BOSTON -- The weather was cold and damp but the atmosphere festive at Monday's running of the Boston Marathon, two years after pressure-cooker bombs exploded at the finish line and shattered one of sports' most cherished events.
All along the 26.2-mile course, spectators banged cowbells and blew air horns as they braved unseasonably chilly weather and light rain in thick layers and ponchos.
Near the Boylston Street finish line, crowds at times four to five people deep roared each time an athlete approached, shouting words of encouragement.
"It's so great to see everyone cheering and being happy," said Jennifer Sunkin, a New York native watching from the comfort of a balcony overlooking the race's final stretch. "Life goes on. It's so inspiring to see and to realize how strong we are."
Throughout the course, though, were reminders of the 2013 attack, which killed three people and injured over 260 others.
"Boston Strong" -- the phrase that became the city's defiant rally cry after the attack -- was everywhere along the route, which winds through seven Massachusetts communities and Boston.
Fans yelled it out, wrote it in chalk on the pavement, and displayed it in hats, shirts, flags and homemade signs. For some, it was the default answer for why they came.
"Boston strong," Suzy Degazon, of California, quickly replied when asked why she was running. "It's a very special race and I wanted to show support. People can't do that sort of thing. The community comes together."
Still, those that attended last year's marathon said the atmosphere this year felt less intense and emotionally charged.
Indeed, bars along the busy commercial heart of Back Bay were already packed with revelers by 11 a.m., some with lines out the door.
Many said they were simply enjoying the sights and sounds of the race, which is the world's oldest annual marathon and takes place each year on Patriots' Day, a Massachusetts holiday commemorating the first battles of the Revolutionary War.
"I'm thinking about the people who were affected but, at this point, it's about trying to turn the race back into something positive -- purely a celebration of running," said David Parkinson, a New York City resident competing for his sixth consecutive year.
But at Newton's infamous "Heartbreak Hill," Lisa Roberts, a Hull, Mass. resident volunteering at a water station, suggested that a sense of normalcy may never return.
"I don't think it's as carefree as it once was," she said, pointing to heightened security that included state and local police, National Guard soldiers and bomb sniffing K-9 units.
An estimated 1 million spectators were on hand for this year's running.
Brian Young, of Washington D.C., was among hundreds of runners still taking in the scene hours after completing the race Monday afternoon.
"It had the same energy as it had when I last ran it in 2009," he said standing near the finish line. "I don't think the crowds or the runners have missed a beat. It's always been about the competition and it's still going to be about the competition."
Meb's run
Meb Keflezighi wasn't able to claim another Boston Marathon victory, but he still gave at least one runner a thrill on the course.
"The crowd was phenomenal," Keflezighi said. "I heard a lot of, 'Repeat! Repeat!' I was definitely thinking of that. It was a great field. We went together for a long time. I thought I had a shot at it. But at 35K, I went for a drink. They made a big move. I took a couple of sips. The water decided not to go down. I stopped five times and threw up. I looked at my watch ..."
The split times for his closing miles were not good.
"Still people were chanting like crazy, saying, 'USA! USA!' and, 'Go, Meb! Go!' I was chanting 'USA' with them. They still wanted to see me run, especially after I had stopped. I just wanted to get to that finish line. It took a long time."
As he approached the finish, Keflezighi slipped behind an unsuspecting woman runner. "I wish I knew her name. I never met her," Meb said.
Her name was Hilary Dionne, of nearby Charlestown. Dionne said she heard the public address announcer say that last year's winner was approaching.
"At that point, I was just trying to get to the finish line, really," she said.
The elite women started a half hour before the elite men. That's why she was ahead of Keflezighi. At any rate, he grabbed Dionne's hand and raised it as they completed the race.
The two hugged after finishing. Keflezighi was eighth, and Dionne was 15th in the women's race.
"I had to sprint to catch up to her," Keflezighi said. "I saw an opportunity for us to finish together and, hopefully, be memorable for both of us. You start together, a 26.2-mile journey, you know the struggle, good and bad."
Keflezighi, 39, said he is down to his last handful of marathons. He will run in the U.S. Olympic trials Feb. 13 and hopes to qualify for the Rio Games, but this could be his last elite level Boston Marathon.
"I dug deep today," Keflezighi said. "My wife said, besides London 2012, this was the gutsiest race I've run."
Sports on 04/21/2015