[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJvR2DzgUu8]

On Monday, April 15, 26,839 runners gathered to partake in the world’s oldest annual marathon – the Boston Marathon. Men and women from all walks of life arrived at Hopkintin to partake in the race of a lifetime and to finally realize the sum of all their training.

As racers took off from the starting block, no one could have guessed the tragic turn of events to come.

Cindy BeMent, of Warsaw, was one of the many runners in attendance at the marathon. BeMent, a wife and mother of two, was the only Warsaw resident to run this year’s marathon. BeMent describes the marathon as one of the pinnacle, “bucket list worthy” races a runner can complete.

An experience and enthusiastic runner, BeMent has participated in several marathons and coached others to success. Though BeMent admits she was incredibly excited to take place in the Boston Marathon, she also confessed that she was very nervous at the prospect of not making herself and the city proud.

The Boston Marathon course follows a point-to-point route from Hopkinton to Boston and is renowned for its difficulty. The course carries runners over 26 miles, four hills and involves a constant struggle between downhill and uphill pacing. As BeMent embarked on her race adventure she put aside the pursuit of the “perfect time” and instead focused on the participants, environment and many supporters who line the path to the finish lines.

“On the course there is a father-son duo every year – Rick and Dick Hoyt. The son is wheelchair bound and he and his father do the Boston Marathon every year and his father pushes him for 26 miles.” BeMent says, “I passed them on the race course and I said ‘go team Hoyt’ and basically almost started crying, and I’m not really super emotional, or at least I try not to be, but I couldn’t help it. A double amputee came into my path and I high-fived him and ran by him. There was a man who was no taller than the back of a chair. It takes all kinds.

“It’s hard to put my finger on it, but I felt very cared about, very engaged and in touch with these people that I didn’t know and would never see again,” she continues. “The cumulative effect of running that race is just that one of ‘wow there were probably about a million people out there today that cared about you’ – even if they don’t run.”

At approximately 2:30 p.m. BeMent crossed the finish line of the marathon, overwhelmed by the love and support she received from the city. BeMent states that in many races she has participated in it is typical to see families and friends holding signs supporting their runner. However, BeMent says along the path of the marathon she received cheers, support and love from the crowd and runners alike.

As she proceeded through a sea of smiling faces and helping hands she was given food, water and a foil blanket to wrap around herself for warmth. After rounding the corner down the street from the finish line BeMent stopped to gather her belongings from one of the many parked buses awaiting runners to grant them their bags. After procuring her belongings, BeMent heard a sound that would forever change her life.

At the sound of the first boom coming from near the finish line, the last thought BeMent had was that something terrible had just occurred. Instead, she surmised that the sound must be the launching of the Patriot’s Day cannon. However, as the second explosion rocked the city of Boston, the realization that something serious had just occurred began to sink in.

“I was getting my bag and thanking the man on the bus and all of a sudden the first bomb went off. It was a boom but it’s unlike any noise that I have ever heard … Since I have never heard a noise like that my brain said, ‘oh it’s patriots day celebration stuff; it’s the cannon.’ Well as the other noise goes off, it’s extremely loud and extremely low in frequency, I jerked my head around [to see] a gigantic mushroom of thick, yellowish-white smoke coming up from the front of the finish area and I thought, ‘okay …’ I just stood there and looked at the man next to me and he looked at me and we looked around a bit. Once the second bomb went off I knew what was going on. But I didn’t say anything … it didn’t register, but I knew.”

Though the reality that something seriously wrong was taking place at the finish line, BeMent’s first fear was not for her own safety. Instead, she became frantic that her friend and race buddy, Lisa Collins, was still finishing the race. Though volunteers were screaming to move away from the explosion, BeMent struggled the opposite direction to find her friend.

“The man next to me suggested that maybe a transformer blew and I’m thinking no, we have to get out of here, but my girlfriend was still finishing the race so I’m looking for her and wanting to stay where I am but I knew I should go,” she recalls. “I kept thinking where is Lisa? Is she done? How am I going to find out? I wanted to go find her and give her a hug.”

As the crowd began to realize what had just occurred the scene became more and more frantic. As BeMent stood engulfed in concern for her friend, event volunteers began to force the crowd back. It was when someone yelled to run that BeMent was pulled back into the severity of the situation she was currently in.

“The organizers yelled move and right when they said that I’m thinking there are bombs under the busses and they are going to go off. We are moving away but we don’t want to because a lot of people had friends that they wanted to make sure are okay,” she continues. “The crowd noise at this time had raised significantly, almost like you were approaching the screaming girls at Wellesley. There was crowd noise, but there were also individual screams that I could hear from people. I’m being told to move yet I want to go the other way, but then another volunteer yelled to run. People have said, ‘I can’t imagine how you felt being told you had to run after you had just run 26 miles.’ In a situation like that, when someone tells you to run you think, this may be it. There could be bombs everywhere.”

At that point a very frightened BeMent ran from the scene and entered a McDonald’s around the corner. Cold, shaken and terrified, BeMent attempted to make contact with her family with her cell phone. With the sounds of sirens screaming by and black, unmarked vehicles flying down the street outside the building, BeMent sat down to try and respond to the numerous messages of concern pouring into her phone and was surrounded by a group of people who were also trying to figure out what was going on.

“I’m sitting there trying to keep up with the messages that are coming in and I made a Facebook post that I was okay, but we had no idea what was going on at all,” she tells. “They closed down all the subways, they shut all the cell towers down. It was a very strange feeling because we’re in a McDonald’s and there are people in there who are just having a good patriots day, they are just out, checking out the marathon, walking around, shopping, and they’re not screaming and yelling, there was no smoke or strange odor coming in. It was not a place of terror and there were various levels of awareness of what had just happened. Some people were freaking out and some people were just enjoying a Filet-o-Fish, and there were crowds there but probably the same amount of people that would have been there anyway.”

BeMent says she received a text message from her friend, Lisa, stating that she was safe and locked inside of a Tj Maxx. Lisa had finished the race a mere 30 seconds before the bombs had gone off. Though Lisa Collins sustained no injuries from the explosions, her husband, who was awaiting his wife at the finish line, witnessed the second bomb go off and saw the aftermath of the explosion.

After sitting in the McDonald’s for some time, a very drained BeMent began to look for a way back to her hotel. A transit worker told her she could walk two miles to the south station. Upon sitting down on the bus, the enormity of what had happened to Boston began to set in.

“When I got on the bus there was a woman, and there were only three people on it, and she saw my bag and knew that I had run the marathon and she asked if I was okay. Right at that moment I can pinpoint it – everything shifted in my mind. It went from being all about me I want to get out of here, I want to shower, I’m hungry, I want to talk to my family, I want to see what’s going on, what has happened to this city. I said, ‘Not really,’ and just sat down.” BeMent explains, “I knew people were dead and I knew people were hurt. She said, ‘It’s okay, I understand. I was in the World Trade Center in 9/11.’ I looked at her and she just started crying.”

BeMent recounts that the woman, Shanna, said she had been on the 64th floor when the first plane struck the One World Trade Center. Shanna continued that she had made her way down to the 32nd floor when the second plane hit the Two World Trade Center tower. As she exited to the street, the woman told BeMent that those exiting the burning towers were told to wait at the door until a police man told them when to run across the street as fast as they could so they wouldn’t get hit by falling bodies. As they were running across the street the woman told BeMent she was simply worrying about her training manuals left in the building.

“It’s strange stuff that you worry about in these situations,” Bement says. “Your brain just goes to what it knows how to do. When I met her, everything started shifting from me to starting to grasp what could be the enormity of the situation.”

After being questioned by four different Homeland Security officers before boarding her 5 a.m. flight, BeMent returned home to Warsaw. She admits the effect the bombings have had on both her and her family has been great. BeMent states that her 13-year-old daughter has become very nervous about letting her out of her site. Though she is not trying to remember the events or just forget them, she admits it has effected her in everyday activities.

“I don’t like that I take my daughter to the Taylor Swift concert and she looks at me afterwards and says, ‘Well that went well with no problems.’ Meaning she’s happy that no one bombed the concert. I don’t like that sometimes I feel inpatient for no explainable reason. I have felt splintered – normally, I’m really easy going and super happy and I haven’t really felt that way.”

“There have been two Mondays since the race and I have trouble on Mondays. I watch the clock all day and I think about how long that little boy [who perished in the bombings] had to live. Like if it was noon, he only had 2 hours and 50 minutes of his life left. Both Mondays I have looked at the clock at 2:50 exactly,” she says.

Though the tragic events at the Boston Marathon could leave anyone feeling hopeless, BeMent states that she feels quite the opposite. Instead, she states that she will continue to run and hopes she can find a way to create something positive from her experiences.

“I don’t know if I want this to run its course, but I want it to end up being something that I can do good things from,” she says. “I have to figure out a way to do something constructive out of this eventually.”

BeMent states that she has not and will not let the bombing of the Boston Marathon effect her desire to run. When asked if she will run the Boston Marathon again someday, BeMent says an instant, and unflinching yes. Though she states she will continue to run, BeMent does admit her thoughts have and will continue to return to those affected by the tragedy.

“When running I focus on the physical aspects of it so I can distract myself that way. Yet at least one or two times on every run comes up the subject that wow, for every two miles I’m running there is someone who can’t because they lost limbs or something happened to them that day,” says BeMent. “And what about the people who are too scared now? I don’t want anyone to feel that way, but I’m sure invariably there will be people who will give into this. I will absolutely not give into the people who did this, or succumb to that kind of horrific behavior [the bombings]. I am angry. I am angry that my daughter has to say things like that or that her new favorite number is 15 because that’s how many minutes I finished before the bomb went off. The running community is a very loving, accepting community. I’m upset that they have to deal with this.”

In closing, StaceyPageOnline.com asked BeMent if there was one message she could give the people of Boston, what would it be. Teary eyed, BeMent responded, “To the people of Boston who have to live with this every day, if I could say something to you, I would say, Boston you are strong, just be Boston and keep bringing it. You took me in and loved me and I will always love you back and help you as much as I can. You’re not damaged and you are only going to get stronger from here. Just keep being Boston strong.”

To read BeMent’s full account of her experience during the Boston Marathon visit her blog at http://kickingitin.com/. To make a donation to help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred in Boston on April 15, visit here.