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

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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.

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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 !

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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!

Some of the cool things about doing a short 5K walk is, # 1. It’s easy to bring your camera along. #2. There’s still some food left at the finish line , and #3. You can still walk the next morning !

I’m afraid I couldn’t put much of a race report together, because in less than 45 minutes …it was all over! I finished my first 5k race in 44:31. Certainly not my fasted time , but considering I was operating on no sleep, my back was killing me and my breathing sucked after the first mile…. I’m very pleased with the outcome. I was really afraid of pushing myself too hard, because I didn’t want to jeopardize the half marathon that I’m hoping to do in Nevada in two weeks. Also, this was my very first 5K walking event and I had no idea how to pace out the course , so I just made it up as I went along. I think I ended up doing one mile slow, one mile fast, one mile slow …etc. Anyways, my averaged pace turned out to be sluggish 14:20min/mile , but that would equate to a sub 6.5 hour marathon had I maintained that pace in a long distance race (which I know I could of), so that makes me feel good.

As with all my races though, the two days preceding the event are always the best. Got to take in all the favorite city sites and hang with my favorite people.

Next race in two weeks!

Having been in the hospital just two weeks earlier, and judging by how rocky my recovery had been , I decided that I would not push myself too hard, and that I would deliberately keep my speed down and my racewalking sprints to a minimum.

To summarize briefly…. I’m proud of my performance in this race and that of my friends. For the first time ever, I think I did more things right, then I did wrong . That doesn’t mean I didn’t do any stupid things (more about that later), but I started the race with a positive attitude, finished strong, and I had a whole lot of fun in between.
And get this… I didn’t have a single leg cramp–not even a twitch during the entire 7 hour walk.. ..Nadda, Ziltch..Not One! and no knee pain either. Weird huh?

Finally, and what always amazes me, is the kindness of the people of Portland.
That’s what keeps bringing me back.

Here’s how the weekend went down:

Friday, I flew up to Portland where I hooked up with my friends and Walkingfasterclub cohorts, Brandon and Rachel .

The Start, The race was delayed for a few minutes due to road construction, but the gun finally went off , and with an inhaler in each hand , I headed out into the wild blue yonder.
Despite worrying all weekend that it was going to rain during the marathon, it never materialized , and you couldn’t of asked for better temperatures…56 degrees at the start.

Miles 1-3, The first few miles were, as they always are….easy , but a little nerve racking. I mean that literally, because for some reason I tend to get butterflies in my stomach during those first few miles of any race, so I’m always scoping out the nearby terrain for an emergency pit stop if needed. Thank goodness the churning in my gut subsided and I made it to mile 3 without any problems.

Mile 3.5 , I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was fellow blogger and friend Mike Mc Bride who come all the way from Colorado do this race. He had started at the very back of the pack and was already passing me up. He was pulling a specially designed cart which holds all of his oxygen tanks– an astonishing feat when you consider that he has severe emphysema . Not only does he have to walk fast , but he has to pull a large cart behind him. What a treat it was to meet this special person.

I would find out later, that his oxygen system failed and that he was forced to quit the race at mile 13. That sucks…… I’m sure he was disappointed.

Mile 7 , OK…..remember when I mentioned something about doing stupid things? Well, this would definitely qualify.

I was starting to get a little short breath and wheezy , so I go to use one of my inhalers and guess what? They’re no longer in my hands ! I lost not just one…but BOTH of my albuterol inhalers.! They must have slipped out of my hands somewhere between mile 7 and mile 8 . I think it happened while was reaching for water at one of the aid stations. I had been carrying that stupid rain poncho with one of the inhalers wrapped in side,it must of fell out.
Inhalers are my life blood during a long walk race. During a typical marathon I’ll use my albuterol at least 12 times, maybe more. They’re more important to me than water.
Without the medicine, I can’t exert myself. Simply put …..no inhalers , means no race!
At this point I started panicking, so I turned around and back tracked a full mile searching in vane for these two lost inhalers. I think they were swept up with the paper cups on the ground. I was so pissed off at myself.
How could I be so careless? I had extra inhalers in my room, but I’m the only one who had the keys.
By this time I had all but resigned myself to the fact the race was over for me.

Then it dawned on me….I could use an over the counter inhaler like Primatine mist. But how would I get it on the course. Then the light bulb went off again…….. Anita is out along the course somewhere…..with a moped.
I immediately called her an told her the situation. Without hesitation, she told me she’d get on her scooter and find a drug store ( remember we’re talking early Sunday morning) and would call me back in 20 minutes. At that point my hopes were up again, so I decided to resume my walking , but at a much slower pace so that my breathing wouldn’t get worse.
15 minutes later, she calls me and tells me that she found a drug store that has primatene mist, but that it’s locked behind the pharmacy counter until the pharmacy opens at 10 am. She told me she would wait for them to open and get the medicine to me at mile 12 . (That was as close as she could get to me because the course was closed to traffic after mile 12.) That would save the race for me, but was going to put me behind another 15 -20minutes . Hey, I’m not going to PR anyway, so what’s another 15 minutes. Well, wouldn’t you know it… Anita worked her magical powers by convincing the people at the store to have pity on this poor pathetic little asthmatic racewalker. They agreed to open up the counter early for her and by the time I got to mile 12, Anita AND Brandon were both waiting for me with the primatene mist.
Anita saved the day for me and I was back on track with a total loss of only 10 minutes! This is the second act of kindness I received this day from the people of Portland.

Miles 12-20, absolutely awesome ! Even the climb up to the dreaded St Johns bridge was relatively easy .
For the next 4 and a half hours my friend Brandon and I would , walk , racewalk ,talk and basically acted like fools. We were feeding off each others defiance of going against doctors wishes and those of other people in our lives who think we’re crazy and careless for doing what we do. Brandon with his bad knees and me with my bad lungs–rebels till the end. At the same time though, we made it a point to slow down and cheer on all the wonderful musical acts that were performing for us along the way, and to voice our appreciation to each and every volunteer that cheered us on along the way.
The primatine mist was also working well as a substitute, and I had only minimal breathing difficulties throughout the rest of the course.
Anita would continue to pop out of the woodwork at various points along the way, offering up water and refreshments, not only to us , but other slow poke walker as well.

Miles 20-26 , Those last few miles were tough, but I still felt incredibly strong. Though we had made up a lot of time that I had lost earlier in the race, by mile 20 it was pretty evident that a sub seven finish wasn’t in the cards, so we decided to make it 7.5 hours instead and cross the finish line together.
Well,that’s exactly what we did. We finished those last 6 miles within 2 minutes of our new goal time and crossed the finish line at the same moment at 7:32:55. We came in 255th to last place. Hey…better than last years 50th to last.

Had it not been for my carelessness with my inhalers, or the fact that I was critically ill two weeks earlier, we would both finished in the 6 hour range.
But you know what? I wouldn’t trade a 5 hour finish, for the good time I had on that course.

Recap , Out of all the races I’

More pictures to follow…..

You might not know it by looking at these pictures, but this was not a good race for me.
I felt fine at the starting line and was even able to jog a little bit during the first mile, but all the moisture in the air from the dense morning fog really exacerbated my asthma, and the seemingly endless hills made my leg muscles cramp up almost instantly.. (You know, I’ve done this same race three times , and I swear ..they added a few more hills!)
By mile 3 , I was so short of breath, I pretty much walked the rest of the way. My legs and lungs just couldn’t handle it .

After only the first 6 miles, it was evident that this was going to be a torture race. Instead of racewalking parts of the course as I had cleverly planned, I ended up going into total survival mode , propelling myself forward any way I could without cramping up.

I think what saved me from dropping out of the race all together , was my fixation on the 3 hour pace runner and her big yellow sign . Hovering just above the pack and within constant eyesight , I could see the bouquet of balloons she was carrying– It gave me something positive to focus on. We had been passing each other on and off, and towards the end, she knew I was struggling. When we got to mile 12.9 ( mile 26) she slowed slowed down, reached out for my hand, and literally pulled me into the finishing chute.. What a sweetheart! She hit her target goal 2:48:45 to the second! and let me finish a few seconds ahead of her.

As for the event itself, in my opinion it’s a bit over rated. It was way too crowded(over 14,000). Runners were treated like cattle at the finish line, and as always… the post race food sucked. (c’mon, a bottle of hot lemonade and a dried- up biscuit? )
They need to take a few lessons from the Portland Marathon organizers and start treating all of their participants like winners, not just the ones who finish in 2 hours.
Hey I love San Francisco, but I don’t think I’ll do this race again.

What made all this torture worth while , was getting to spend the weekend with some very special people( you know who you are) and the kindness of that pace runner ( whoever you are) .

(me and my friend Ann who left me in the dust back at mile 15)

Next race is in eight weeks

A few more details after I get some sleep.

Thanks

Then again, looking back on this race, I see myself making the same ‘ole common mistakes, like pushing myself too hard and.. under-hydrating! ! When will I learn that the body needs fuel ! especially a sick body! During this race I thought I was doing good because I forced myself to drink at every station. The problem is…. drinking two to three ounces of cytomax or gatorade every two miles is probably not considered adequate hydration, certainly not enough to stave off the massive leg cramps that I get every single time.( Oh..and I think I did one Vanilla goo too)

Another thing to consider is…. this is the first time I’ve ever racewalked in a race!
Not only that , but I racewalked much more than I had planned to. In my training leading up to this race, I thought of maybe trying to racewalk a few hundred feet per mile… tops. Well, instead of doing two or three hundred feet per mile, I ended up doing two to three THOUSAND feet per mile–Tens time as much. This would probably explain the post-race pain in my upper arms and shoulders as I’ve never had my arms in continuous motion throughout an entire race.

Even though I set a new PR and made a strong finish, to be honest… There’s no way I could have raced another foot, let alone another 13 miles. I think I hit that proverbial wall , right at the finish line. If I feel this way after 13, how am I going to feel after 26? Is it even possible for me to do 26? After this last recovery, I’m really beginning to wonder if 26.2 is in the cards for me.

Well. It’s too soon to call it quits on my full marathon plans. In 4 weeks I’ll be attempting an 18 mile LSD … That’s when I’ll make a final decision on whether or not to postpone it.
In the meantime; I’m going to eat a banana everyday and try to get the right balance of electrolytes circulating. I’m going to eliminate racewalking from my longer walks to save my calves ( I’ll still racewalk on the short days.) I’m going to wear running shoes for my long walks and racing flats for my short walks. I’m going to do my best to down those 4-8 glasses a day.
I’m going to do all these things ….and more, because what’s the point of hard training hard for a race if your going to feel like crap afterwards. I haven’t even considered the “lung ” implications of a 6 to 7 hour walk.

We’ll see how things go when my full marathon training gets started next week.

It’s now three days post-race and the body aches have eased up a lot though, not completely. I hope to get out and do at least, a short walk by this weekend. I’m already planning my strategy for the San Francisco Marathon in late July and I cant wait to get out there and start working on it.

During this last race I made it sort of a game to observe the walking styles of as many people as I could. (also cuts down on the monotony of the walk) Without bragging, I think my striding technique was better than most. I was able to walk farther distances without breaking stride. In addition, my pace was more consistent and my leg transitions and arm swings were much smoother . Remember, I do a toned down version of racewalking, which means I incorporate the proper hip motion and foot placement ,but not as exaggerated .

Up to this point in my walking career, I’ve basically tried to increase my endurance by logging lots and lots of miles. Speed wasn’t really an issue. All I really wanted, was to be able to complete a 13 mile course and not die in the process. Asthma had always dictated how far , how fast and how long I could walk. Some of those parameters are changing. It seems that all of this training has made me a more efficient walker.

My focus of training for the next race ,will be to improve and refine my walking style even more. For me , maximizing efficiency to cut down on wasted body motion …. Is everything. I believe that with a more “efficient” stride , that I can increase my overall speed without burning out so quickly. In turn, this might give me the few extra minutes I need to break the 3 hour barrier.

Greetings Runners,

Thank you for your patience. We’ve been working hard to acquire the medals misplaced at our 2005 event in San Francisco in addition to fielding 100’s of great emails about the event. We’ve come up for air, and placed an additional order and when they arrive, we would like to get these medals to you as soon as possible. To be created and shipped, we’ve been told 10-15 days. Once we get them in hand, we’ll send them right away.

Again, we apologize for this unfortunate incident. Everyone worked so hard and the finish medal is a fun part of the experience. We’ll have to make sure the UPS guy unwraps the package and places it over your neck… We have most of your addresses, but those who have not, please respond to the email below with the following: Name: Bib #: Address: medals@usraceseries.com< >Best, The US Half, San Francisco Team

Somehow , Having the UPS man hang it on me , just isn’t the same.

Keep in mind that I WALKED this race !!!!!
(I only ran accross the finish line for the photographers)

The course itself was much more physically demanding on me than anything Ive ever done before, mainly because of the roller coaster-like hills and off road trails that access the Golden Gate bridge. What made it all worth while though, was the spectacular scenery. I can see why this event was voted one of the best 1/2 marathons in the entire world. From flat paved roads to steep dirt paths ,along the beach, over the GG bridge , through tree covered parks and old military forts, this route has a little bit of everything.
I started the race at the back of the pack, so there was lots of room to maneuver and I had a clear view of the people in front of me . One thing that I noticed right away was that there were very few, in fact maybe only a handful of walkers . I’m not talking about those people who take fast little tiny steps and call themselves runners, I’m. talking about the serious ones whom I call ” technique walkers”

As far as my own performance goes, I think my walking technique and pacing have improved dramatically . I felt more comfortable in my own freestyle form. It was automatic this time, I didn’t have to constantly observe myself for proper foot placement and that sort of thing. I think after months and months of practicing the very basics, they’re finally burned into my brain. My endurance has improved as well. I was able to climb all of the hills without tiring though, I did get quite short of breathat times. I attribute that to my daily walks through town which also has a lot of hills.

Now the asthma part, On a scale of 1 to 10 , (with 10 being the worse), I would rate my symptoms at about a 5 with spikes up to 9 after climbing hills or doing short sprints. As I said before, I used my inhaler about 8 times during the 3 hours ( this would make a pulmonologists cringe..) I definitely could breath better after each spray but the longer I walked, the less that effect lasted. Even though the last few miles of the course was flat, by the time I reached mile #12, the inhaler didn’t help at all. So for now, it looks like 3 or 4 hours is about all my lungs can take regardless of the topography. Makes me wonder if I will ever be able to do a full 26 miler which would take at least 6 hours to complete. Perhaps if the course was entirely flat or downhill, Id have a better chance at it.

My friends and I crossed the finish line at the US Half Marathon today but, didn’t get our medals because someone stole them! We got to the end of the rainbow and there was no pot of gold… (Actually, there were several hundred people that didn’t receive their medals). Can you believe it? Someone apparently took off with a box of finisher medals… Its not like they have any kind of street value. What kind of idiot would do something like that? Anyway, then we were told that we would have to” email the race director” and they would send us one . I’m sorry but receiving a medal in the mail isn’t quite the same. By then, the moment is long gone.

RUNSF Marathon 7/31/2005

This was the first Marathon and the only competitive sports event that I ever participated in. At the age of 50, I crossed the finish line for the 1/2 Marathon at 3:12:49 , I came in 1637th place …lol..but I finished.

I made up my mind to do this race back in April which only gave me about 3 months to get in shape. At the time , I knew nothing about walking a marathon. I didn’t even know you could..
After some research though, I found out that thousands of people do it every year, even people with disabilities. Could I really do this? After all, we’re talking about walking 13.1 miles or 26.2 miles not 3 or 4 which I was currently doing. Then there’s the small matter of having only a 40% lung capacity. Am I crazy? Is the prednisone finally effecting my brain?

I began my so called.. training , by following a 16-week walking schedule that I pulled off the internet. The only problem is that I had less than 16 weeks. I modified it a little bit and was off and walking..
After 8 weeks I was doing 3 miles daily plus a slightly longer walk on Saturdays . They say that the key to success in completing a marathon or half marathon are those” longer” training walks but, since I only had 4 weeks left, I had to jump from 5 miles to 10 miles in one week. Well, I did that 10 mile walk BIG MISTAKE… 3 days later ended up in the hospital for nearly a week. I don’t know what happened? Sure the walk was tough, it took a lot out me but, a few hours later I felt OK. It wasn’t until the next day that I caught a cold and every time I catch a cold it exacerbates my asthma and I end up in the hospital. Great..now I only have 3 weeks left and I’m still tapering off the prednisone.

I’d been out of the hospital for 3 days and I was drugged out of mind. So what do I do? I do a nice 3 mile walk and screw up my left knee. ( I forgot to mention that prednisone weakens muscle) So now I have a knee brace and I have to reduce my walks to 1 or 2 miles for at least a week. This is crazy.. Why am I doing this? There s no way I’m ever going to be able to pull this race off. I swear that went through my head everyday as Im walking, wheezing and now limping.
The only thing that kept me going ( except the fact that I would lose my $70.00 entry fee) was that I had already walked a 10 miler. All I needed was to walk 3 more measly miles.
The race was less than 2 weeks now and my knee is still giving me problems, but thank god my lungs are doing better and Im off the prednisone. The week before the race I decided I would try to do one more ” longer” walk . I walked part of the actual race route thru Golden Gate park. Total miles 8.2, not bad. I was feeling more hopeful.
My biggest fear now was that I would get sick the night before the race and all of this training ( and suffering) would have been for nothing. Lucky for me that didn’t happen.

On race morning I felt better than average, not great but, pretty good. Douglas dropped me off at the start line and we discussed back up plans in the event I was unable to finish the race. I had my cell phone with me so I would just call him to pick me up along the course. I wouldnt be caught dead by taking one of those SAG buses for the injured and sick, to embarrassing
Raceday….July 31 2005
(When you register to run or walk the half marathon at the RUNSFM , they give you the option of starting in the first half or the 2nd half. I chose the 2nd half which actually starts at mile 13.)

The first 5 miles the race were a breeze( this was my daily walk) One thing I noticed was that there were lots of walkers, in fact almost everybody was walking.( A lot of these walkers were actually runners who had run out of steam after the previous 13 miles.) Anyway, miles 6-10 were the hardest, seems I forgot that I was walking through SF which isn’t exactly flat. After crossing the 11th mile marker I called Douglas on my cell phone and said” I think Im gonna make it” I cant tell you how good could I felt.. The last 2 miles seemed like 20 ………17 minutes later ..I DID……. IT I FINISHED THE DAMN THING!
I couldnt believe it, neither could Douglas.