2015 marathon will include 235 Arizona runners

When two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon in April 2013, Kris Przeor’s cellphone started buzzing with text messages and voicemails.

His friends knew he was a runner and fast enough to qualify for the race. Was he there? Was he OK?

Przeor, who lives in Chandler, wasn’t in Boston that day. But he will be on April 20, running the marathon for his first time12 days after a jury found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 federal counts stemming from his role in the bombing, which killed three people and injured or maimed 260 others. Three days later, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology security guard was killed during the manhunt.

“I was thinking about it the other day when I was on a run,” Przeor said. “I was captivated by it like everybody — the search, the pursuit, finding him lying there (in a boat).

“It’s one of those things, as a runner you follow the story and you know where the blasts went off. I’ve never been to Boston or been to the finish area, but I imagine there will be some sort of a memorial or a tribute there.

“It’s going to be sort of a sacred place. You will know what happened there; what you are running past.”

Jeff Turner of Phoenix will be among the 235 Arizona runners entered in this year’s race, but he isn’t a newbie. This will be his ninth Boston Marathon in a row. He lived the chaos two years ago.

Turner ran a blistering 2 hours, 47 minutes that year and had been in a friend’s hotel room for a couple of hours when his friend received a text message saying there had been a bombing.

“My thought was, ‘Where? Afghanistan?’ ” Turner said.

There was nothing about it on the television news yet, but within minutes their phones were buzzing. They turned the TV back on and saw the devastation.

“It’s just so shocking,” Turner said. “To go from such a high to try to grasp what really happened was difficult.”

Turner, 42, didn’t hesitate to go back last year.

“I remember thinking, ‘It’s a shame because the race will never be the same again,’ ” Turner said. “Little did I know, it only made the race better.”

Ezra Williams also is making his first trip to Boston. He said he’ll reflect on the moment, but not about Tsarnaev or the verdict.

“I definitely plan to visit the area before the marathon, and I’ll be thinking mainly about the people who were killed and injured there as well as their family and friends,” Williams said. “It’s a little eerie with (the verdict) coming so close to the marathon.”

Przeor believes there will be a sense of closure, but also a sense that nobody wants to forget what happened.

“It will be interesting to get the vibe,” he said. “I think last year everybody wanted to send a message that nobody is going to be intimidated, nobody is going to back down, things like that.

“It will be interesting to see if it is a lighter mood this year, more of a celebration that there is some justice and relief that it has run its course.

“The healing process will go on for years, but I think it will feel more like getting back to normal.”

Scottsdale’s Michael Miller was signed up in 2013 but decided not to run because he was attempting to complete an ultramarathon grand slam — completing the four biggest ultramarathons in one year.

Had he run, his wife Kimberly would have been waiting for him near the finish line, as she always does when he runs at Boston.

His return to Boston last year served as a catharsis, and now he’s trying to move beyond the bombing.

“It’s one of those sad things, and I try to limit the time I spend thinking about something so sad,” he said. “Last year was awesome. I wore a USA shirt, and instead of counting miles, I was counting hand slaps. It was good healing and all that. Everybody was happy.

“Now (with the verdict), it’s almost like we never got past it. This brings back the anger and sadness again for these poor folks. But, Boston is a strong city.”