Portsmouth Runner, EMT Were on Front Lines

Katie Chase was looking forward to completing her first Boston Marathon with her father, Tim Mardin, who was running behind her as husband Ryan and their friends, Jennifer Provencher and Hannah Truslow, both of Rye, waited at the finish line.

Suddenly, Katie Chase said she and hundreds of other runners were stopped by race officials near Kenmore Square and told they could not finish. Her husband Ryan and the couple's friends, as well as Katie's mom, Cheryl Mardin, watched in horror as the first bomb exploded across Boylston Street from where they were sitting in the grandstands.

Up the street, Ryan's dad, Sam Chase, a Portsmouth firefighter and EMT, and his wife, Lea, watched the second bomb explode across the street from where they were situated.

"Initially, when it happened we were all just shocked. We didn't know what had happened. Our ears hurt," said Provencher. "Once we saw that second one, that's when we knew we had to get out of there."

It took Katie Chase two hours to find her husband, a volunteer firefighter and EMT with the New Castle Fire Department, her friends, her mother and her father.

"That was the worst part," she said. "I was like freaking out because I had no idea if they were okay or not."

Ryan Chase said he and his father helped care for the victims as much as they could. Ryan said he entered a medical tent and helped a nurse from Massachusetts General Hospital with patients that were brought in by wheelchairs, on stretchers or carried in.

"There were limbs missing, broken lower extremities and lots of blood," he said.

As horrible as the the scene was, Ryan Chase knew he had to help out in whatever way he could.

"I felt like as an EMT that's what I had to do."

Katie Chase said that when she was finally reunited with her husband, their friends and family, it was a great relief.

"I never realized how important they all are to me. That hour and a half was just the worst experience I have ever had," she said.

Katie Chase said she has been friends with her husband and Provencher and Truslow since junior high school, and the two girls were bridesmaids at the couple's wedding last summer.

Katie Chase was wearing her Boston Marathon jacket on Tuesday, which is what runners and family members who were in Boston have been asked to do to support the victims of the bombings.

When asked if she will run the Boston Marathon again, Katie Chase replied, "I think I will because honestly I was really upset because it was such a good day and it ended up being such a horrible day. I still want to finish that race."