Pleasantville Marathoner: I Can't Let That Be How I Remember Boston

"I am definitely going back next year. I can't let that be how I remember Boston."

Kieran Moran of Pleasantville said despite yesterday's tragic turn of events during an otherwise "glorious day," he is set on returning to the race in 2014.

"The whole city of Boston was out, everybody was cheering," he recalled.

Moran, 43, completed the marathon yesterday in 3:05:44.

"[My wife] Melissa and the kids had watched me from about a quarter mile from the finish," Moran shared. "Then they went back to the hotel to meet me."

It's chilling to think how close Moran's family was to the area where two bombs exploded, one after another, near the race's finish line.

But luckily, his children were safely enjoying time at the hotel's pool when the bombs went off.

Moran heard about it when he emerged from his post-race shower and encountered another runner.

"Another guy said, 'Hey, have you heard the news?'" he said. "It was so surreal—I never thought something like that would happen."

Moran said his family was already planning on leaving the city to head home to Pleasantville, but the "very chaotic" scene made it become a "scary" experience.

"You could just see ambulance after ambulance. We were about a half-mile from the finish line at the hotel...just trying to get out of Boston was awful," he said.

Yet Moran maintained, "I have to go back. It's a shame, really. Everybody was in such a great mood and it just turned so violently the other way. It's terrible."