Up for the challenge to No. 24

This is the first in a series of special articles about Lynners affected by the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013 and how they?re preparing for next month?s race.Mike Derby of Lynn had just completed Mile 23 of the his 23rd consecutive Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013 when he heard the cell phone in his fanny pack. His eldest son, Mike Jr., was calling.?My son said, ?Dad, a bomb got off,?” Mike Sr. remembered last week. “?There are bodies.? I said, ?Mike, what are you talking about?? He said, ?They?re moving us out. A bomb went off.?”?The phone went dead for a little bit,” Mike Sr. continued. “I ran to a cop. (I asked him,) ?What happened at the finish line?? He said, ?I don?t know what you?re talking about.?”However, members of the National Guard soon appeared on Beacon Street, urging everyone to get off the streets. When Derby and his running partner, Terry O?Brien of Wakefield, reached Kenmore Square, they found their path blocked by a line of security, with their options either to go left or right.?We go to the right,” Derby said. “Now my son is texting me.”Eventually, father and son – as well as Derby?s wife, Lisa, and his youngest son Matthew – would find each other. While Mike Sr. was running, his family had been waiting for him near the finish line. They had witnessed the horror of the Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 260.For Mike Jr., there would be one further shock: He had gone to UMass-Dartmouth with alleged Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who faces a 30-count indictment. Tsarnaev allegedly planned the bombings with his older brother Tamerlan, who died during a police manhunt on Friday, April 19 of last year.?He blew up people in front of my face,” Mike Jr. said. “(I felt) anger. It?s never stopped. I was definitely scared. I?m a little more angry. It?s a shock someone I knew so well could be capable of doing that.”For the Derby family, then, the week of the Marathon constituted a series of shocks, with which they are still trying to come to terms with as Mike Sr. prepares to run marathon No. 24 this year.A course unfinishedWhy does Mike Sr. run the Marathon year after year for over two decades? It?s to honor the memory of his sister Linda, who died of liver cancer in 1988. Last year, he wore a white sleeveless top with blue lettering that read, “4 LINDA.” He runs to benefit the American Liver Foundation. The cause is personal for O?Brien, too; in April 2011, her mother-in-law died of liver cancer.Last year, Mike Sr. was struggling in the early going.?I had a streak going for my sister,” he said. “I was on mile nine with Terry. I was going to quit. She said, ?Walk and run.?”At mile 14, Derby found a bit more motivation after O?Brien recognized one of the relatively few people who have run 25 straight Boston Marathons – a group Derby has a chance to join.?He said there?s only 52 runners,” Derby said. “Only 52 have done it. All of a sudden, that was really special. I?d never looked into it. One year at a time. At that point, I realized how special it was.”At Mile 17, though, Derby?s right leg went numb. He asked O?Brien whether his foot was striking well enough, and she reassured him.Then came the phone call from Mike Jr.Terror by the finish lineDerby?s wife and their two sons always wait for Mike Sr. at the corner of Hereford and Boylston streets in Boston. When they spot Mike Sr. turning onto Boylston for the final stretch, they jump over a barrier and join him.That did not happen last year. Mike Jr. recalled the shock of hearing the first explosion and witnessing the second.?It sounded like a cannon,” he said of the first explosion. “Smoke was coming up. People were cheering. They thought it was a cannon.”Of the second explosion, he said: “We were right across the street. You saw the explosion, smoke, people on the ground. My mother took a couple seconds to realize.”Mike Jr. added that his brother Matthew “was pulling people away.” Mike Sr. said that Matthew also “knocked down