Adrianne Haslet heard all the talk about taking back Boylston Street in the years after the Boston Marathon bombings. Her mind was 26.2 miles away, instead.
(FOX)- After losing her left leg in the 2013 finish-line explosions, Haslet decided that she would return to the course — this time as a runner. When the race leaves Hopkinton on Monday, Haslet will be one of 31 members of the One Fund community — survivors of the attacks, their families and supporters— in the field.
“A lot of people think about the finish line,” she said. “I think about the start line.”
More than 30,000 runners are scheduled to head to Hopkinton for the 120th edition of the race this Patriots’ Day. Among them are Haslet and Patrick Downes, a Boston College graduate who had his left leg amputated after the bombings.
Downes, 32, was a runner before the bombing, having completed the race in 2005 with his wife, who lost both legs in the attacks.
Haslet, 35, was a professional ballroom dancer who received a prosthetic blade to do the quickstep and the jive, and only then decided to take up running.
Haslet overcame a hip flexor injury while training; running with the blade also requires extra energy, because one leg is slightly longer than the other. She will run with a team of four people on behalf of the Oklahoma City-based Limbs for Life Foundation, which provides prosthetics for those who can’t afford them.