SALT LAKE CITY — More than 300 Utah runners were among the 27,000 who ran the Boston Marathon Monday. A few shared chilling personal accounts of what they saw of the finish line bombings.

Kim Cowart, Utah runner:

At 3 hours and 11 minutes, Kim Cowart crossed the finish line of her fourth Boston Marathon. She was making her way back to her hotel when she heard something that sounded like a big garbage truck, then came the constant stream of ambulances.

"Somebody didn't obviously just hurt people, but they wanted to ruin something that people had worked so hard for," Cowart said.

Kelli and Chad Rodgers, Utah couple:

Just behind Cowart, finishing at 3 hours and 55 minutes, came Kelli Rodgers. She was on the phone with her husband, Chad, when a deafening boom went off.

"He just said, 'Start running the opposite way!' And after just running a marathon, I said, 'I don't know if I can,'" Kelli Rodgers said.

She then called her mom back in Utah, State Sen. Pat Jones.

"She said, 'Oh my gosh! There's another explosion! I can't find Chad!'" Jones said.

"(There was) one loud explosion, you know, everyone kind of went silent," Chad Rodgers said. "And then a second explosion, and that's when everyone paused for a second, and then it was chaos."

Chad and Kelli eventually found one another, and both were OK. All Kelli wants to do now, she said, is be back in Utah with her family.

"I just told Chad I'm not sure I want to come back again, and it's just sad," Kelli Rodgers said.

Chelsea Larson, Utah runner:

Finishing a couple minutes ahead of the blast was Utahn Chelsea Larson. She credits a second wind she caught at the end of the race for keeping her out of the path of shrapnel.

"There was a lot of smoke, just a big thing. It just went up into the air," Larson said.

Eric Lew, Utah medical student:

As runners and patrons tried to flee, Utah medical student and volunteer Eric Lew was in a tent that had suddenly transformed into a triage unit.

"(I) heard the blast, felt it and smelled it," Lew said. There was a lot of gun powder and soot and debris on the patients themselves."

Lew said he treated six people himself. He was originally there to support his mom, who was running in the marathon.

"She's OK. She was at mile 25 when the bombs went off," Lew said.

Manny Cypers, Utah runner:

South Ogden painting contractor Manny Cypers said he was tired but happy after completing his first Boston Marathon in just over three hours when he met his wife and friends at a hotel near the finish line.

Then they stepped outside into a nightmare.

"We walked out there and there was just chaos. Emergency vehicles started driving in every direction," Cypers said by phone from Boston. "It was just a mass confusion. … We saw the smoke and knew there was a blast."

The group huddled together in their car and listened to the news of explosion on the radio, learning that the hotel where they had reunited after the race, the Fairmont Copely Plaza, was now locked down.

Cypers said with "all of the cheering and the noise" at the finish line for the runners, the noise from the two explosions couldn't be heard inside the hotel. He said the blasts occurred at a time when the most runners would likely be crossing the finish line.

Related:

2 killed as 2 bombs explode at Boston Marathon

Two bombs exploded in the packed streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing two people and injuring more than 100 in a terrifying scene of shattered glass, bloodstained pavement and severed limbs, authorities said.

Cypers is among that long list of Utahns registered to run in the race, which also includes Gov. Gary Herbert's oldest daughter, Kim Cahoon. The governor's office said she finished about an hour before the blasts and was not a witness.

Cypers said his first thought "was just how sick some people can be. I have no idea why somebody would even do that." But he said the devastation would not keep him from running the elite race again.

"It could happen anywhere. It doesn't really help to run from it, you know? It could happen at any event we go to. I'm not quite sure what you do," he said. The group is returning to Utah Tuesday night as planned, he said.

Asked if he felt safe being in the Boston area, Cypers said, "I feel fine. We're safe."

Nick and Tracy Campbell, Utah couple:

Nick Campbell is the husband of a runner, Tracy Campbell, who had finished the race before the explosions. They heard the blasts as they were finishing up post-race.

"Everyone around us looked at one another and just started walking the other direction away from the explosions."

The Campbells, and hundreds of others, spent the next while simply walking since the subways were shut down after the explosions.

Jolene Keate, Utah Runner

Jolene Keate, a grandmother from Centerville who was running the race, said she was very concerned for the other people.

"I'm really worried about the people," she said. "I don't know how many have been hurt."

Contributing: Richard Piatt and Dennis Romboy

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