and race. but it s always come together on marathon day, never more than in 2013 when nearly 6,000 people offered their homes online to stranded runners. yes, you can call boston generous. margaret smith invited three runners and five friends foo her home and fed the shivering group from kansas city. they were just sitting there not able to get into their hotel, not having eaten and they weren t complaining. they were just very charming. reporter: one of the runners, alley hatfield, posted pictures on her blog writing, people are good. and you can say that good boston, too. you know, that final picture there, that big man in the blue shirt, he is a former new england patriots offensive lineman. if you don t remember his history, his three brothers were firefighters from new york city who were first responders to the attacks on 9/11. of course, people called him a hero and he said the heroes are my three brothers in new york. still ahead, boston related e-mails from you watching
himself on fire and rescued. he recalled his wife s words of comfort as he calmed jeff ballmon jr. he lost his legs but he survived. what i experience myself and give something to comfort him and give him hope and get him out of there as soon as we could. reporter: you can call boston kind. peter dandrotti leaves two miles from where the race went off. we carried everything out on platters and just started feeding people and bringing out coffee and the little things that we could do, my friends and i, to help people out in this time of tragedy. reporter: nearly 6,000 people offered their home online to stranded runners. yes, you can call boston generous. margaret schmitt invited three runners and their friends into the home and fed the shivering group from kansas city. they were just sitting there not able to get into their hotel, not having eaten. and they weren t complaining.