Boston Marathon bombings prompt Winnipegger to leave sport

A day after two deadly bomb explosions rocked the Boston Marathon, at least one runner from Winnipeg says she was so shaken by the experience that she wants to retire from marathons.

Melanie Sifton crossed the finish line eight minutes before the first blast occurred on Monday. Shortly after that blast, a second went off, about two blocks away and also along the race route.

Two unexploded bombs were also found near the end of the course as part of what appeared to be a co-ordinated attack, but they were disarmed, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official.

• PHOTOS: Boston Marathon explosions

Sifton told CBC News she still felt shaken by the incident on Tuesday and she wants to give up running, at least temporarily.

"Oh yeah, I think I'm retired for awhile. My family's upset and I just want to go home to my family," she said in an interview.

"It's hard to participate in something that's really challenging. You know, you feel very angry, and then sad. And it's just really shocking."

Three people died in the blasts, including an eight-year-old boy, and more than 170 were wounded with broken bones, shrapnel wounds, and amputations.

While Sifton intends to take a break from running, she said others have told her they will return to Boston for next year, as a way to support the city and the historic race.

Emotional reunion

Sifton was one of several Boston Marathon runners from Manitoba who returned to Winnipeg on Tuesday afternoon.

There were hugs and tears as the runners were reunited with their family members at Winnipeg's James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.

Tim Turner of Headingley, who also came home on Tuesday, says he crossed the finish line and was in the race's family meeting area when the bombs exploded.

Turner said he didn't really realize what the explosions were at first, but then he saw emergency vehicles arriving.

"Where we were it was wall-to-wall people on the street, so all of a sudden the street would clear, vehicles start going through and then it closes up again, and you're just not sure what's going on," he said.

Turner said he plans to run in the marathon again.

Saved by a bad race?

For another Winnipeg runner, Cathey Gornik, a poor race might have actually saved her life.

Gornik says she had a difficult run because she wasn't feeling well, so her pace was slowed to a walk at times.

Had she run at her intended pace, Gornik believes she would have finished around the time the bombs exploded.

"In the end, I was really quite glad for that because it kept us away from all the chaos and tragedy that had occurred," she said, about herself and members of her family, who she met up with later.

Gornik had been stopped and held on the course after the explosions and later reunited with her husband and sister, who had come to watch her race.

She feared they might have been at the finish line waiting for her, but they had not made it there yet.

Gornik said the three of them were shocked when they made it back to the hotel and saw the extent of what happened.

"As we watched more and more of the news reports and the footage on TV, we realized just how lucky we were that we weren't that close," she said.

While people in Boston are trying to go about business as usual on Tuesday, there is a sense apprehension every time a siren is heard, Gornik said.

Despite the experience, she said she will run that marathon again.