Southwestern Ontario participants in the Boston Marathon are returning home, and at this point, it appears no local residents were hurt in Monday’s explosions.

Indeed, Canadian officials say they’re not aware of any Canadians injured in the blast.

But several of the returning runners say just being in the city at the time of the incident was enough to give them a memory that will stick with them for their entire life.

“We were walking down the street and we heard them, but we didn’t know what it was. We thought maybe it was thunder, but it was a clear day,” Waterloo resident Gary Sumak told CTV.

“It almost sounded like cannons being shot off in quick succession.”

Sumak was running the marathon with his sister-in-law, Tara Kamrath. She recalls a sense of confusion permeating the crowd in the moments immediately after the explosions.

“All of a sudden, it was like all the people in the street stopped,” she said.

“I heard a few people talks about how two bombs had gone off, so I just kept on my route for a while, and then got off and tried to make my way back.”

Sumak and Kamrath were two of 14 Waterloo runners registered for the marathon. Also registered were 15 people from Kitchener, 14 from Guelph and four from Cambridge.

Two of those from Cambridge were Steve Davis and Catherine Kelly. Davis says he was waiting for Kelly at the finish line when the bombs went off.

The pair escaped uninjured, but it took them some time before they were able to find each other, and then much more time before they could leave the area as trains and subways had been shut down.

Stratford resident Gerry Thuss was only 200 metres from the finish line when the first explosion hit.

“We knew something was wrong, and then the second went off,” he said.

Paralympian Josh Cassidy, who trains in Guelph, told CTV Monday night that he was in the blast area not long after the explosions.

“There were lots of people running out from the area, and lots of emergency personnel just rushing in,” he said.

“I’m just sick to my stomach for the people that are afraid and the people that are hurt. It’s not a very pleasant feeling for an event … that’s usually a symbol of happiness.”