Chris Serwan was only yards away when the second bomb detonated in Boston Monday, April 15.
"When everything happened we were right by that final turn, so I mean we were 50 to 100 yards away from the second (explosion)," Serwan said. "And luckily we had just got a phone call from my sister and brother, and they had just finished and been pushed down the corral, the area after the finish line where they give you water and gatorade and all that, and luckily there were so many people that they were being pushed further and further away (from the finish line). So they were fine, but close enough to the first (explosion) to where they saw it."
Serwan, a 2012 Auburn alumnus in international business, had planned to race in the Boston Marathon since 2010, but because of injuries and weather had to wait until this year.
He had another injury, a micro-fracture in his right tibia, this year and decided to pass along his marathon number to his brother-in-law.
"Basically that morning my brother-in-law left early to go to the starting line and my sister decided she wanted to run as a bandit runner, people that just jump in, and so my mom and I went down with her to help her jump into the race and we went back downtown where we were trying to watch the elite finish," Serwan said.
Serwan and his mother, Sue, were watching the race when they saw the second bomb explode.
"We couldn't really see the first one go off, but we heard it and after that happened everybody got kind of quiet and everybody thought 'Oh, someone has a firework or something that they were shooting off,'" Serwan said. "Then we saw runners turn around and come back and all the debris and smoke going up, and everybody kind of stopped. Then the second one went off and we saw it, and after that we were just like 'we have to get out of here.'"
Serwan talked to his brother-in-law and sister prior to the explosions, but couldn't communicate with them until they found their way back to the hotel.
"My phone was blowing up with text messages, people just wondering what was going on, if we were OK, and I still didn't know what happened or what exactly it was because people (thought) it was a transformer that blew or something," Serwan said.
The only thing he could could think abut was finding his siblings.
"We talked to them on the phone right before the blast and we saw the second one, but heard the first one, and we were hoping that they were fine and nowhere near it," Serwan said.
Serwan said after explosions the scene was surreal.
"Runners were turning around, all the spectators were getting away and all the police were swarming toward it," Serwan said. "(Police) were trying to keep people calm and tell people to walk back and out of the area and back to their hotel rooms and stuff. We were worried about another (bomb) or multiple more blasts going off."
Serwan then moved hotels and said, because of the proximity to the crime scene at Copley Square, he had a police escort to and from.
"It was crazy," Serwan said. "People couldn't get their stuff. People were still in running shorts and shoes and it was getting cold out and the hotel was handing out food, water, whatever they could do. People were handing out cell phones, giving them jackets from their bags, and everyone was offering, if they didn't have a room, a place to stay for the night."
Although it has been more than three days since the tragedy, Serwan said the city is trying to return to business as usual.
"Everything is just slowed down a little bit," Serwan said. "Right around Copley Square and stuff, downtown is pretty much shut down and there's security all over the place. I've never seen so many acronyms in my life."
With the investigation still pending and many questions unanswered, Serwan said the Boston community persevered regardless of the unfathomable devastation.
"Everybody was just being really helpful," Serwan said. "Residents were opening their houses close by to runners and everybody was just pulling together to do everything they could, and the police were under a whole lot of stress and still they were very accommodating and very nice."
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