By Sierra Plese 05.02.2014

Thousands of people made history on April 21 as they crossed the finish line in the Boston Marathon, just one year after the bombings that left the country in shock. Among those racers was Milligan associate professor of communications Jim Dahlman.

 

“I’ve never experienced anything quite like that before,” he said. “It was literally twice as big as any other marathon I’ve ever run. The energy of the crowd and the emotion…everybody felt it very deeply and wanted to kind of get Boston back.”

 

Dahlman spent six months training for the historic marathon, one of the oldest in the United States and most prestigious in the world. His plan included long runs up to 20 miles, speed work and cross training.

 

To qualify for the race, Dahlman ran a qualifying time of three hours and 30 minutes, about eight minutes per mile. Though he worked hard to train for this race, his knee pain caused him to wonder a few months ago whether he would be able to run it at all.

 

One of Dahlman’s biggest goals was to complete the Boston Marathon. But after last year’s tragic event, he wanted to be there more than ever. He said this year’s racers were “trying to reclaim that event from that terror.”

 

Some of the victims came back to run it again. Dahlman witnessed a man on crutches running the 26.2-mile race and three other men running on prosthetics.

 

“It was inspiring,” said Dahlman. “My knee was hurting. I’d see these guys and it was like if they’re out there doing this, then I can do this. I was so deeply impressed by seeing that up close.”

 

Over 32,000 runners finished the race this year, almost 5,000 more people than the 2013 race. Dahlman crossed the finish line after 3 hours and 57 minutes.

 

Dahlman probably won’t be able to run marathons again because of the damage to his knee. He seemed content with this, though, noting that the Boston Marathon was a good one to go out on.