Dennis Lebman, 50
Saugus, Calif.
This was my first Boston Marathon. It was my way to celebrate just turning 50 in February. It was a dream come true for me as most runners aim to qualify and run in the Boston Marathon. I started in Wave 2 Corral 5, which was basically in the middle of the pack. I finished in 3:38:19 at 2:01 pm, about 49 minutes before the explosions. I was very fortunate that I was already through the finish line chute and based on the timestamp of a text to my wife, I was at the Boston Common area just turning off of Boylston Street at Charles Street headed toward Stuart Street. I was a little over a half mile away, and fortunately didn’t hear or see anything. I got to the hostel about 10 minutes later, and we started hearing about an explosion at Marathon Sports at the finish line. Before I could even get out of my wet running clothes my phone started going crazy with texts and Facebook messages wanting to know if I was OK. We stayed put and watched the news while we heard the sirens for hours. I had such an amazing weekend, going to the 5K and the Red Sox game on Sunday and enjoyed all the marathon weekend festivities. I just couldn’t believe how my perfect dream weekend came to such a horrible end to so many innocent people. I will be back next year to run the 118th Boston Marathon on April 21, 2014! BOSTON STRONG!