Boston Marathon Photos 2015: 11 Powerful Images From Race Day 2 Years After Bombing

Rain fell and clouds darkened the sky over Boston Monday as around 30,000 people hit the pavement for this year’s Boston Marathon. Photos from the 119th race show runners and spectators who appear unruffled by a little lousy weather.

Two years after the bombing that rattled the country and the world of competitive running, crowds once again lined the streets of Hopkinton, Massachusetts -- the starting point for the race -- and Boston to watch racers from all over the world compete for a top spot in the marathon. More than 80 percent of this year’s runners ran qualifying times to enter the race. Others represented charities, including some benefiting the victims of the 2013 bombing. Many runners said they were determined to honor those who died in 2013 at the hands of brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who detonated two homemade bombs near the finish line on Boylston Street.

Several survivors of the blasts returned this year to participate in the race. Rebekah Gregory, one of 16 victims to lose a limb in the bombing, ran the final 3.5 miles of the marathon Monday, her left leg replaced with a prosthetic one.

In the end, it was Ethiopia's Lelisa Desisa who took home the title of Boston Marathon’s fastest man and Caroline Rotich of Kenya who was the race’s top woman competitor. Delisa finished the 26.2 miles in 2 hours, 9 minutes and 17 seconds; Rotich completed the race in just under 2 hours and 25 minutes.

The 2013 Boston Marathon bombing killed three people and injured 260, though it failed to derail the annual event, has still meant extra precautions being taken on race day. "They've put up extra checkpoints, extra undercover and uniformed police, bomb-sniffing dogs and cameras everywhere,” NPR’s Tovia Smith reported. “But, officials say, at the same time they are trying to keep the open, festive feel of the marathon as it always has been for the million on so spectators who line the course to cheer on runners.”

Here are 11 inspiring photos from the 2015 Boston Marathon.