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.

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.

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:-)

You might like these posts as well:

• 
  Boston----7 hours 17 minutes and change
• 
  Advise Please
• 
  Two Afternoons after

By Blogsdna

]]> http://breathinstephen.com/behind-that-finish-line-smile/feed/ 2 http://breathinstephen.com/more-images-from-the-2010-boston-marathon/ http://breathinstephen.com/more-images-from-the-2010-boston-marathon/#comments Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:38:23 +0000 Stephen http://breathinstephen.com/?p=12732

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______

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, John 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.

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

Anyways, not my best finish time, nor my worst. I was 15 minutes slower than my fastest time ever , but a whopping 52 minutes Faster than my slowest time ever, so I’m very pleased. A 14:24 pace is kinda slow for me in a half marathon distance, but I think that was because I was afraid to push myself too hard. I guess I should have went all out, cuz I got sick after anyway.

I don’t have anymore half marathons scheduled at this time, but if I did, I’m pretty confident now, that I could still finish one in under 3 hours. I know my finish times seem really slow by running or racewalking standards, but considering that I’m working with lungs that are about 130 years old, I think I’m pretty fast. This might sound silly, but if there was a way to age grade my race results based on lung age, Id be one of the fastest runner/walkers in the world!

You might like these posts as well:

• 
  Getting slower and fatter.
• 
  Rock & Roll training complete
• 
  It's that time again !

By Blogsdna

]]> http://breathinstephen.com/race-results/feed/ 0 http://breathinstephen.com/rockroll-race-report/ http://breathinstephen.com/rockroll-race-report/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:16:20 +0000 Stephen http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8063

Sorry, this race report is a little late in coming, but I didn’t want my little prison stint to over shadow all the good things about this race.

First let me say what a pleasure it was to finally meet the famous Miss Dizzy Lizzy and some of the other Mc Govern alumni who trekked in from all over the country to do this race. Talk about a ball of energy, Liz has enough enthusiasm for 100 racewalkers!

Liz and a friend of hers, Elizabeth and myself, all met up at the race Expo on Friday. Inside the Expo building they had this huge banner that actually had Lizzy’s photo on it, that they had captured at this very same Rock&Roll race 2 years ago. Naturally she had to take a picture of herself standing in front of the image of herself…..pretty cool.

We did a once through of the Expo, I didn’t buy anything, but Liz bought a pair of her favorite shoes .After that we all headed over to the hotel coffee shop and chit-chatted for a couple hours. It was great hearing everyones race stories.

On the morning of the race I managed to get to San Jose a little before 6:30 am. I parked over at the HP pavillion arena where there were already hundreds of people beginning to fill the parking lot. Good thing I got there an hour and a half early. From the parking lot, it was a full mile walk to the starting area of race.

This was a much bigger event than I thought it would be. They had something like 12,500 participants doing this race and the streets were filling fast. They had 13 starting corrals extending out about 4 blocks from the actual start line.One thing I noticed right off the bat, was how many Porta potties they had set up. I kid you not, there were hundreds of them lined up side by side , on both sides of the main street and dozens more on the side streets. This is the first event of this size Ive been too , where there were NO lines to use the johns! . At an event this size , you can usually expect to wait 30 minutes to use the toilets. In fact, thats one of the reasons I wanted to get here early. Hats off to the promoters for that one.

At about 15 minutes before the start , Liz called me and we all somehow managed to find each other in this massive crowd. Liz made it easier by wearing her famous “Ears”. After some quick photo taking, we all went over to our respective corrals ( which they packed like sardines) and waited for this huge sea of people to start moving. Once the gun went off, it took about 10 minutes for the runners in the 12th corral to make it across the starting line.

And were OFF….. As always ,I waited till the pack thinned out , which happened pretty fast, and then I pulled over to the left side of the road. I didn’t really have a chance to stretch before the race, so for the first mile or so, my shins were killing me. I knew though, that as I warmed up, the pain would diminish. The next couple of miles would be my warm up mode. This is usually the part of a race where I try to find a comfortable pace and the easiest position on the road itself to walk, usually the center or the crest of the road where its more even. If theres a yellow or white dividing line on the road , I’ll usually hug that line and racewalk right down the middle of it. ( it’s a good way to practice your technique too).

The course itself had a very suburban feel. It was basically flat and meandered in and out of various neighborhoods, most of them tree lined , upscale and very beautiful….Lots of mansions too. I can see now why people pay so much to live here.

Somewhere around the mile and a half mark , I passed Elizabeth. I was going to walk with her for a while, but decided that I needed to bank some time while I still had my lung power. I told her that she would probably pass me up in the last miles of the race. Some how that never happened, and I didn’t see her again until after the race.

It was about mile 2 where we hit the first watering station and thats when it really hits me, of just how long a 13 mile race really is. I would have to pass 6 more of these aid stations before finishing the race. It was also about this time, that I got in the mood to racewalk more and more. With my headphones and music cranked up, I was pretty much oblivious to what was happening around me. The diversion of music also gives me the courage to racewalk in huge crowds without getting too embarrassed. One runner lady who did pass me, tapped me on my shoulder and told me what a nice butt I had , and how she had been been watching my hips for the last 1/2 miles. I just laughed and continued to racewalk. I had seen lots of other walkers on the course swinging there arms, power walking or speed walking (which is not real racewalking), so I felt totally comfortable doing my thing. Mind you, I might not be the best racewalker, but I am a real racewalker. I follow all the rules.

The next 10 miles were actually pretty boring. To break up the monotony I decided I would racewalk the rest of the race. I racewalked on and off as much as I could and even when I would slow to a snails pace to catch my breath, I would try my best to stay in legal form (that’s racewalking lingo for, maintaining technique…ie forward knee locked and one foot on the ground at all times).

Miles 10 through 13 were the toughest. It was starting to get really warm , the sun was shining right in my face and I could actually feel myself overheating. I forced myself to drink both the electrolyte and plain water that was offered at each aid station, but I could still feel my calf muscles and left IT band wanting to spasm and lock up. I was also starting to breath pretty heavily, which is not a good thing for me, because it means that Im gonna be trapping a lot of air in my lungs. The problem with breathing fast, is that I cant exhale fast enough to make room for the next incoming breath. The longer this goes on, the more air that gets trapped in the smaller airways of my lung .Eventually my lungs will blowup like a balloon.
For most of the race I was averaging an inhaler hit about once every half mile, but that increased to about 2 hits every half mile the further into the race I got. In total, I used my puffer about 20 times. It sounds like a lot ..I know, but not unusual for me.

There was nothing really special about the finish line, except that I was very happy to see it. I tried to pace myself through the last 1/10th mile of the race , so that I could racewalk through the finish chute and look good on camera, but I ran out of steam just a few feet short of the finish mat and ended up just walking across it. Oh…well, they didn’t take my finish line photo anyway.

I walked into the finish area, a little disoriented and trying to catch my breath. I got my medal and made my way to the Family reunion area where I spotted Lizzy’s Mouse ears poking up in the distance. She had finished about 10 minutes ahead of me and looked as fresh as she did before the race. I, on the other hand, looked like crap! Anyway, we rested a little and waited for the others to arrive. Elizabeth came in about 15 minutes after I did and looked good as well. Both Lizz’s and the rest of the gang walked with me to pick up my gear bag, we took one last picture as a group, said our goodbyes..and that was it. My 9th half marathon…completed!

Due to a glitch in the electronic timing system, my actually finish time has to be manually verified , which will take a few more days, but I think I finished somewhere between 3:00-3:10, which is much faster than I anticipated. Not a PR for me, not even close, but considering everything, I think it a respectable finish time. I performed well in this race and I’m proud of myself.

Some after thoughts While it’s obvious that pushing myself too hard during this race may have contributed to my asthma exacerbation and hospitalization that followed, I’d like to point out to the naysayers ( the people who criticize my involvement as an asthmatic in these types of events) that out of the 14 races Ive done in 3 years ( 5 of those being full marathons), Ive only gotten sick 2 times as a result of them. Id also like to that say, that even “healthy” people get sick after doing marathons and MANY of them end up in a hospital! I train very hard for every race I do, and if I get sick now and then from over- doing it… big deal. I’m not going to stop doing what I love and what keeps me alive.

Sadly, 2 young runners died during this half marathon. Both collapsed close to the finish line.

You might like these posts as well:

• 
  EXPO DAY
• 
  Rock & Roll training complete
• 
  Do you know the way to San Jose?

By Blogsdna

]]> http://breathinstephen.com/rockroll-race-report/feed/ 13 http://breathinstephen.com/another-write-up/ http://breathinstephen.com/another-write-up/#comments Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:14:10 +0000 Stephen http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8069
(Click on cover to read article)

You might like these posts as well:

• 
  Boston still follows me
• 
  Hot off the presses.
• 
  Closing the loop on Asthma--Sally Wenzel

By Blogsdna

]]> http://breathinstephen.com/another-write-up/feed/ 1 http://breathinstephen.com/im-20089-days-old/ http://breathinstephen.com/im-20089-days-old/#comments Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:40:02 +0000 Stephen http://breathinstephen.com/?p=6867

I can’t believe it . Today I obtained the age of 55, and the official rank of “Senior Citizen”. I guess I should start acting my physical age huh? (That’s a scary thought).

In my wildest dreams I never thought Id be around this long, but 13 marathons and 500 blog posts later…I’m still walkin, bloggin and breathin. I owe a lot to my friends, my readers and my partner Douglas for supporting my crazy endeavorers over the years.

Because I’ve been more fortunate than most people with the severe form of this disease, I’ve decided to give back, by devoting more of my time in the coming months to asthma research and education. In November I’ll be lab-ratting myself for an important severe asthma research study in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (more about that in the next post). I’m also serving as an Asthma Community Administrator over at Medpedia.com and have become an asthma and fitness health advocate for several other organizations.

On my personal fitness front, I’m finally back on track with my training for the upcoming San Jose Rock&Roll half marathon and will also be attending Daves advanced racewalking clinic next month.

You might like these posts as well:

• 
  Introducing Medpedia
• 
  Why I walk
• 
  Im going to Pennsylvania to be studied.

By Blogsdna

]]> http://breathinstephen.com/im-20089-days-old/feed/ 9 http://breathinstephen.com/empowered/ http://breathinstephen.com/empowered/#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:47:53 +0000 Stephen http://breathinstephen.com/?p=6301

I wanna thank the folks, Lisa and Regina, over at theEmpowered Zone who were kind enough to send me this really cool hat with their special empowered symbol and the word “BREATHE” embroidered on it. What could be more fitting for someone like me?

I really love the concept behind their products and the fact that they always give back to the community events in which they sponsor. If you get a chance, please check out their line of custom inspirational apparel and Jewelry. They have some beautiful stuff there…. oh…and tell em Steve sent you.

The Times is a publication of the American Assoc for Respiratory Care, a national organization that thousands of Respiratory Therapists belong to. They also put out a science journal called “Respiratory Care” in which I was featured back in 2008.

Click the cover to see the article

He won’t admit it, but even Winston is proud of me. I can tell, because his eyes are glowing green.(No, I’m not allergic to cats)

PS..Registration for next years race opens in September…hmmmmmm I wonder ?

Most days start out pretty good with my best breathing occurring during the morning hours , but that effect rarely extends into the afternoon. Generally ,as the day progresses, so does my breathlessness. If I eat even a small meal for lunch or dinner, the bloating that results, only adds to my breathing discomfort. By early evening I’m usually so short of breath , that I will have to take neb treatments every hour or two until bedtime. On most evenings I have to take Ativan or a strong opiate to quell my dyspnea enough to where I can nod off. When it’s time to go to bed I pre- medicate with a neb treatment , 2 Motrins and a half a vicodin.

If I’m able to sleep at all, it’s usually for no more than 2 hours at a time and then I wake up gasping for air. Sometimes I’m so physically exhausted that I will lay there in a semi- awake state feeling myself suffocating…it’s an awful feeling. After about 5 minutes of that, I have to sit up to catch my breath and then get up and take a breathing treatment. By the time I finish with the breathing treatment, I’m unable to fall back asleep and will lay in bed wide awake until the sun rises. By 4 am my shoulder muscles are hurting so bad from shrugging them all night long, that I’m forced to get out of bed just to relieve the pain. Finally by 6am when the 9 pills and the 3 different inhalers I took finally kick in, I’ll usually start to feel pretty good again. After that, if all goes well, I have about a 8 hour window of decent breathing, in which to get my daily chores done, walk , and get my daily exercise and/or training in.

Keep in mind that the above scenario only plays out when I’m having a relatively GOOD breathing day. On the not-so -good breathing days, you can skip the exercise part all together…or anything physical for that matter. If my asthma gets out of hand, then I have to deal with the uncertainty of just how bad it will get and the added stress of possibly being admitted to the hospital…or worse. Then there’s burden that these things place on the people who care about me.

So yeah, Ive done some pretty amazing things and I hope to continue doing more, but at the end of the day I’m just a regular dude with really bad asthma and a tremendous will, dealing with this disease the best I can.

On Saturday May 16th, Mel completed his 1000th round trip walk across the Al Zampa bridge in Crockett,California . To celebrate his amazing achievement, about 100 of his friends and admirers, many of whom actually met Mel while walking along the bridge, gathered to take that historic 1,000th walk with him. He is the only who has walked this span more times than I have .

The bridge itself is just over one mile in each direction. Mel estimates that in total, he’s logged more than 2500 miles in the course of those 1000 walks.

I walked ahead of the group to the vista point on the Vallejo side of the bridge and caught this picture of Mel and some of his entourage still mid-span. Mel doesn’t racewalk, but it would sure be something if he did.

Oh….don’t know if you caught this on Mel’s jacket…., but he turned 81 years , 4 month and 13 days old on the date of this 1000th crossing. It was also his wifes 80th birthday , who by the way, does every walk with him.

You can see more of Mikes Boston Marathon race photos on his Facebook page.

And it all ends HERE!

OK, so I didn’t PR. Actually, I set a new PW ( a personal worst) time of 7:31 . But hey, I made it to the TOP FINISHERS list..lol

Before I get into the details of the trip, first of all let me just say what an incredible experience this has been for me (and Im sure for the other 25,000 runners). All the hype that you hear about the Boston marathon is absolutely true. There is simply no other marathon like it on the planet. This was absolutely the best marathon experience Ive ever had! It’s the runners themselves, along with the fans and the people of the Boston area that make this event so special. It’s difficult to put into words the emotions you experience when you have a half million people rooting you on mile after mile, every step of the way… and I do mean EVERY STEP! From start to finish, the fans were there!

Hard to sum up this marathon experience in one word, but if I had to, I’d choose the word… ” Overwhelming” , cuz thats what it was. Now I know why people want to do Boston. The encouragement and support from fellow runners and the fans is overwhelming. My shoulder was tapped on so many times by passing runners telling me how awesome I was, that it was sore by the end of the race. My voice actually became horse from thanking literally thousands of fans along the course who took the time to acknowledge my presence in the race, and I felt like I was going deaf from 7.5 hours of non -stop cheering.

I trained very hard for this race and for the most part , I think it paid off. If I would have pushed myself harder, I could have perhaps finished in under 7 hours, but frankly I was enjoying myself too much to shoot for a silly 7 hours PR. After 6.5 hours, who really cares…right? As far as the hospital thing, well that was just a fluke. The medical people had never encountered an athlete like me and got a little freaked out by my numbers and my medical history. But, at least you know by my experience, that if you ever need medical attention at this marathon , you’ll certainly get it ….. and then sum . lol

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

I left San Francisco early Friday morning with a scheduled stop-over in Denver. I had lucked out an got an upgrade to First class on United. Wow..what a difference to fly first class. FREE FOOD ! Anyways, As my plane landed in Denver, Mike called me up and we all met up at one of the airport coffee shops. Mike lives in Denver, and because it had begun to snow, his flight was delayed . This worked out great for both of us , because I had a few hours to kill before my next flight left as well. By 1 pm , we both got on our connecting flights. And though we were on different carriers, we both touched down in Boston within minutes of each other. From the airport I called the hotel and they sent a bus out to fetch me. I arrived at the Hyatt Harborside at sunset.
This is the view I encountered when I entered my hotel room.

Saturday morning I caught the water taxi from the dock at the hotel, and in 7 minutes I was in downtown Boston. From the there I caught the “T” subway train heading to the Expo. Boston has a fantastic public transport system ( too bad California can’t learn from them) Even though I was staying on the other side of the river, total trip time from my Hotel to the Expo was only about 30 minute. I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon at the Expo. I collected my Bib and goodie bag .There was so much to see and do. While waiting in line for the registration office to open, I met up with two young ladies from Modena Italy. When they saw that I could speak Italian, we became instant friends. Turns out that they had both done the Rome marathon . After picking up my Bib, I headed over to this little mini theater they had set up where they were doing a virtual video tour of the course. I watched that thing from start to Finish. OMG…. just watching the video was giving me second thoughts about doing this race.

As promised, friend and fellow running bloggerFrancis called me up and we hooked up out in front of the Expo center. Francis qualifying time for this race was something like 3:10. He’s worked so hard over the past 2 years to get to Boston, I was really happy for him. Francis had heard that Ryan Hall was signing autographs , so we went back inside and got in a line that seemed to wrap around the entire Expo floor. Hall was only signing autographs until noon and the line was so long, I thought for sure we wouldn’t make it. But, after an hour of inching our way forward , we made it to the front got out posters signed! This may sound crazy, but I didn’t really know who Ryan Hall was until I read about him later that evening. I know Francis was a huge fan, so Im happy he got to meet him.
In addition to seeing Ryan , I also got to talk to and meet with the Hoyts . These guys are amazing .

By 2 pm the Expo was so crowed, I was getting claustrophobic and decided I’d had enough . From the Expo I set off on foot do some sightseeing in the area. I wish I had spend more time checking out downtown Boston. There’s so much to see. Next time I will for sure.

Here are some pictures taken in and around the Expo as well as the Downtown Boston area.

Sunday at 5 am, Mike , myself and his crew all met in front of the Hotel for the drive out to Hopkinton ( the town the race actually starts in). The Oxygen company that was helping sponsor Mike for this marathon, actually flew a couple of there people out to Boston and provided us with a cozy van that took us out to the starting village. The ride from Boston to Hopkinton only took about 60 minutes, compared to 2 hours it would have taken on the jammed packed buses that were hauling most of the runners.

We arrived in Hopkinton at about 7 am and were allowed to hangout at a special gym across the street from the starting Village where all the wheelchair athletes were warming up. They provided us with foam pads to lay on and free hot and cold beverages to hydrate. After Mike put the finishing touches on his O2 cart, we wandered outside to watch all the pre-race stuff.
There were tons of Satellite TV trucks and News Vans parked out front. We were interviewed by several News organization ,but I cant really remember which ones ( it was all happening so fast.) I remember speaking with a couple Boston Globe Reporters , but there were others. Everyone was waving microphones and cameras in our faces, trying to find out what our story was.

As our starting time was growing closer, I was starting to get a little concerned about the weather. I had heard forecasts that were calling for a slight chance of rain in the late afternoon, but that it would be light. My biggest weather concern was the temperature. When we arrived in Hopkinton it was a freezing 33 degrees and foggy. I was debating whether or not I should wear a jacket during the race. Luckily, just minutes before the race started, the temperature had already risen to 47 degrees and the fog was starting to lift.
Here’s some pictures of the starting area:

About 30 minutes before the start we met up with our spotter and guide, Chuck. All I can say is ..thank god for Chuck! This guy had the tedious job of tailing us on his bike for 7.5 hours. Chuck was there to monitor us and be there in case we had any medical issues or if Mike had any equipment problems. I can’t tell you how reassuring it was to have someone right there on the course, encouraging you, assisting you , and making sure you had everything you needed.
One of the coolest things about having Chuck along, was that if I had to use the bathroom ( which happens a lot) I would let Chuck know ,and he would ride out ahead of us and scout out toilet locations.Then he would reserve a spot so that I wouldn’t have to wait in line when I got there. Now, thats what I call the Royal treatment!
Unbelievably , Mike did not one stop one single time to use a john. How he did it , I’ll never know .

At 5 minutes to 9 they had all the MI ( mobility impaired ) athletes line up at the starting line. I think there were a total of 18 of us.
At that time, they had us walk back and forth across the timing mats to make sure our chips were registering. After that, Dave McGillivray, Race Director of the B.A.A. shook our hands and then simply said……..READY, GET SET….GO! And so began our 7 and a half hour journey !

For the first mile or so, there were only 18 of us on the course. And except for the helicopters flying above us and the camera trucks in front of us, it was eerily quiet. There were only a handful of spectators, mostly people sitting in their front lawns. I thought to myself…this isnt so bad. Where are all the fans? I quickly got ahead of Mike , in fact , except for 2 runners, I was head of all of them. The problem was, that in order for me to maintain that lead, I would have to continue to jog , which my lungs were not liking. Looking back behind me, I could see that Mike was starting to settle in a comfortable, but slow pace of about 17/min.

As we crested the top of the first hill ( mile 2) , you could hear the faint cheers of spectators carrying on, but as we descended and rounded the first bend…Whamm! All of a sudden it was like we were the featured guests at a home coming festival. Both sides of the narrow 2 lane road were lined with screaming spectators for as far as the eye could see. I have never witnessed anything like this in my life. There was the men and women of the National Guard posted at ever corner, waving us on. There were tons children’s group, special organizations and just regular people, high fiving us, wishing us well, trying to shake our hands. Offering us food..you name it. The adulation was overwhelming and non-stop. At one point the fans got so aggressive trying to touch us, that our spotter and the motorcycle cops moved us to the center of street where we remained throughout the rest of the race.

About every 30 minutes or so, another wave of runners would pass us by. We would pull over the side of the road and let them pass. First it was the wheel chairs, then the Womens Elite and then the Mens Elite.
Here’s a pic that Mikes partner Cameron , captured as the Hoyts streaked by us:

About 3 hours into the race, The 25,000 other regular runners caught up with us and from then on it was pure pandemonium. It was like a huge rolling block party/running parade. It was as if everyone was high from the experience. People seemed less concerned about running fast and more concerned about having a good time.
Never had I experienced just comradery among runners in a single race. We were cheered on as much by our fellow runners as we were by the fans.

The course traverses through 8 small towns, but it seems like a lot more than that. Just Imagine that every time you would enter a new town, there would be another huge celebration going on, and that you were the subject of that celebration! That’s what it was like.
Here are some photos that either I took with my phone along the way, or that Mikes Pit crew took while they were waiting for us to pass certain areas so that they could change out Mikes tanks.

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

OK, Fast forward to mile 18.

As promised, Heartbreak hill was brutal. Not exactly the way I had pictured it in my head, but nevertheless a tough climb. For some reason I had pictured this portion of the course as a steep climb up a narrow baron road. It wasn’t like that at all. It’s actually a series hills along a wide tree lined beautiful section of road, which gradually ascends it’s way up through what appeared to be very affluent neighborhood. It was at this point though , where you could see people pooping out. Some were literally falling down , and the people that remained upright were walking…not running!
This pic was taking at the crest of the final hill. You see me and mike at the 21 mile marker. From here on it was all downhill.

From here the last 5 miles are mostly downhill and I could have easily shaved 20 minutes from my time by jogging, but I decided that I would stay in pace with Mike and finish with him.
By mile 22 , I could feel my calf and thigh muscles starting to cramp and I was also getting nauseated. For the next few miles I would run out ahead of Mike , so that I could stretch out my legs against a tree or curb to prevent an all out cramp and look for a private place to puke if I needed to, then I would catch up with him. I would repeat this scenario every half mile for the remainder of the race.

Mile 23, the city of Boston was finally in site and you could actually see the finish area. It was at this point I knew I would finish the race within the time limit. The problem now, was that weather had gone from a pleasant 53 degrees to about 40 degrees in a matter of moments. In addition, the wind was picking up ,making it feel even colder. For the last 3 miles, I thought I was going to freeze to death. To make things worse, the constant headwind was aggravating my lungs, making me wheeze. By mile 25 , I was definitely feeling like I had done a marathon.

At mile 26, we made the first actual turn of the course where you head into the finish plaza. At this point our spotter, Chuck was not allowed to follow us anymore and we made arrangements to meet up in the VIP tent on the other side of the finish line.

As we entered the final 1/4 mile stretch to the finish line, it was starting to get dark outside and I could tell that we were probably going to be the last 2 people to finish the race. But, believe it or not, even at this late hour, there were huge crowds of people lining the streets that waited to see us finish.

Then in the last 100 yards or so, my emotions hit me like a tons of bricks. It finally dawned on me of what I had just accomplished. In the span of just 3 years, I had gone from an old out-of -shape COPDer who could barely walk a city block, and who was basically written off by the medical establishment, to achieving what many people said was silly, crazy and impossible. I was about to finish the Boston marathon!
As I set foot on the finish mat, I couldn’t control it any longer….. and the tears just gushed out. (I hope no one saw.)
I did it ! Me…..I did it !

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

I will deliberately end the story here , because I don’t want the wonderful memory of this most extraordinary experience to be tainted by what followed shortly after crossing the finish line. Instead, I will write a separate post regarding my little stint at Boston General.

For now I want to congratulate my partner in Crime, Mike Mc Bride on his incredible endurance and will power in this race. He is still an inspiration to me and was by far , one of the favorites of the fans that lined the course.

Let me end by saying, that I’m grateful for being given an opportunity to take part in this race. It was truely a dream come true and an experience I will never forget. I hope that other people with lung disease , will see by my example, that anything is possible if you try hard enough.

And Finally, to the BAA, the people of Boston , the nearby communities and to all the fans and runners who made us feel special.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart!

Ohhh…….and I qualified for next years race!