Of the more than 20,000 runners who took to the streets of Boston for the Marathon Monday before the bombing that killed three and injured hundreds, more than two dozen came from the Trenton area.

Princeton native Rick Hrabchak finished the race minutes before the first bomb went off, and was waiting in a runners-only area less than 200 feet from the finish line. When he heard the first explosion on Boyleston Street, he immediately knew something was wrong.

“I felt ‘this is what it’s like in Israel, this is what they have to deal with in Jerusalem and the Middle East,” he said.

Hrabchak said he and the other runners in that area, who had just finished the 26.2 mile race, were told to “run, run, get out of here, move” for several minutes before going back closer to the finish line. He and other runners went back to two of the tents, one held the personal items of runners and the other would soon house many of the dozens of injured from the two bomb blasts.

“There were ambulances all over the place and no runners anywhere,” he said.

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