One year has passed since two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The 118th Boston Marathon was held on Monday, April 21st. The message this year was clear: Boston is back and stronger than ever.

The Boston Athletic Association reported that 35,671 people registered to run the race and 97% of them crossed the finish line. People flooded phone lines and e-mails in order to secure their spot in the marathon.

The increase in runners this year is a direct result of the attacks the city of Boston suffered a year ago. Runners or not, people from across the country came to show their support.

“They’d say, ‘I’m not a qualified runner; I don’t think I ever will be. I train. I run. I could do it. But because of what happened last year, I need to run,'” Boston Athletic Association executive director Tom Grilk said last week.

For the first time in thirty years an American won the Boston Marathon. Meb Keflezighi won the men’s race with a time of 2 hours 8 minutes and 37 seconds. Not only his personal best, but also the second-fastest time ever for an American in Boston.

Although he has been running this marathon for many years, this year it was more than just a race. In the corners of  his running bib he wrote the names of the three who lost their lives in the bombings and the police officer that died in a shootout while chasing the suspects.

Keflezighi stated, “I did it for Boston.”

There were one million people in attendance to support those running. Security measures were heightened including 3,500 uniformed and undercover police officers as well as bomb squads and tactical units. More than 100 cameras were set up in the Boston stretch alone, and authorities watched the finish-line crowd from more than 50 observation points.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is currently being held in a secure medical facility as he awaits his trial in November. He is charged with helping to plan and execute the Boston Marathon bombings. His older brother, also involved in the bombings, died in a shootout with police during the manhunt that occurred after the bombs went off.

Last year the Boston Marathon was full of fear and shock. People were uncertain if such large events could ever really be secure. This year the million people who came to watch the marathon, along with those who ran it, helped Boston take back their city and prove nothing would stop them.