Newton Marathoner: 'Scary to Think I Ran by All Those Bombs'

Newton Lower Falls resident Ginger Howell was on the T ride home when she started hearing bits of conversation about a bomb blast at the Boston Marathon finish line.

"There was no 'Oh my God' moment when I first heard about it. I just kept picking up pieces from phone conversations, and it sounded a little worse each time," Howell told Patch in an email Tuesday.

Howell, 27, had just finished her fifth Boston Marathon, crossing the line in 3 hours 34 minutes. It was a tough race, she said, and had she been "training normally" over the last month or so, her time likely would have been faster.

"Usually there's a while in the middle, for at least ten miles, where you're just moving with easy speed. You've settled into your pace, but you haven't hit the wall yet, and it's effortless," Howell said. "I didn't get that effortlessness this year; I felt like I was working the whole time."

The recent slip in training schedule was due to the fact that Howell had been traveling on a boat to Antarctica over the last month to run the 2013 Antarctica Marathon.

Howell, who is an instructor and performer at Simply Circus in Nonantum, finished second for females in the 2013 Antarctica Marathon on March 30.

In that marathon, Howell said she finished 50 minutes slower than her 2013 Boston Marathon time. Had she finished 50 minutes slower on Monday, she would have been right in the thick of the bomb blasts.

Howell, who went straight to the train when she finished her race Monday, couldn't believe she had run by the bombs less than an hour before they went off. 

"I feel terrible for all the people who were there when the incident happened, and the people who were not allowed to finish," Howell said. "It's so scary to think that I ran right by all those bombs when I was finishing." 

Do you have a story to share from Monday? We'd love to hear it. Email Melanie.Graham@patch.com or post it in our blog.