For the mother of sophomore Martha Sutter, a passion for running has guided her to finish the Boston Marathon after its interruption by last year’s bombing.

Sophomore Martha Sutter watched her mother throughout the entirety of the 2013 race, and waited at the finish last year when the explosion went off with about 1 mile left for her mom in the race.

“Originally I was standing in front of the building where the bomb went off, but 10 minutes before it happened I had decided to move 20 yards over,” Sutter said.

Neither Sutter nor her mom were hurt during the explosion.

With only 1.6 miles left in the race, Elinor Scott’s dream to complete the Boston Marathon was over.

“A race like that is something that you work hard toward doing, and it was disappointing not finish it,” Scott said.

However, Scott was running for more than just exercise.  In 2009, the 51 year-old long-distance fanatic began a battle against Myasthenia Gravis, a neuromuscular disease that leads to fluctuating muscle weakness and fatigue.

“I had no idea what I was running with, but I was marathoning anyway,” she  said.

She was finally diagnosed with the disease in August 2012 after noticing she could not hold her eyes open at times.

According to Scott, going into last year’s Boston Marathon nothing but hope and energy ran through her veins.

This January, eight months after the race, Scott was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer.

A few months prior to the cancer diagnosis she had been logging 71 miles every week, now she struggles to run 1 mile.

“I had been trying to run up until that point, trying to run a couple more blocks everyday,” she said. “Only it continued to get worse.”

In any case, Elinor Scott finished the incomplete race she started last year by walking the last mile of the Boston Marathon April 21.

Although it was an opportunity to finish what she started, she said she would have much rather been running the full race instead.

“It was a huge privilege to return and finish, but a little part of me still wanted to have 26.2 miles ahead of me, like everyone else,” Scott said.

Following in her mother’s footsteps, Martha began running herself.

“I have recently started running. I keep the strength she shows in my mind and keep on running,” Sutter said.

According to Scott, her ability to run gave her the health to continue her battle against cancer, along with continuous support from those around her

“The two best drugs in life are running and caffeine,” Scott said. “Although I would love to be on the starting line with everyone else, I am working my way up to that point everyday with the help of my family and those around me.”