Boston Marathon tragedy inspires Fresno woman to help save lives

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- There's more excitement than fear in Boston, as the Boston Marathon is about to start on Monday morning.

And Shannon Basara of Fresno is ready to go. From Boston she told Action News: "I am running tomorrow. Going to run my first marathon."

Basara is 20, and a 2012 graduate of Clovis West. She's a student at Northeastern University. She was a spectator at the race last year when the bombs went off.

"And it was complete chaos, I remember seeing ambulances, fire trucks just streaming. I saw runners running through the crowd trying to find their families. I didn't know what happened," she said.

Through the tragedy, she found inspiration. Three people were killed by the blasts, nearly 300 were injured, many critically hurt, but their lives were saved by first responders. Trauma nurses. She's now studying to be one.

"Hearing how the trauma nurses were able to save lives right there, anybody who left the scene survived, which is incredible. I want to be able to do that one day if I'm ever faced with that situation," said Basara.

Security is extremely tight for this year's race. Thousands of uniformed police will be on patrol along with hundreds of undercover officers. More than 100 surveillance cameras will be watching everyone and everything.

The runners, including Basara will be running, not to win, but to show the world they can't be beat.

"And we just have to show them how much stronger we are, and how resilient we are. Most of the runners I've talked to are not afraid to go and run this again," she said.