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Far-flung family members, co-workers and friends frantically used social media, cellphones and even a "people finder" website Monday to try to learn the fate of participants and spectators at the Boston Marathon, where two people were killed and dozens injured after a pair of bombs exploded near the finish line of one of the world's great marathons.

The search was made more difficult because heavy cellphone use caused slow and delayed service.

Jan Seeley, director of the Illinois Marathon in Champaign, Ill., said she spent much of Monday afternoon trying to reach the runners from her area who she knew were at the race. She reached most of them, but still was waiting to hear from a handful of others.

"I've left messages for everyone I know," she said. One woman she knew crossed the finish line just a minute or so ahead of the explosions.

Tim Apuzzo of Seattle said he spent an agonizing 10 minutes frantically trying to call his girlfriend, Quinn Schweizer, who was watching the marathon with her friends at the finish line. But when he kept getting a recording saying there was no service, he started to worry "because you know you have a group of people in this generation all wired in ... and quick to respond."

Finally, she was able to call him to say she was fine and that her group had left the finish line just minutes before the blast to walk to a cafe for lunch.

Google stepped in to help family and friends of runners find their loved ones, setting up a site called Google Person Finder that allows users to enter the name of a person they're looking for or enter information about someone who was there.

Mary Beth Aasen of Shorewood, Wis., and her husband were using an app to track their daughter Maggie's progress along the marathon route. They didn't realize anything was wrong until a worried friend texted Aasen and asked if Maggie was OK.

The app indicated that Maggie was still moving, a relief for her parents. Mary Beth Aasen tried in vain to call her daughter for about 30 minutes before Maggie called her.

"When I talked to her she was pretty upset," Aasen said. "Physically she said she felt great but she was upset because she hadn't been in contact with her friends."

Read more:
Boston Marathon explosion: Loved ones seek word on runners after blast