Cheering on Boston from the Midlands

Columbia, S.C. (WOLO) — Veteran runner, Jeanna Moffett, screams at the monitor on her mobile phone while tracking her friends’ steps during the Boston marathon as if she was there on the sidelines cheering them on in person. Four of her colleagues made the journey back up north after not being allowed to complete last year’s race. “I get nervous,” she said. “I was saying a prayer for them this morning.” She knows what it is to complete Boston, having done so in 2007 and 2008. Today, she monitors her colleagues’ progress from start to finish via text alerts. “It’s such phenomenal event to be a part of. I can appreciate what they’re going through.” Jeanna checked in with one fellow Columbia runner late into the night Sunday. “She was eating her traditional chocolate cookie the night before the race. She was looking forward to today.” That friend, Jeanne Reynolds, is one of some 5,000 people Boston marathon officials made special provisions for to ensure they cross the finish line this year, because they were prevented from doing so last year. The field of participants was reportedly increased by 9,000 to accommodate runners who qualified this time around and who were stopped in their tracks last year and told not to continue after the bombings. Today’s event, Jeanna says, reminds her of the determination not only of Boston, or the Midlands but also of a nation to keep going. “When tragedy happens we all pull together.” She hopes to make it back to Boston to run at least one more time.