Renee Opell of Studio City Tells Her Experience at Boston Marathon

Studio City resident Renee Opell, who had run the Boston Marathon before, was caught between the bomb blasts Monday that killed three people and injuring more than 140 others.

"We were getting ready for our picture and we heard a very loud noise about 100 yards ahead of us and saw smoke and rubble coming down from the building on the corner and stopped and then turned around when we heard an explosion behind us, about 100 yards behind us," Opell said.

Jennifer Fah, president of the L.A. Leggers running club, told NBCLA that she spent all of Monday trying to track down the runners, mostly using Facebook, Twitter and email.

In the email sent to club members, Jennifer Hartman shared her experience running with Renee Opell and Phil Kent. (See Phil's story on Chatsworth Patch.)

Thank you everyone for thoughts and prayers. The story is Renee, Phil and I were on the homestretch. We had passed mile 26 and were probably at 26.1 when the first explosion occurred. We saw it all. We turned around and were going to go back when the explosion behind us occurred. At that point we stood in the middle for a moment holding hands and wondering if any more explosions were going to happen. After a minute we decided to go down a side street. Coincidentally we had stopped at mile 25 so Sharon Kent could take a picture of us. If she hadn't we would have probably been right on the finish line. I spoke to Lorraine 10 minutes ago and she had just just crossed the finished line. We knew she was ahead of us and were happy that she had made it okay. We assume all other Leggers are okay as they were either in front of us or behind us. Needless to say we are a little shell shocked. Our hearts go out to those that weren't as lucky.

The group plans to keep posting updates on the Leggers Facebook Page.

Follow coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings on Fenway-Kenmore Patch.