WINNIPEG — Dr. Robert Steinberg was less than two blocks from completing the 2013 Boston Marathon when two bombs tore through the crowd.
Three people were killed, 14 lost limbs and more than 260 more were injured as the explosions went off near the finish line.
It was an attack on athletes no one had ever imagined.
“This is a marathon, it’s not a war,” said Steinberg, a Winnipeg runner. “There is no fight with anybody; it’s a marathon and it has to be reclaimed as such. It has to be a race for people.”
Steinberg vowed to return to not only run the marathon in 2014 but finish stronger than he would have the year before.
While he is physically ready, he knows the emotional journey is going to be a difficult one.
“I’m not sure I’ll look at every garbage can, but I will be centre of the road, that’s for sure. I’m not going to be near the sidelines,” he said.
The Boston Athletic Association extended invitational entries to this year’s marathon to 467 people who were “personally and profoundly impacted” by last year’s race; Julie Gold Steinberg was one of them.
She was forced to pull out of last year’s marathon after having knee surgery, but said it was a miracle she was able to run even a small distance as she searched for her husband after the bombings.
“That day when I was so panicked and trying to find him, I ran for the first time in months,” she said. “I hadn’t even thought I could actually even do what I did that day.”
There will be 51 Manitobans running this year’s Boston Marathon on April 21.
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