We went to watch our dad run the Boston Marathon. We experienced much more than a race on our trip a month ago. Because so many of you have asked exactly what happened, we’ve tried to remember everything the way it was.

April 15 has always been a very special day for us. It is our dad’s birthday, so every year we celebrate him being the awesome person that he is. He is a runner and has completed several marathons, so when he found out the Boston Marathon was on his birthday this year, he couldn’t say no. We planned the trip months in advance and we eagerly talked about the fun we would have in the city before, during and after the run.

Within the first few hours of landing in Boston, the trip lived up to our expectations. We had an incredible experience over the first two days, which made us fall in love with the city. One of the most entertaining excursions was the iconic swan boat ride in the Boston Public Garden. We enjoyed every minute of the ever-so-slow ride, even though we may have been a little too old for it. Little did we know that we soon would return to the swan boat bridge, in a much different mindset.

Monday morning was an exciting one as we sent our dad off to complete the almost four-hour run. We all had our smartphones programmed to receive text message alerts as he completed parts of the race. We watched the professionals run by and waited in anticipation for our dad to reach us at the 25 mile marker. After what felt like days, we saw him, gave him big hugs and sent him on his way to finish the remaining 1.2 miles.

As he ran ahead of us we followed Dad, walking as quickly as we could to see him at the finish line to congratulate him and wish him a happy birthday.

When we turned onto Boylston Street, the final straightaway of the race, we had no idea of the danger that was to come, or that it would take us three hours to finally congratulate our dad.

We walked briskly down the sidewalk, past hundreds of spectators, toward the decorated finish line area. Suddenly, we heard a huge “boom” and saw a huge cloud of smoke; then we heard countless screams. Unsure of what to do, the four of us—Maddie, Christine, our sister, Caroline and our mom— stood where we were, in shock and confusion.

Twelve seconds later, the blast threw us to the ground. The sound, the smell and the scene created by the second bomb was surreal, but the confusion was the most terrifying. While we were frozen in shock with our mom, our younger sister Caroline sprinted away away from the scene. We frantically called her back to join us so that we could stay as a group.

No one knew what had happened or what might happen next, including the police.

As the four of us looked down the street we saw the destruction, so we looked for shelter. There was an apartment building right behind us that several injured victims had gotten in to, so rushed in to join them. As soon as we sat down, we received a call from our dad, telling us that he was OK and that he was headed back to the hotel. We sat there in the lobby with about 10 other people for a few minutes before we were told to immediately evacuate.

As we walked out of the building a policeman yelled something that we will never forget: “Do not look right! Run to the left, as fast as you can, for as far as you can.”

So we started to run. But then we heard screams from our mom, who had hurt her leg when she was thrown back in the blast, saying that she could not move. We ran back to help her, which is when Christine took her on her back and continued to run. We had gone about two blocks when retired Patriots player Joe Andruzzi took my mom from Christine and carried her to the ambulance.

He sat us down at the ambulance and we waited for someone to take a look at Mom’s injury. The paramedic loaded her into the ambulance and assured her that we would be taken in another vehicle. He then proceeded to shut the doors, look at us and say, “We cannot take you girls; the hospital is going to be too crowded. You need to get back to the hotel and find your dad.”

After listening to his directions, we went up to another police officer to ask him how to get to our hotel. He told us that we would not be able to get back there until that night, because the roads were blocked off and that we should get as far away from the scene as we could.

So we speed-walked toward the other side of the city to find a telephone that was working, so that we could tell our dad what was going on. All phone service was down, but Christine kept on trying to send text messages to our dad, telling him that we were at the Swan Boat bridge. After about an hour of staying on the bridge, we saw our dad waving for us. He had walked across the city to get us after running 26.2 miles earlier that day.

Our dad decided that we should go to a hotel where his good friend was staying. We arrived at the hotel and then decided to go out to dinner and wait to hear back from Mom. At about 7 p.m. we got a call from her telling us that she would be getting a police escort back to our hotel, so we left to go meet her there.

When we arrived at the hotel there was a SWAT team standing outside and they examined all of our belongings before we were let inside. Back at the room we met up with our mom, who was in a soft cast with a broken leg.

That night, after charging our phones, we were flooded with phone calls, text messages and e-mails from friends, all wondering if we were OK. It was then that we saw the picture that had gone viral of Joe Andruzzi, the former Patriot, carrying our mom. We were up late that night contacting family and friends to tell them that we were OK and that we would be returning home the next day.

When we arrived home on Tuesday we were astounded by the outpouring of support. We had enough food to last us weeks, enough flowers to plant a garden and more cards than we could count. If there is anything that we have learned from this experience it is how lucky we are to live in such a close-knit community.

As life gets back to normal, we realize how lucky we are to be alive and unharmed. We are so thankful for all of the first responders and random strangers who offered to help us that day in Boston.

It is in a tragic event like this when you realize how grateful you are for everyone close to you and for that we are incredibly thankful.