5 Locals Ran at Boston Marathon, Site of Fatal Blasts, Many Injuries

Updated at 2:36 p.m. April 15, 2013

Five runners from La Mesa took part in the Boston Marathon on Monday, with three finishing before explosions reportedly claimed the lives of two people and injured nearly two dozen near the finish line.

There were no Lemon Grove residents listed as competing on the Boston Marathon website.

According to the Boston Athletic Association site, these La Mesa entrants had finished before the blasts, which TV showed happened about 2 hours after the start.

• Jim Goss, age 45, 3 hours, 21 minutes, 54 seconds (according to time between start of race and when they finished.)
• Lorena Hopper, age 42, 3:53:56
• Lincoln Reifsteck, age 40, 3:27:32

At 1:15 p.m. Pacific time, two La Mesans had no recorded finishing times, which could mean they were diverted away from the bomb scene.

They were:

• Courtney Johnson, 28, who reached the halfway point at 2:05:36
• Anna Molinar, 42, whose halfway time was 1:58:58.

All marks are “gun times,” but not the actual times from start to finish, since many thousands of entrants don’t reach the starting line until minutes after the gun goes off.

Kate Garcia of the San Diego Track Club sent this message to members via email:

As I’m sure you all know by now, there were two bombs that exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line today.  We have unofficially heard that all of our SDTC runners are safe.  We know that all but two finished the race and the two who didn't weren't near the end when the race was halted.  We will send more information as we get personal confirmation from our SDTC runners.  Please join us today as we keep those affected by this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.

Boston Backbay Patch is covering story.

Patch will provide updates.