BUFFALO, N.Y. — Nine years later and the memory doesn't fade.
"(I was near) where the bomb had gone off," said Lisa Laski, pointing to the Boston Globe newspaper's front page from the day after the Boston Marathon bombing. "I was in the front by the fence."
"I felt like my legs were on fire… all that was going through my head was stop, drop, and roll… not realizing that I was already on top of people."
Three were killed, while Laski was one of the hundreds more injured after a bomb went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2013.
The race's organizers have given some of those that were hurt that day a free registration to run in the marathon, but ever since, Laski has gifted her ticket to others.
"It's a dream run for them. It's on the top of their bucket list, any runner," Laski said.
This year, she's giving it to Jim Starkey, all because two coworkers over at Excelsior Orthopaedics were getting to know each other a little more.
"We got to talking about running and recently during COVID, I started running more and led me to some local races and wanted to try more and that led me down the path to the run in Chicago. When she heard that, she basically offered it up there," Starkey said.
"If you could just see the look on his face when you said 'Boston Marathon,'" Laski said.
"I couldn't turn that down," Starkey said.
Nine years later and the memory will likely never fade.
"I feel more comfortable talking about it," Laski said. "...It's a big event for these runners and it makes me feel good that I can do that for somebody."
But out of a tragedy, there is finally some hope.