‘Armed FBI agents screamed to put my hands on my head’

Diana Hogan-Murphy, from Montenotte in Cork City, on finishing the Boston Marathon and the terrifying ordeal that followed

I finished the marathon but had a near escape close to the finish line. Athletes were grouped in three waves depending on their qualifying times starting at 10am with a 20-minute gap between each wave. Luckily, I started in wave 1 and had happily finished the marathon approximately one hour before the explosions occurred.

The support throughout the marathon route appeared to be even better than my experiences in the New York City marathons, which is regarded as the best-supported marathon in the world with three million people out cheering.