Mark Rice of Atmore isn’t letting last year’s terrorist attack spook him from running in another Boston Marathon next week.

Rice, the administrator of Atmore Vision Center, is participating in his sixth Boston Marathon on Monday, April 21. Last year, he finished the race is three hours, 12 minutes and 24 seconds, several hours before a bomb blast killed three people and injured 264 others. Rice had already left the race site and was several miles away when he heard the news of the explosion.

The Atmore resident left for Boston again last Thursday.

Rice said that he enjoys setting goals to help him train for his marathons.

“Setting up personal exercise and diet goals really helps you stick to a program,” he said, in an email. “My way is running marathons and improving. Yours may be counting hours of exercise per month, or pounds lost, or both.”

Rice said he ran into a literal hurdle in his training late last year, when doctors discovered that he had a herniated disc in December 2013. He had to stop running for several months, but continued his training by walking as much as he could before it was safe to run again.

“Many of us have hurdles that stop our progress,” he said. “But we can overcome them with slow and determined progress. I will not be fast for this Boston (Marathon), but I will participate and earn my sixth Boston Marathon medal.

“I will then immediately start working on my goal to qualify for the 2015 Boston Marathon.”

Rice said anyone who has questions about running safely can send him an email at mark@atmorevisioncenter.com.