Wearing bib №12276, Tonia Conover, Haddonfield Memorial High School Class of 1992, finished the 2013 Boston Marathon race in 3:27:40. She crossed the finish line, making it her 15th consecutive race in Boston.
Approximately an hour after she crossed the finish line, the now infamous explosions took place, killing three and injuring more than 260.
“I was excited because it was 15 for me,” she said. “My whole family was supposed to come because it was 15. My parents were going to come, my husband and my kids.”
Her parents accidentally scheduled plans on the same weekend. Her husband, Matt, had a work conflict, so the couple left the kids at home and drove back on Monday night.
“I was going to go by myself, but my husband was like, ‘No, I will come with you,” and the guardian angels stepped in, she said.
When the race ended, Conover said she had forgotten a dry change of clothes back at the hotel room.
“As if I have never run before. I had to walk back to the hotel to get my clothes, which my husband had already put into the car,” she said, adding she assumed the explosion happened as she was changing at the hotel.
Conover and her husband had no idea what was going on until they were heading out of the city.
“As we were leaving the hotel to get to the parking garage, I saw people shaking, crying. I just figured somebody was in the medic tent,” she said.
As soon as the couple pulled out of the garage, their cell phone service kicked in and their phones exploded with worried messages.
“As we were pulling out, the ambulances were just getting there,” Conover said.
Her family, boss and friends were concerned about Conover and her husband. She said the most difficult thing was explaining it to the kids.
“We sat them down Tuesday morning,” she said.
Carli, 9, Willem, 6, and Lyla, 3, watched the morning news as their parents explained what happened. Conover said they were most affected by the death of Martin Richard, an 8-year-old spectator killed at the finish line.
Although Conover did not stay at the finish line as long as usual, she doesn’t think the explosion would have physically affected her or her husband.
“I cant imagine being him — the man that kissed his kids — and how easily that could have been me,” she said.
Conover said she will continue to run until she reaches her goal or can’t run anymore.
“It just took the whole day away. It took everything that’s amazing about that day, but just for that day, though, that moment,” she said. “It’s still my favorite race. I will continue to do it.”
After gradating high school, Conover attended Northeastern University in Boston on a track scholarship.
Her first Boston race was in 1999, making it her second marathon after qualifying in Alaska.
She fell in love with running in the marathon.
“Part of the reason why I was like I am going to keep doing this is because the crowd is so unbelievable the whole time, not just at that finish area. They are lined before the start and past the finish,” she said.
She heard another woman completed 25 consecutive races and she wanted to be the second to do so, but the youngest woman.
“I will try to keep doing them until I can’t run anymore,” she said.
