do I know what a bomb is supposed to sound like? You just imagine something a little bit louder."
Some of the volunteers inside the medical tent thought the noise was from a propane tank. Others mentioned a generator, or even fireworks.
But the truth soon became clear when a rush of injured came streaming into the medical tent. The scene was like a war zone.
"I saw people who were obviously in agony. Their legs were covered up," Marshall said. "There was a police officer who was brought in on a wheelchair who was crying - that really kinda shook me up."
Still unclear about what just happened, Marshall ventured outside the tent, wrapped in a flimsy heat blanket given to the runners as they make their way back to a fleet of school buses where their post-race belongings are kept.
When she looked back at the finish line all she saw was smoke.
"The strange thing was, I didn't see any runners. I remember being really confused by that. I was wondering, what had happened to them."
Even with all that clamour it hadn't quite sunk in for Marshall how close she had been to being injured.
"It didn't really occur to me it was that drastic, until I got back to my hostel and other people were watching things on this big screen TV."
