At the start line of the Toronto Marathon on Sunday, a festive atmosphere was underscored by a lingering awareness of the bloodshed that happened along the route.

Runners geared up to retrace part of the path taken in a deadly van rampage, just under two weeks prior to the race.

Half-marathoner William Sze and other members of the Willowdale Lawn Bowling Club handed out signs to pin to their shirts, remembering victim and club member Dorothy Sewell for her kindness, and honouring the others who died or were hurt.

Runners on their way to the starting line also passed the memorial in Mel Lastman Square — a pile of condolence notes and colourful blooms, marking a site where lives were lost.

Elsbeth Schokking and Charmaine Pang paused in front of the display as they arrived. Both are from Toronto, but they’d been far from that stretch of Yonge St. where 10 people were killed and more than a dozen injured.

“It’s nice to see the support across the city,” Schokking said. “Everywhere you go, someone says they’ve donated to the crowdfunding, and they’re going to the vigils. It’s a horrific event that you can’t believe happened in your own city, but you have to move on from it.”

A relay team from Frenchman’s Bay Public School in Pickering, made up of kids from nine to 14 years old, had been training for their run since March.

Sunday’s race marked a decade of their school coming out to Toronto for the run, under the watchful eye of teacher Sarah Furan.

“This is not just our 10th anniversary, but it’s a pretty meaningful one to do, you know? Showing our support for the city,” she said. “We always run on adrenalin and excitement, but this year I think there’s something more that’s going to make it that much better of a race for everyone.”

About 8,000 runners took part Sunday including Lee Burtnyk, who said the emotions hit her when she turned from Beecroft Rd., and headed onto Yonge.

“Running down that, it was quite emotional to think that that’s exactly where that car drove,” she said after the race.

Runner Calvin Roach said that he looked at cars driving past during the race, and he’d be hit with the fleeting thought: “What if?”

“It was going through my head at some points,” he said. “But then you try not to think about it, and get past it, and try to be in the moment of running your race.”

Memories of another tragedy along a race route, for other runners, weren’t far from mind.

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“It’ll be a little surreal I think, running down there knowing what just happened last week. Then of course, there’s the stories from Boston a few years ago, just kind of makes you feel a little weird,” said David Boudreau, who’d come to Toronto from Newmarket for his fifth marathon.

For other runners, it was easier not to think about what happened on Yonge St.

Daniel Sahni flew in from Germany for what would be his sixth marathon.

“It could happen anywhere. It could happen in Berlin . . . it could have happened even in the little town where I live. It is sad, but I can’t stop my life,” he said.