Breathinstephen » Marathon walking

Boston 2011 Race Report

Stephen — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:36:26 +0000

They don’t call it the best marathon in the world for nothing , and this year was no exception. The weather was near perfect and the spectators and volunteers outdid themselves.

The moment I entered athletes village and the disabled athletes staging area early Monday morning, my worries and stress about the race just melted away. I felt so privileged just to be part of all this for a 3rd time. This year there were only 12 of us in the mobility impaired division. It’s kinda like an exclusive club where the members get together once a year to show the world what they have accomplished.

Here’s some various scenes I captured before and during the first few miles of the race. I think they speak for themselves..

[We have the course to ourselves for the first 22 minutes.]

Strategy– Because I feared I would have problems with my left foot if I tried to racewalk the course, I decided at the last minute to keep my pace up by doing a combination of regular fast walking mixed with some very slow jogging. I would the walk the hills and jog the downhills and sometimes the flat areas. I tried my best to walk on the inside corners of the all curves, but sometimes it was difficult because of all the people on the course. The farthest I was able to jog at any one time (because of my breathing), was about 50 yards. For the most part the strategy was working and I was able to maintain a pretty constant 14:30-15:00 pace for most of the first 20kms. By mile 15 though, the jogging intervals were making me way too short of breath and I had to cut back. By mile 18 I was getting so short of breath, I couldn’t jog at all. I was using my inhaler and neb machine way too much, and my leg muscles were starting to cramp. I thought it best at that point to stick to plain old walking (on Heartbreak hill, even the runners were walking so I didn’t feel that bad). So anyways, I’m tooling along at a much slower pace now just trying to survive the hills (which never seem to end), when I figured I better hit the next pit stop, as my stomach was getting a little iffy. That’s when every thing changed!

The Curse —As I’m stepping out the porta potty at mile 21, I take about 3 steps forward back onto the course, when all of a sudden my left knee decides to totally give out. I mean boom… it just went limp and buckled. As I’m trying to keep myself upright, my “good” leg then decides to lock up on me. I then somehow manage to simultaneously slip on a paper cup and fly face first toward the pavement. I was able to brake the fall with my fingers and forearm, but as I hit the ground and rolled onto my back, both of my legs cramped up and I couldn’t move. (We’re talking full calve and quadriceps cramps…) There’s blood everywhere and my lower body is spasming…what a spectacle. Thankfully, some very cool, but slightly inebriated college students came to my rescue and helped me work the cramps out and made sure I was OK. By then however, the damage was done. I knew the moment I tried to stand up and put weight on my left leg, that my hopes for setting a new a PR went down the toilet. After limping a few yards on it, I was having serious doubts as to whether Id be able to finish the race at all. I was so devastated I just wanted to cry. Why did this have to happen? At that point I was experiencing so many emotions, my brain kinda shut down. I went into survival mode and decided that PR or not, there was no way I was going to quit after making it 21 miles.

To give you an idea of the cup situation, here’s a photo from last year.

The last 5 Miles —Every mile seemed like an eternity. The pain was so excruciating that I was actually moaning and grunting, but I knew that if I stopped, even for a moment, that my body would totally cramp up and that would be it. Frustrated as well, I think I was starting to make Jon ( my spotter) nervous. Here I am limping, blood dripping down my leg, I’m breathing really hard and we still have several miles to go, yet he totally gets how important it is for me to at least finish the race and he continues to encourage me. Heck, even the police, which were everywhere and could obviously see me limping and grimacing in pain, were acknowledging by their facial expressions that it was OK and not to give up …they cheered me on as well. Had this been any other race, I probably would have forced off the course. Anyway, as it turns out, I had made such good time during the previous 20 miles, that even with the injury and the subsequent slow down, I still managed to finish 12 minutes faster than last year.

Lessons learned–I put everything I had into this race and was on track for a 6:45 finish. Then wham…to have this happen just 5 miles from the finish was really disappointing. I guess I could blame it on having the worst luck in the world, but in reality what happened at mile 21 was just a freak accident made worse by some poor judgement on my part. You see, while bolusing with prednisone prior to a race can sometimes keep a post race asthma flare from escalating out of control, it can also cause some wicked muscle cramps. Add to that a group of muscles that are already over-worked from 6 hours of constant pounding, and you have a marathon disaster just waiting to happen. The bottom line, is that I didn’t stretch or hydrate enough, and most importantly, I didn’t do ANY speed training. You can’t train at a slow pace and then expect to race at a fast one. If you wanna be a fast walker, you have to train as a fast walker. But of course, therein lies the catch 22. In order to do any physical activity fast you have to have good lungs. There’s got to be a happy middle in there somewhere.

Final thoughts –My hard luck story isn’t really unique. There were a lot of injuries that day and a lot of suffering going on ( you should have seen all the people who were limping through the airport when I left, it was almost comical.) Race officials later told me that they had never seen so many leg, knee and calve injuries. Weird huh?
Anyways, 72 hours later and different perspective, I’m now feeling a lot less sorry for myself or my race results. I may have lost 20 or 30 minutes with my little acrobatic stunt, but the fact that I was able to continue on despite my breathing, despite some significant injuries and despite some excruciating pain, proves once again ,that while I might be the slowest person on the course, I still am one tough cookie. My spotter Jon who works with lots of professional athletes, made these remarks…..he said “Steve, if it were easy, everybody with severe lung disease would do it. You are truly one of the great athletes that raced on Monday!” I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. Thank you Jon for tolerating me for 7 hours ( his neck was so sore from being on that bike all day) and Thank you to all my cheer-leading buddies for supporting me though my 8th marathon.

Jon and I closing in on the finish line

My left leg gave out right as I stepped on the finish map.

Speaking of race photos, almost forgot….A fellow Dave Alumnus and marathoner whom I had never met, heard that I was in the race and snapped this finish photo of me as I limped across the finish pad ( and later collapsed). Thanks Mary Ann!
(The rest of my race photos are so disturbing, I’m not even gonna buy them this year)

[Post Script] After being evaluated back home, turns out I tore a ligament near my knee and pulled 2 of the quad muscles in my left leg.Walking 5 miles with this injury probably didn’t help matters. They’ll have a better idea of the damage after they do an MRI , but hopefully I’ll be good as new in a few weeks and won’t need surgery.

Disappointed, but still finished faster than last year:-)

Stephen — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 01:01:20 +0000

I was on well on my way to setting a personal best, when at mile 21, I slipped on some wet paper cups, did a full summer salt, cut my finger open and tore a ligament in my knee. It took me almost 2 hours in excruciating pain to limp the last 5 miles of the race , but at least I finished. Jon Robertson my spotter ( bless his heart), bent the rules a little and stayed with me on the course right through the finish chute. In the end, despite the time I lost as a result of my little acrobatic maneuver, I still managed to finish the race 12 min faster than last year.

Hey, it wasn’t all bad. The spectators really out did themselves this year. Imagine experiencing this scene for 7 hours. My hands are raw from from having them high5′d so many times.

Thank you everyone for your support and well wishes. I’ll have a more complete race report up in a few days.

PS….Thank you Kerri, I just saw my Facebook Fan page. Naughty naughty..:-)

PPS…It was nice meeting you Chris and Laura!

Boston or Bust!

Stephen — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:57:54 +0000

So in just a few hours Bib# 21619 is off to the Boston area to take another stab at the mother of all foot races. Monday morning I will attempt to finish my 3rd Boston marathon in a row and my 8th full marathon since starting this incredible fitness journey 5 years ago.

May not sound like a big deal to walk a marathon,but put in perspective; only 1% of the population will ever walk or run a marathon in their lifetime, and most of those people will be totally healthy. The number of people who have completed 7 or more marathons is astronomically small. So, even if I don’t finish the race this year, I’m still ahead of the game.

Btw, Y’all know that the Boston marathon doesn’t actually start in Boston, right? It finishes in Boston, but it actually starts 26.2 miles away in a quaint little New England town called Hopkinton. For the last 115 years on Patriots day, the towns’ population explodes with tens of thousands of some of the fastest runners in the world as they gather at athletes village to make their way to Boston. Some will finish the 26.2 mile course in less than 2 and a quarter hours.

[Enlarge this photo to the max..it's wonderful]

And then there’s me……..
In 2010 , I became the last official finisher to cross the finish line. Out of the 22,672 people who completed the race, I came in dead last! In other words, I finished up in 22,672nd place.
Don’t ya just love it!

But regardless of how the race turns out, I probably wouldn’t be here at all if weren’t for the help of some generous and caring individuals. So let me take this opportunity to thank in advance, the officials at the BAA and my support crew, affectionately known as Team Wheezy . Helping me out again this year are Tom of Caire Inc, plusJon and Chris from the BAA. Jon and Chris will be spotting for me on bike and Tom will be providing logistical support on the course as well as transportation to and from the event. As a disabled athlete, I’m also allowed to have someone accompany me on the course, but this year I will be doing the race alone.

I also wanna thank some of the folks that contributed behind the scenes…. The wonderful folks at the Runningwarehouse for providing me with the shoes I’ll be wearing during the race, the very generous people at Rabbitair for providing me with clean air in my home, so that I could stay healthy while trained for the race, the Sony corporation for providing me with a bunch of their portable music players, which came in handy during those long training walks, to and to Microlife for providing me with the state of the art peak flow meters. Last, but not least, my Pulmonologist and dear friend, Sally Wenzel for supporting my fitness endeavors, no matter how extreme they might me.

While in Boston for the marathon, I’m also going to be participating in a medical study for runners over the age of 40 who take statin drugs (statin drugs are used to treat high cholesterol). The study is titled “The effects of chronic statin therapy on markers of skeletal and cardiac muscle damage in Marathon runners”.
They’ll be drawing my blood before and after the race and then a 3rd time 24 hrs later. After the study is complete, they’ll send me a detailed report of my lab results, including Lipid Panel, Liver Function Test, Muscle Myoglobin, CK Isoenzymes, Hemoglobin and Hematocrit and Cardiac Troponins. It’s basically a bunch of tests I need done anyway, so might as well contribute to science and get paid at the same time ($100 if you complete the study):-)

As far as the lungs go, I’ll pre-medicate with the usual bronchodilators. I’ll also have my portable neb with me on the course, along with a couple of epipens and a pocketful of inhalers. The riskiest time for me is usually not during the race, but afterward. The symptoms I experience in the hours immediately preceding the race will dictate how severe the flare will be. There’s really no way for me to stop or prevent a flare from occurring after exerting myself to this extent, but to increase my chances of keeping the flare at manageable levels, I’ll up pred to 50 mg the day before the race and then rapidly taper.

Depending how the day goes, I’ll try to post or tweet. If you’re dying to know how I’m doing, you can follow my progress via the AT&T athlete program. My bib# is 21619 (Not sure it will work if you live outside the US)

Good luck to the other 27,000 people participating in this historic marathon event!

Third time’s a charm

Stephen — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:47:35 +0000

Not sure the title of this post applies, since Ive already succeeded at this two times already, but it has a nice positive ring to it and it puts me in a good mood. So after months of contemplation and a series of decent test walks , Ive decided to take a 3rd shot at the grand daddy of all races !

OK I admit it, I’m an adrenalin junkie. I like it all. I like the preparation, I like the anticipation, I like the crowds, I like the excitement, I like everything that goes along with doing a big marathon… (except of course the pain afterward). I like anything that takes me out of my crappy breathing/ self pity zone, even if for just a few hours. Working hard towards a goal like this gives me reason to get up in the morning.

I’m not kidding myself, this will not be an easy undertaking. My lung function and tolerance for long distance speed walking is at an all time low. I missed out on 2 races last year due to hospitalizations and my FEV1 is 5% lower at 36%. Finishing this race, or even making it to the starting line, will the be one of the biggest challenges Ive ever set for myself, but this something that I really want to shoot for.

Training for Boston is always harder than the other marathons, because doing a spring race means preparing during the winter. Thankfully we don’t get snow storms or blizzards here in the San Francisco bay area, but we get tons of fog, and our fair share of freezing temperatures and rainy days, all of which tend to have a really negative effect on my breathing. Still, I think this is what toughens you up for the big day. If nothing goes wrong ( yeah , right), I will train a total of 11 weeks or 55 training days.
This year, more will be less. I’m pretty good in the short distance already, so I’m reserving most of my energy and breath on the longer hauls.

Now I’m sure a few of my friends and family are going to think I’m totally insane for wanting to do another marathon, but they also know that it’s pretty much pointless to try and talk me out of it. The last few months have been incredibly difficult for me, and if dreaming big and getting a little reckless is what it takes to get past those bad times, then I think the cause is worthy. If I succeed in pulling this off, it will make my 8th full marathon and 3rd straight Boston in just 5 years. There aren’t too many people on the planet who can say that.

As in previous years, I’ll be in starting the race along side the other mobility impaired athletes in Hopkinton, Massachusetts at 9am on April 18th. I have the option of bringing a 2 person crew along with me on the course . I’m unable to pay for expenses, but if anyone out there is going to be in Boston on that day anyway, and would like to do the race with me, drop me a line. ( As of this posting, one of the positions as already been filled).

I’d also like to take time now to thank the kind folks at Runningwarehouse.com for their support in providing me with shoes and other racing apparel for the Boston marathon. If you’re looking for running shoes or specialty shoes, these guys are awesome. ( Use the link on my sidebar for a special discount).

[Someone held this sign up at last years race... I Love it!]

I’m Honored

Stephen — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:29:26 +0000

Just found out that my story is appearing in the RCB’s annual Newsletter…. “Breathing Matters”.

I’m always flattered when an organization or a person writes an article about my fitness walking achievements, but this one is special because it comes from the same government agency that regulates Respiratory Care in the State of California where I live, and who issued the very license I hold to practice Respiratory Therapy.

I’m certainly not the only asthmatic RCP out there, there are a lots us out there who know what it’s like to be on both ends of the stethoscope. I know this for a fact, because Ive worked with many of them over the years. Heck, some have actually taken care of ME as a patient in the hospital at one time or another (and Thank you by the way). Perhaps my story will inspire some of them to take up fitness walking or maybe tackle a marathon someday, or maybe even share my story with some of their rehab patients.

My message is simple, don’t let lung disease ruin your life. Fight it every step of the way and include exercise in your daily life.

Oh… and one last thing, Respiratory Therapists are very cool people!

(Click the Newsletter cover for the full pdf)

The green shoes are back.

Stephen — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 21:06:19 +0000

Who hoo…scored!

Remember the Asics Hyperspeed II and III’s that I had, but couldn’t make up my mind as to which ones to wear at last years Boston Marathon? Well, as much as I wasn’t too crazy for the lime green color, those Hyperspeed II’s were probably the most comfortable racing flats I’d ever worn. They actually got me through my first Boston marathon in 2009 without a single blister. The Hyperspeed III’s weren’t too bad either, but most current model, the Hyperspeed IV., totally sucks. The new red color and the new style of the shoe is nice and all, but they fit totally different and seem to wear out twice as fast.

Asics, as with all other big shoe companies who cater to mostly non-athletic consumers, stopped making the green Hyperspeed II’s after a very short production run. It’s been really hard to find a pair…. even on the secondary market. Occasionally I’ll stumble upon an odd leftover pair, but they’re usually in a weird size like a 4 or a 13.
So anyway, a couple of weeks ago, totally out of the blue, I get this item alert from Ebay! A running club had just listed a brand new surplus pair in my exact size. I snapped them up for $50 and change…a bargain. Unfortunately, they only had that one pair or I would have bought out their entire inventory.

Not sure yet if I’ll be able to walk anymore marathons with my current lung function the way it is, but if I do, I’m gonna need some shoes I can depend on. These ones are tried and true.

Boston Scare

Stephen — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:20:39 +0000

Imagine the look of horror on my face when I went to the Boston marathon website a few weeks ago to register for next years race and saw this….

How could this be? How could they have sold out all 25,000 slots in 8 hours?

At first I thought… is this a spoof or something? How could the race sell out in one day?
But that’s exactly what happened. I confirmed it with the race director Dave Mc Kilvary. The Boston marathon sold out in 8 hours and 3 minutes…Incredible!

I think a lot of people , including myself, were caught off guard and not really worried about registering on opening day, because last years race didn’t sell out until mid February. But,I guess the growing popularity of this race, and marathon running in general,caught the promoters by surprise. Add to that the ability to rapidly spread word about opening day of registration though social media outlets, and Bam , you have a selling frenzy! But 8 hours? c’mon.

To put this into perspective, most popular marathons of this size often take several months to sell out, and some never sell out. What makes this even more astonishing, is that this is the only race in the world in which the entrants have to qualify in order to get in. If you think that’s easy, consider this… a 33 year old man would have to run a qualifying race in under 3 hours and 10 minutes in order to even register for Boston. But that’s not all; assuming that you were lucky enough to achieve a qualifying time, that qualifying time is only good for about 18 months. This means that some of the people who qualified for the 2011 race, but who didn’t get in, will have to re-qualify by doing yet another race in order to register for Boston 2012. That’s gonna piss off a lot of people.

And what about me? Am I screwed? Well, thankfully, I was able to get in contact with the head of registration, Barbara Sicuso, who is also in charge of the mobility impaired division. As an impaired athlete with a qualifying time from last year’s race, she was able to reserve a spot for me and will mail me a paper application.

So after all the fuss and worrying about not getting into the race, it dawned on me….do I even want to do the race ? I’m really not sure my body can handle the training required to do another marathon. Maybe Ive forgotten just how bad this last exacerbation was. How it was one of the worst Ive ever had, and how it’s taken a lot of out me. With my lung function the way it is and my body getting weaker, would I really be able to pull this off for a 3rd time? Do I really wanna put myself though this again? To be honest, I don’t know right now, but at least I have the luxury of knowing that if I wanna get into the race, I can….which is something I really needed to hear .

I hope to come to a decision in the next few weeks.

When the Cows come home

Stephen — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:34:16 +0000

…….Yeah, that’s just about the time I’ll be crossing the finish line at my next race.

For my October race choice, Ive decided to go with the Urban Cow Half marathon, Relay and 5K race.

Held in an area near the state capital of California in Sacramento, the Urban Cow marathon looks like a fun little race. If it’s anything like it’s name, how could it not be?

I’ll be doing the half marathon distance (21km-13.1 miles), though the 2 person relay race looks like a lot of fun too. Hopefully the weather will be nice in the morning. ( Central California temperatures tend to rise quickly during the late summer months).

Some of my racewalking buddies are probably going to be a little ticked at me for not doing the San Jose Rock & Roll half marathon with them ( held the same day), but I really wanted to do a half marathon this year in a smaller venue and a little closer to home. The Urban Cow has a 6,000 person limit for the half marathon, about a third of the size of the San Jose race. It also seems to have more of a local and country flavor to it, which I really like.

Training for the race began for me a week ago with a 7 miler, and will continue for only 4 more weekends. Preparation will consist of long slow distances walks on Saturday mornings followed by short distance racewalking ( 4 miles), 3 times a week.
A month and a half of training is probably not enough time to prepare properly for a fast half marathon distance, but I’m fairly confident it will be sufficient to get me to the finish line in under the time 3.5 hr limit, which is all really all I want.

Btw, This will be my 13th, 13 mile race in 5 years. ( good thing it’s not happening on a Friday the 13th, that would really be freaky!)

Healing Walks

Stephen — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:33:58 +0000

Carolyn Scott Kortge’s new book is finally out and guess who’s in one of the chapters?

Carolyn contacted me about year ago for this project. She thought I had an interesting story to tell, and that it would fit in nicely with the motivational theme of the book. It’s really cool to finally see the finished work. She did a great job on it.

Healing Walks for Hard Times, maps a path through life’s difficulties with walks that tap the healing power of movement. She demonstrates how walking can restore momentum in lives that have been jolted by illness, cancer, grief, depression or trauma. With a focus on walking for wellness rather than walking strictly for fitness, it offers a path of resiliency in the steps of a familiar exercise.

More than an exercise guide, Healing Walks for Hard Times acknowledges recovery not only as a physical process, but also as an emotional, spiritual and mental journey—-a journey of Survivorship.

Carolyn lays out a progressive, eight-week walking program that encourages readers to get their feet on the ground and move forward, one step at a time. Included are personal stories from survivors of heart disease, cancer, depression, diabetes, chronic pain, natural disaster, and of course severe lung disease, that inspire and reassure. Week by week, walk by walk, readers regain balance and footing on a path that leads to healing, step by step.

Below are a couple of the pages I’m in…….

( Excerpted from HEALING WALKS FOR HARD TIMES by Carolyn Scott Kortge, (c) 2010)
(Published by arrangement with Trumpeter, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston)
(www.Shambhala.com)

I hope you’ll check it out.

Dead Last

Stephen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:47:20 +0000

Got my finishers certificate and the official results book for the 2010 Boston marathon in the mail today.

Out of the 23,177 people who started the race, only 22,721 actually finished it. And yours truly has the distinction of being the 22,721st person to cross the finish line. In other words…. I finished the race DEAD LAST! (Pretty cool eh?)
I mean if you’re gonna be slow at something, you might as well excel at it, right? But hey, last place or not, I still finished 15 minutes faster than last year. And who knows, maybe I’ll shave yet another 15 minutes off next years race.

( First place— Cheruiyot, Robert Kiprono 2:05:52)

( Last place— Stephen Gaudet 7:17;47)

And in case you’re curious to see what it looks like to come in dead last at the Boston marathon, here’s the last 6 and a half minutes of me doing just that.

My First Adsense Paycheck…Woohoo!

Stephen — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:46:10 +0000

[JP-Facebook-Like]
Wow…Ive hit the big time! I’m major player now. A force to be reckoned with. At the top of my game. Watch out world, I’m going places now!

Today I got one of these… Ben at his finest.
That’s right, my blog is finally paying ME!

So after 5 years, I finally reached the $100 threshold and received my first Google Adsense Payment. That’s a whopping 20 dollars a year. Wow ..I can retire now. Wait a minute …..I’m already retired. OK , well then I’ll take a nice vacation. (just kidding)

Seriously though, I never got into blogging expecting to make money. This little extra ad revenue is just frosting on the cake, and will help defray the cost of hosting this site. Thanks everyone for your continued support.

Born again Respiratory Therapist

Stephen — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:44:40 +0000

Following up on a previous post, I’m happy to announce that the state RCP board has accepted my RCP renewal application. I now have a valid license to practice Respiratory Care in the State of California. Yah….I’m legal again!

I have no plans on ever returning to the traditional work force as an RT, but there’s definitely a sense of security and satisfaction, knowing that I could if I wanted to.

I’m also considering sitting for the National Asthma Educator Certification exam later this year or next. I already do quite a bit of asthma educating from the sidelines, and having official recognition of that skill would be nice to have.

Just as with the RCP license, becoming a “certified” asthma educator is something I don’t really need to do, rather, it’s something that I want to do.

University of Pittsburgh Newsletter May 2010

Stephen — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:05:46 +0000

( click to view )

Lessons learned from Boston/

Stephen — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:55:55 +0000

It’s been just over 2 weeks now since I did the Boston marathon, and except for today, which I can’t blame on the marathon, Ive managed to stay pretty healthy. That hasn’t always been the case right after a big race. Looking back on how things played out on Boston weekend, I think the strategy of proactively medicating with prednisone, paid off . If you remember, I bumped up my pred to 60 mg 2 days prior to the race and then rapidly weaned back down afterward. I still got really tight and wheezy immediately after the race and had to take several back to back neb treatments throughout that evening, but thanks to the prednisone I was able to keep things from escalating. I think a lot of the post-race flaring was caused by my body being in state of shock from all the exertion I put it through. As much as I hate the stuff, I think the prednisone did a great good job at protecting my airways during the race and in the hours and days that followed. It might have even kept me out of the hospital.

Another thing I learned from doing this marathon, is that I need to take off a few pounds. I mean it just makes sense that the lighter you are on your feet, the faster you’ll be on your feet. The less you weigh, the less stress you’ll put on your legs and feet and even your heart and lungs. I might not look real fat, but the fact is, I’m 10 lbs over my ideal body weight. For the Boston marathon I weighed in at 150 lbs, which is the heaviest Ive ever been at any of the marathons Ive done. Part of that weight gain was probably from steroids, but I’m sure the bulk of it was from eating too much fattening food during the winter holidays.
Back in 2006 when I walked my fastest marathon ever, I weighed 144lbs. We’re only talking 6lbs less , but that 6 lbs made a world of difference when it came to speed. I ended up finishing that race almost 30 minutes faster than I did this one. Too bad I didn’t pre-medicate with prednisone during that 2006 race, because two days after that race I ended up in the hospital. But back then, the whole marathon/ severe asthma thing was still new to me , and I wasn’t yet convinced that walking a marathon could actually make me sick(which by the way, I fully believe is the case now.) As far as my weight goes, you might not know this, but since I began walking for fitness back in 2004, Ive actually lost and kept off nearly 20 pounds. That’s right, the steroids along with a lack of physical activity, was turning me into a little blimp.

So anyway, to put into action the things Ive learned from the Boston experience, Ive set a goal to loose 7 lbs and then keep it off. I will accomplish this by doing more strength training at the gym and by eliminating some of the junk food from my diet. I hoping to knock these pound off in about 2 months, just in time for my next gig ( whatever that might me). And from now, every race I do, I’m going to bump up my pred. Yes, I hate the drug, but if it will keep me out of the intensive care unit, I’ll take it.

Speaking of the Boston marathon, my friend and ever so funny walking partner/guide in that race , Miss Dizzy Lizzy, is finally getting caught up on her blogging ( Some excuse about not having her laptop). Anyways, she promises to have a race report about the Boston marathon , up by this weekend. I love reading other people accounts of that race.

Behind that finish line smile

Stephen — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:27:42 +0000

Ok, so I look really strong in some of my finish line photos, but believe me.. looks can be very very deceiving. I’m an expert at hiding what I feel inside (I think most asthmatics are, to some degree.) Behind those smiles were waves of excruciating pain shooting down my legs. My breathing was really labored at times and my calf muscles felt like they were going to explode, but I told myself at the start of this race that if I made it past mile 21, that no matter how bad my breathing was, or how much pain I might be in, that I would push on with positive thoughts in my head and a smile on my face….And that’s exactly what I did! And if for no other reason, that’s why I’m so proud of myself for finishing the race in style.

If you look really deep, you can see the pain starting to come through
(Finish line photos)

I don’t care how healthy you are, even if just walking a marathon, when you get to a certain distance in a race, your body starts to hurt really bad (I think that’s what they mean by “Hitting the WALL”). The problem is, you can’t really stop moving or you run the risk of your whole body cramping up. It’s happened to me before, and I’m telling ya..it ain’t a pretty scene. A full body cramp would end the race for you , right then and there. So after 20 miles, you do whatever you can to stretch out those muscles while you’re moving, but you never stop.

So what did it take to get this 55 year old severe asthmatic across the finish line at the Boston marathon?
Well, how about lot’s of training, lots of medications and a ton of determination and willpower! Having a good friend walking along side of you , who makes you laugh constantly, probably helps as well.. Thank goodness for Lizzy.

Here are couple photos I left out of the main photo set. I think you know why…

(Had to stop to sneek a neb treatment about every 7 miles along the course… this eats up a lot of time )

( Needed 3 neb treatments back to back after crossing the finish line. )

Here are a few other things you probably didn’t know

*To control my asthma during this 26.2 mile race, in addition to the neb treatments every 7 miles, I took appx 24 hits off my inhaler ( about 3 puffs per hour). On top of the inhaled drugs, I swallowed 10 mg of prednisone every hour , chased by an antacid to control the stomach burning that the prednisone causes in the first place . Thank You Jon ( our spotter who went and got me some TUMS in the middle of the race.

*To control the pain in my calve muscles and the metatarsalgia pain in my feet, I took 2 Motrins every 2 hours along the course, 6 in total.

*For energy and hydration , I consumed 2-4 oz of plain water every mile, alternating with Gatorade every other mile. I did this for the first 20 miles, then switched to a 50-50 blend of electrolytes and water (2 oz) every mile for the rest of the race. In addition, I swallowed one Powerbar gel ( tangerine with double caffeine) every 6 miles.

So as you can see, doing this race ( or any other for that matter) wasn’t as as easy for me as most people might think. I just make it look that way:-)

More images from the 2010 Boston marathon

Stephen — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:38:23 +0000

[JP-Facebook-Like]

During this trip I took close to 500 still photos and about 20 different video clips, which I still haven’t sorted completely.
I’ll be adding more photos to these albums as I get them.

______SOME SCENES BEFORE THE RACE______

______SCENES DURING THE RACE______

______SCENES AFTER THE RACE______

Still more to come about this amazing experience…Stay tuned!

Boston marathon video highlights

Stephen — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:35:07 +0000

Rather than bore you with a mile-by-mile account of everything that happened during this entire 7 hour-17 minute very fun but challenging, and at times a excruciatingly painful journey, this year I decided only to post what I can consider to be the highlights. The experience was a little overwhelming and with so many pictures , videos and texts to prepare and post, I’m gonna have to dole them out little by little over the coming days.

But, first let me start by acknowledging some wonderful people who helped make this a truly special day for me.

My walking partner in the race, Mike Mc Bride.
Our super cool spotters, Jon and Chris from the BAA
Our fantastic crew, Pete from Apria Health Care, and Tom and Brett from Caire Medical and Brett’s wife Shay.
The wonderful folks at the University of Pittsburgh’s Asthma Institute
And finally, our special course guide, the one and only Lis Shepard , who drove the spectators wild and who stuck by me the entire distance just so she could cross the finish line with me. A pretty awesome lady I’d say!

Introducing
“TEAM WHEEZY”

(hey…where’s Lis at? )

( Oh that’s…right, she’s yacking it up with the Boston Globe reporter dude)

*******************************************************************

So here’s a collection of unedited short clips that I took with my phone camera. Sorry, the video quality isn’t too good, but I wanted to give you a sense of what it’s like to be the first AND last people out on the Boston course. This pandemonium goes on goes on for 7 FULL hours!! See if you can hear my name being shouted during the middle and end portions of the clip. Every time my spotter John would see I was having problems with my breathing or my legs, he’s get the crowd cheering for me. It was like a magic potion that kept me going.

26 miles and 7 hours later , watch how Lizzy works the crowd and helps me make it to the finish line 6 minutes later. Again, this clip is a little long, but I wanted give you an idea of just how many die hard spectators waited for us to finish and how much fun it was to have Liz along for the ride.

I’ll have tons more photos and video clips in upcoming posts….

Boston—-7 hours 17 minutes and change

Stephen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:00:33 +0000

20 feet from the finish line

Details and tons of more photos and videos in the following days.

( This is also the very first blog post Ive ever published from my cell phone…pretty cool)

Bound for Beantown

Stephen — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 23:03:22 +0000

( read more)

Well, after all the training, all the planning, and all the hoping like crazy that my sore foot will somehow heal in time and that my lungs won’t act up too bad, for better or worse, to finish or not, the big daddy of race weekends is finally here!

Saturday night I catch the red eye out of San Francisco and should be in Boston bright and early Sunday morning. Mike was kind enough to pick up my Bib and Goodie-bag at the Expo today. This saves me from the hassle of having to go all the way into downtown on the subway after flying all night. The Boston marathon Expo is massive and a great place to buy race merchandise and get all psyched up about the race itself, but there’s nothing I really wanna buy this year and Ive already done the race once, so I’d just as soon skip the crowds and spend the day hanging around the hotel and resting up.The million dollar views of the Boston harbor and skyline from my hotel room are worth the trip alone.

My race top, courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh’s Asthma Institute and the best asthma doctor in the world, Sally Wenzel.
I figure that for every mile I walk, appx 10,000 people will see my shirt sleeves. My hope, is that my presence in this race will attract some much needed attention in the areas of severe asthma research, education and treatment.

Later on Sunday, Mike, myself and the crew are all gonna get together for an early dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. That’s probably where we’ll discuss the logistics of the race and who’s gonna to be doing what, when and where.The plan right now, is to arrive at the Athletes Village in Hopkinton around 7am. This will give us a couple hours to warm up and hopefully meet up with some of the other mobility impaired athletes, some of who’s stories are truly inspiring. The latest weather reports are forecasting intermittent scattered showers along the marathon course. Light, brief showers I can deal with, as long as it’s not too cold.

It’s weird, but I feel just as nervous and excited about this year’s trip, as I did last year. And even though I sorta know what to expect when I get there, it’s all still very much a big adventure for me. The only thing that will put a damper on the fun, is if I have to pull out of race because of my bad foot or my lungs. But no matter how the race turns out, I plan to have a kick-ass time in Boston!

So, that’s it. I’ll let you know how it all went next week after I return home.

To all the other runners out there who are doing Boston, good luck, have a blast, and keep an eye out for me!
To all my friends and readers, thanks so much for your continued support!

Oops…almost forgot, I know a lot of you who live in Canada and elsewhere might not be able to receive the Boston Marathon ATT athlete text alerts, so for those of you who are still interested on how we’re doing in the race, my friend Lis, has agreed to send out tweets throughout the day . Her twitter name is SFAUDIOGAL . I’m sure I’ll be updating on Facebook as well. Cheers!

This news came in after I posted……….

VIEW ALL NEWS HEADLINES

In good company

Stephen — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:16:41 +0000

There might not be very many of us (only 26 this year) and we might not be as sleek as the other runners, but there are some pretty amazing athletes who compete in the Boston marathon’s mobility impaired division.

Take for example Keven Counihan. Kevin lost part of his right foot in an accident with a lawnmower. 15 years later, he was in a near-fatal car accident that caused extensive knee, arm, hip, chest, and shoulder damage. Despite all this, and after years of rehabilitation, Kevin focused on running again and set his sights on the marathon distance. In the 7 years since he started marathon running again, Kevin has finished 99 marathons, and hopes to complete his 100th at this years Boston marathon! Pretty amazing Id say. Check out this recent article and Video about Kevin.

Then there’s Kelly Luckett, another awesome athlete. This is her 6th consecutive Boston marathon. She’s also done 21 Ultrathons (50ks) and over 80 shorter races. Kelly came in at 3rd place in this division in lasts years race. Way to go Kelly!

Can’t forget this guy. He is absolutely amazing to watch. Richard Whitehead is a congenital double amputee from the UK and quite a celebrity there. He has broken several world’s records, including the 2009 Rome marathon. I was there when he became the first amputee athlete in history, to break the 3 hour mark in a marathon. Absolutely incredible!

Last but certainly not least, there’s my good friend, Mike Mc Bride, who climbs skyscrapers for fun. Mike will pull an 80lb oxygen cart behind him for 26.2 miles. The fact that he does what he does, given his type of lung disease, still blows me away. He may not be lightning fast, but he has more fortitude and guts than most healthy people half his age. Check out this recent article in the Boston Globe

So, how does it feel to stand next to these phenomenal athletes at the starting line in Hopkinton, Massachusetts? IT FEELS INCREDIBLE !!