Sally Lovejoy is from Visalia but she was only about 200 yards away from the explosions.
Over the phone, she told us she is still struggling to process the frightening images she saw.
Sally Lovejoy was so close to the end of the marathon when she heard the first detonation that rocked the finish line.
"I was just intent on finishing, exhausted and I heard a loud boom, and I looked up and I saw smoke."
She says she couldn't process what was happening and kept going until she heard the second blast.
That's when she saw a giant fireball shoot up into the sky.
"When I heard that I knew something wasn't right, when I saw the fire and I heard the second explosion I had a wrong feeling about the whole thing that something terrible had happened."
Emergency crews working fast trying to move the wounded, the frantic and everyone away.
"The race officials were pushing us back away from the finish line. The police officers just came along just telling the whole crowd to just get out of there for safety."
Sally says the streets were flooded with ambulances, so much so that she had to walk about two miles to get back to her hotel.
Now she's struggling with her emotions and praying for those who lost a loved one.
"I just really feel for the family of the victims and I could have been one of them but I wasn't."
Sally told me she was incredibly touched by the kindness of strangers.
She says when she walked to the hotel. She was shivering and someone gave her their jacket.
