WASHINGTON — A year after an attack that claimed three lives at the Boston Marathon, running won’t be the only thing on the minds of the competitors in the 2014 race.
Andrea Murray of Boston was there last year, passing the finish line 20 minutes before the bombs went off.
This year, she says, “I just want to have a really boring, normal race.”
She’ll be running with several friends from the D.C. area and says she’s confident that this year’s security precautions will be sufficient. She allows one fear: “I’ll admit that I’ll probably stay in the very middle of the road.”
She says that skipping the race never crossed her mind.
“If we let evil … run our lives, then we’d potentially never relax. … It’s so easy to be paranoid, you wouldn’t really know where to stop. Somehow, I’m not afraid, and I don’t know anyone who is, really.”
She is already amazed by the expected turnout — 36,000 runners are expected, the second-largest turnout ever for an event whose athletic demands bring out what she calls “the best of what humanity can be.”
WTOP’s Mike Murillo contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.
