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.

( 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

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 !!

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.

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

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.

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)

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

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

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!

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By Blogsdna

]]> http://breathinstephen.com/race-results/feed/ 0 http://breathinstephen.com/laying-low-but-staying-busy/ http://breathinstephen.com/laying-low-but-staying-busy/#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:00:11 +0000 Stephen http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8433 Nothing really interesting going on since I got out of the hospital. Though Ive taken a couple of short slow walks, overall Ive been trying to let my lungs heal as much as possible before jumping back into a physical fitness regimen full time. Been spending a lot of this post hospital recovery time doing non physical activities, including some asthma advocacy and research stuff. Keeping mentally busy, helps me cope with my breathlessness and the not so pleasant symptoms of prednisone withdrawal. The downtime has also allowed me to play catch up on some personal stuff.

Next Friday, Saturday and Sunday will hopefully, be a little more exciting and a little more normal for me. I’m supposed be going down to Solana beach ( near San Diego) for Dave’s advanced racewalking clinic. Ive been really run down lately from the steroid taper and its an awful long drive (450 mile each way), but I’m hoping that I’ll feel well enough by then to go.

If I do go, it will be mainly to hang out with other racewalkers and to meet some of the super stars of the sport. Three time Olympian, Philip Dun and two time Olympian Tim Seaman just to name a few, will be there coaching. Of course Dave Mc Govern , who’s a legend himself, will be running the whole show. My lungs are way too messed up to participate in much of the actual training, but sometimes just watching the elite walkers walk, and/or having my own racewalking form critiqued by them, provides me an adequate level of learning. Most of all though, I go to these weekend clinics because I have a passion for the sport and for the crazy people who engage in it.

In the coming weeks I have a ton of the usual medical appointments, but also a referral to a brand new service called “Symptom Management”. This new clinic is an off-chute of the Palliative care program over at UCSF. I’m going primarily, to see if there are any new therapies or strategies out there that can help me with my worsening dyspnea. To my knowledge, I’ll be the first asthmatic to receive treatment at this new clinic. I’ll be blogging more about the topic of palliative care in a future post.

Sunday was the Nike Womens Marathon. The last few miles of the marathon course passes by my old neighborhood at Ocean Beach in the outer Sunset. I know several people who are doing this years race. I hope they all had a great time!

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By Blogsdna

]]> http://breathinstephen.com/laying-low-but-staying-busy/feed/ 4 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.

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]]> http://breathinstephen.com/rockroll-race-report/feed/ 13 http://breathinstephen.com/brief-race-update/ http://breathinstephen.com/brief-race-update/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:35:20 +0000 Stephen http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8099

Had a great time and a stronger than expected finish at yesterday race. My final race results aren’t in yet due to a technical glitch, but I think I finished in about 3:07 , which is much faster than I anticipated and probably why I’m having problems today.

I felt fine immediately after the race, but as I was driving home, I could feel myself getting increasingly tighter and short of breath. By the time I made it home 2 hours later, my peak flows had fallen from 350 to 190 and I was tight as a drum.
I ended up staying awake all last night taking nebs treatments every hour with only minimal relief. Earlier this morning I bumped up my pred to 60mg, but they haven’t kicked in yet, or I’m not reacting to them

My doctor wants me to go to the hospital, but I’m really not in the mood to be tortured right now. I’m sore enough as it is..I can barely walk. I did however, promise her that I’d go in if things didn’t turn around by later today.

Bottom line, I might have exacerbated myself by over-doing it at yesterdays race. I shouldn’t have tried to racewalk the entire 13 mile distance , but I was feeling pretty good at the time and just couldn’t resist. It could have been that I had an exacerbation brewing and didn’t know it ( happens all the time to me). Exerting myself hard for 3 hours my have pushed me over the edge..Who know really knows what the trigger was.

I’ll have a proper race report up in a few days ( if I’m not in the hospital). Hope everyone else did well at their respective races!

PS…Check this out…what an amazing runner!

California’s fastest half-marathon lived up to its billing Sunday as American Meb Keflezighi set a new U.S. 20k record and bettered his personal best by 25 seconds winning the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in a time of 1:01:00. Keflezighi’s 20k split of 57:52 broke Ryan Hall’s standing 20K record of 57:54 set in 2006.

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]]> http://breathinstephen.com/brief-race-update/feed/ 5 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)

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]]> http://breathinstephen.com/another-write-up/feed/ 1 http://breathinstephen.com/do-you-know-the-way-to-san-jose/ http://breathinstephen.com/do-you-know-the-way-to-san-jose/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:46:56 +0000 Stephen http://breathinstephen.com/?p=7920 …..I do , and I always get lost when I drive through the downtown area:-D

San Jose is about an hour south of where I live and that’s where I’m heading out to in a few minutes. I’m gonna have lunch with my Mom and Sister who live in south San Jose, and then I’m heading over to the Expo and convention center which is located downtown, to pick up my bib and goodie bag. While there, I’m hoping to cross paths with a few friends who are flying into town to do this race.

On Sunday of course, I gotta drive back down there again to do the actual race. I gotta get there early enough to find parking and early enough for a quick pre-race get -together with all my friends. The race starts at 8am, so I’ll probably try to get there by 6am, which means I gotta leave my house at 5am, which means I gotta get up at 4 am, which means I gotta get to bed by 9pm.

I’m not sure why I always go to bed early the eve of a race. It never works. No one ever really sleeps the night before a big race. You’re just too psyched up. There’s too much nervous energy…. too much adrenalin. Race strategies and what-if scenarios will keep my brain hopping all night. It’s kinda like having stage fright, even though you’re going to be sharing that same stage with 10,000-12,000 other people .

Then there’s the getting up at 4am to do get dressed routine. I don’t know about other people, but this has become a ritual for me. Do I want my Bib on my shirt or my pant leg? Will it be too hot to wear this, or will it be too cold to wear that? Do I have a place to carry all my stuff? Do I have enough inhalers in case I loose one on the course ( which has happened)? Are the batteries in my portable neb machine charged? Is my Mp 3 player charged? Do I have my timing chip on correctly? Then there’s the fuel checklist; Should I eat something, should I start hydrating now? What If I have muscle cramps? Are there going to be enough porta potties on the course? and on and on……This nonsense usually goes on until it’s time to head out to the venue.

Finally there’s what I call the ” pre-race jitters”. These symptoms usually starts to emerge when I’m actually out there in the morning air, standing in a mile long line hoping to use the porta potty one last time before the race gun goes off. Either that, or when they have you packed like sardines in the starting corrals and you hope not to get trampled to death. For me the feeling is usually that of…. “what have I gotten myself into” ? “Did I train enough” ” Will I be able to pull this off?” ” I hope I went to the bathroom enough”. Crazy huh? But, once you get moving and the pack thins out…its all good! This is moment you’ve trained for. Just put yourself on autopilot and soak it all in.

And now for the exciting news! My Pulmonologist at UCSF is putting her money where her mouth is, she is going to and do the race with me …How cool is that!! And even more cool news; Racewalking friend and blogger Dizzy Miss Lizzy is flying out from Denver just to do this race. I can’t wait to meet her. Shes staying at a hotel located right across the street from the race starting line. She’s invited a bunch of us to meet up there and hang out before the race!

There going to have a webcam set up at the Finish line that you can view live on the day of the race. See if you can spot me. I hope to cross it between 11:10-11:37 am (pst)

I’m not the only one that’s racing this Sunday. Kerri and Danielle who live in Canada are doing charity races and Tammy in Utah is doing her first Portland Marathon . Good luck to everyone ! or as they say in Italy….. “In boca al lupo!”

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