Breathinstephen » walking events

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!

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)

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.

No Cowbells for Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 17:04:55 +0000

You train hard and wait months in anticipation to accomplish a goal you’ve been aiming for, and then BAM! ….in a matter of hours, a severe asthma flare erases it all.
Sadly, it looks like I’m not going to be able to do next weekend’s “Urban Cow Half Marathon”.

To say I’m disappointed would be an understatement. Had I been able to do this race as planned, it would have been my 13th- 13.1 miler (half marathon), in just 5 years. That would have been very cool.

I was hoping that I might be able to pull off a last minute save and squeak through this race like Ive done in others in the past, but this last exacerbation did a bigger number on me than I thought and recovery has been excruciatingly slow. I’m just too short of breath and out of shape right now to walk 13 miles. Doing so would be reckless and stupid. I’d end up back in the slammer again for sure.

It’s not so much the missing out on the event itself that bothers me, as it is the wasted time and effort that went into the preparation of it. Many of the races I do are planned 4-6 months in advance. Time and physical well being are precious commodities to me and I hate wasting them. A crystal ball would sure be nice, wouldn’t it?

My next scheduled race, if I decide to do it, isn’t for another 6 months ( Boston Marathon). But who knows, maybe another race will pop-up before then in which everything clicks for a change. I think that would more than make up for this weeks disappointment.

On a brighter note, Ms Kerri finished her very first 10K race. I’m very proud of her for tackling her fears and going for it. You go girl!

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!)

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.

No Mountain climbing for me :-(

Stephen — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:50:44 +0000

Looks like I jumped the gun on this one. After polling my family, friends and doctors, and after reading up on high altitude hiking, Ive decided to heed some good advise for a change and will not be participating in the Mt Evans COPD Challenge hike.

The elevation just makes it too risky for someone with lungs like mine. There’s just too great a chance that I could get really sick. My travel schedule wouldn’t have allowed me enough time to acclimate to the higher elevations of Colorado anyway, so that would have put me at an even greater risk for high altitude complications. I would hate to ruin it for the other participants if something were to happen and I needed to be taken off the mountain for emergency medical care.

To say I’m a little disappointed would be an understatement. I’m the type of person who thrives on mental and physical challenges, so making the decision to withdrawal from this event was tough for me. I was really looking forward to pushing my body to the limits on this one and to see this magnificent mountain range up close and personal. I suppose I’ll just have to get my kicks in a safer , more familiar fashion.

Though maybe not as challenging or as memorable as doing a walk two and a half miles up in the air, later this year I’m planning on doing back to back half marathons ( 4-6 weeks part). I haven’t chosen the exact races yet, but Ive narrowed it down to the San Jose Rock &Roll , the Spirit of Pittsburgh and the Las Vegas half marathons, taking place in October, November and December.
Training for the those races begins for me in less than two weeks.

To the wonderfully wacky people who haven’t chickened out of the Mt Evans Challenge, Good luck up there!

I think I’ll go climb a REAL mountain

Stephen — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:19:10 +0000

How’s this for a view!

In just a few weeks , if all goes as planned, I hope to be standing on that very same rock with a half a dozen of my COPD friends.

The brainchild of my Boston marathon walking partner Mike Mc Bride, the “COPD Mt Evans Challenge” as he calls it, is simply about a bunch of friends with severe lung disease, getting together for a day and hiking to the summit of one of the tallest mountains in the Rockies of Colorado…. just for the heck of it! No, we’re not going to scale an entire mountain, but we will be walking up the steepest portion of one.

Starting in Idaho Springs,elevation 8,700 ft, we’re gonna drive up the mountain road 9 miles to Summit Lake, which is situated at the 12,800 ft level. From there we’re gonna hike the last 5 miles on foot up to the summit of the mountain, which sits 14,220 ft above sea level. My COPD friends will be using high -flow oxygen @ 15 lpm to make the trek up the mountain I hopefully, will not need supplemental O2, but I’ll be closely monitoring my O2 sats just in case.

As you can see in this photo taken earlier this year during a race up the mountain, the grade along certain portions of the road is pretty steep. The part that we’re gonna be doing, gains approximately 1600 ft in elevation in just over 5 miles.

( Mike Mc Bride and Roxlyn Cole testing out their oxygen equip)

What makes this particular walk such a challenge for me (and for the other lungers), is the altitude and the steepness of the climb.
Excluding being a passenger in a pressurized airplane, this will be the highest altitude my body has ever been exposed to. The last walk I did that involved a mountain, was back in 2008 when I did the ET midnight marathon in the Nevada desert. And while it was a much longer walk ( 13.1 miles) , we only reached a maximum elevation of 5,500 feet during the race. The summit of Mt Evans is almost 3 times higher.

My lungs are not a big fan of climbing hills. I can barely walk uphill the two blocks it takes to reach my house, let alone 5.5 miles up the side of a mountain. Putting the physical challenges aside though, the main reason I wanna do this is, is to take in the sheer beauty of it all. I think Mountains are awesome.

If you’d like to read more, or maybe even join us, check out at Roxlyn Coles blog

University of Pittsburgh Newsletter May 2010

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

( click to view )

World Cup Racewalking Championships

Stephen — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:52:27 +0000

Just wanted to send good vibes out to my friend and racewalking coach, Dave Mc Govern who will be competing this weekend at the World Cup championships in Chihuahua Mexico. Dave will be doing the 50K race ….that’s 31 miles!

I was checking the local weather report for Chihuahua, and the temperature for the 50K at race time on Saturday morning is expected to be 70 degrees F, and heating up to 89 degrees later in the day. Yikes.. that’s pretty warm weather to be doing a 31 mile racewalk in, but if anyone can do it, Dave can. Luckily the relative humidity is supposed to below at 25%.

Jeff Savage will be providing some commentary and photos of the event on his website RACEWALK.COM The IAAF will have the official results well.

USA Team Members

Ray Sharp (50K) , Dave McGovern (50K), Trevor Barron (10K Junior),DanSeriani(20K),JonathonMatthews(50K),MaryanneDaniel(MedicalStaff),AlexChavez(10K Junior), Solomiya Logan (20K),Tyler Sorensen (10K Junior), Patrick Stroupe (20K), Jolene Moore (Junior Coach), Philippe Gonzalez (Head Coach)

Good luck to all of our racewalkers !

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:-)

Racewalk Planet Radio Interview

Stephen — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:01:26 +0000

[JP-Facebook-Like]
Check out my radio interview with Chris Rael over at Racewalk Planet Radio

Chris is an awesome racewalker and coach. It was a video of Chris racewalking(The long and winding road) that got me interested in the sport 5 years ago. I finally had the pleasure of meeting him at Dave Mc Governs advanced racewalking clinic in Solana Beach last October.

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 !!

That’s a rap !

Stephen — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:39:08 +0000

As they say in the movie making business…That’s a Wrap!

And what a Beautiful day to finish up on.

Training for my 2nd Boston marathon (and my 7th full marathon to date), has officially come to an end. Ive trained and prepared the best I can what with little time Ive had. In total, I trained for 10 and half weeks in the rain and sun, racking up appx 250 miles in the process. This is about hundred miles less than I put into last years training for the same race. I hope it’s enough.

Every time I train for one of these things, I always seem to be hit by at least one over-use type of injury. Last year it was a plantar facsciitis , the year before that, it was persistent calf cramps and hamstring issues. This year it’s metatarsalgia ( ball of the foot pain). Probably brought on by old age ( arthritis) and over-pronation. How much this will impact me at Boston remains to be seen, but if yesterday’s 10 mile walk is any indication, I’m not feeling very confident. I can tolerate a lot of physical pain, but I don’t feel like limping my way through a marathon. I’m going to try to stay off my feet as much as possible between now and next week. Hopefully this will make a difference.

As far as my lungs go, they’ve held out surprisingly well during the actual workouts, but not so good afterwords. Even after some of the shorter walks (5-8 miles) I find myself getting tighter and more short of breath than in previous years. And after the really long walks ( 10+ miles), I’m experiencing more and more full blown flares (the whole delayed symptom onset pnenomina thingy). Fortunately, these mini exacerbations resolved on their own which allowed me to complete my training.

The big concern now is, how bad will I flare up after the race? That’s assuming of course, that I’m luck enough to actually finish the race given my foot problems. To try and stave off a potentially serious flare-up following the race, I’m going to prophylactically bolus myself with a one time dose of 40mg prednisone the morning of the race. Timing is going to be critical here, because if I take the drug too early in the morning, it could make me really nauseated, if I take it too late, it won’t have time to kick in. This is the first time Ive ever increased my pred during a race, so I have no idea what the effects will be. Hopefully it will keep me out of the slammer.

Boston crew

Stephen — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:45:39 +0000

You might be surprised by how many people it takes to get 2 severely lung challenged athletes and an 80 lb oxygen cart across the finish line of the world’s most prestigious foot race.

Introducing the crew !

Our spotters……………………………………Lizzy and Chuck

Not only I am privileged to participate again in this incredible race with my good friend Mike Mc Bride, but this year we have the pleasure of having Lizzy along for the ride. Liz will be Mikes official course guide and will also be helping me out by carrying some of my medications and other supplies. Also on the course with us again will be Chuck, our wonderful spotter from last year. Chuck will tail us on the course on his bicycle to make sure we don’t get trampled by the other runners or slowed down by over-zealous spectators as we pass by. We’re very lucky to get him again.

Our support team………………………..Tom………………………….Brett…………………………….Peter

Tom and Brett from Caire Medical along with Peter from Apria Health Care will be providing us with transportation to the starting line, and will also be providing logistical support for Mikes Oxygen equipment along course. Mike’s tanks have to be switched out about every 6 miles along the course. His crew stays in constant radio contact with our spotter Chuck, so that they know exactly when and where on the course to do the change outs. They can switch out all of his tanks in less than a minute. It’s pretty amazing to watch.

Without the help of these wonderful people , it would be really difficult to pull this thing off. Thanks Guys (and Gals)! We really appreciate it.

(PS…Sorry, got my Toms and Rons mixed up earlier.)

Boston Wardrobe

Stephen — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:35:03 +0000

A few changes and some new additions to my racing apparel for the upcoming marathon.

Starting with the shoes…

On Dave Mc Govern’s recommendation, I switched to a slightly more supportive shoe. I over-pronate big time and the shoes that I had been wearing for the last year or so, though very comfortable, offered absolutely no support at all. My replacement shoe is the Saucony Fastwich III.

They’re a little heavier than than My Asics Hyperspeed II’s, (6.8 oz) , but have a little more stability control.
The only thing I’m not crazy about, is the higher profile heal. Makes it a little more difficult to keep my toes pointing up when I racewalk. In general, the lower heal is, the better the shoe is for walking. The problem with these kinds of shoes aren’t really designed for longer distances.

Something else new for Boston, is a running vest…

You never know how the weather is going to be on the Boston course, but one thing you can pretty much count on, are the crazy cold winds that whip up during the last 5 miles of the race. Last year I damn near froze to death after mile 20.

Over the past several months Ive been trying out various brands, including the Thermal velocity vest by Specialized. The one that I like best though, is the Helium vest by Sugoi. Ive never worn a piece of clothing that was so lightweight. Seriously, this vest weighs 80 grams (2 oz) ! Yet, it still keeps your core nice and toasty. If you’ve ever seen these vests, they’re made of a material that has the consistency of tissue paper… it’s freakishly thin.

My new sponsorship shirt ,Courtesy of University of Pittsburgh Asthma Institute

And my new Jersey, Courtesy of World Class Racewalking and PowerBar)

(More about my sponsors in a future post.)

#22194

Stephen — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:31:33 +0000

[JP-Facebook-Like]

This years highly coveted Boston marathon bib numbers have finally been announced. For you non-runner folks out there, this would be the equivalent of let’s say….. the Oscar nominations? (Well maybe not that important.)

It’s not that big of a deal for me, but it is kind of exciting in that it signals the fact that I’ve come a long way with my walking and that I’m actually going to be part of this event….. for a 2nd time!

As with most world class marathons, bib numbers are assigned according to rank, with the lowest numbers (single digits) reserved for the super elite runners. This years Bib #’s are as follows:

*Bib# 1 goes to Deriba Merga from Ethiopia with a time of 2:06:38 (London Marathon in 2008)

*Bib# 2 goes to Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot from Kenya with a time of 2:07:14 (Boston, 2006)

*Bib# 3 goes to our very own Ryan Hall from the USA with a time 2:06:17 (London, 2008).

Last (and I mean that literally) but not least, Breathinstephen ( aka..me!) from the City by the Bay, will be wearing the highly prized Bib# 22194, representing an astonishing finish time of 7:31:35 (Boston 2009).

The party begins in just 4 weeks. If you’d like to track me on the course on race day, sign up for Athlete Alerts Here

You can find me HERE on April 19th

Stephen — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:29:50 +0000

And maybe even HERE ⇩

OK, I never actually said I wasn’t going to do Boston. What I said, is that a victory seemed unlikely. By victory of course, I meant finishing the race in the allotted time. Well, I may not finish the race, but that doesn’t mean I can’t start it. So ready or not, on April 19th, I’ll be taking my place at the starting line in Hopkinton Massachusetts for the 114 th running ( or in my case, walking) of the Boston Marathon. Heck, I get psyched just seeing my name on the entry list ( Stephen Gaudet)

Because Ive had so many lung delays and hospital stays (oh..that rhymes) in the last 3 months, I now have less than 8 weeks in total to train and prepare for this race, making this the most ambitious fitness goal Ive ever set for myself. I’m just hoping that the severe asthma flare-ups will leave me alone long enough so I can get some serious training in.

I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid. I know that due to my declining lung function over the last year, that my chances of finishing this race are slim, but this is something I really need to do , while I’m at least still partially able to. I’m not going to push myself to the brink of death like I did last year. I will walk hard, long and give it my best, but if the work of breathing gets to be too much, I’ll withdraw from the race. If I don’t finish the race it won’t be the end of the world (because Ive already done it once), but if I don’t at least attempt it, I think I would regret it for the rest for my life. So,with health permitting, from now until April 10th, I will be in full time training mode for the Boston marathon.

For some self inspiration, here I am ( in the blue shirt) at the 21 mile mark( 33.7 km) at last years race. Ive mastered the art of being in severe pain, but looking good nevertheless.The crowds on the course have thinned out dramatically (and not only because we were at the back of the pack). What a lot of people forget, is that out of 25,000 people who started the race, more that 3000 people didn’t finish it ! (and 99.9% of those people were healthy I’m sure). Many of them became causalities of Heartbreak hill 3 miles behind me. Remember, it aint over, til the fat asthmatic lady says it is