He can't breathe easy without medal
When Stephen Gaudet crossed the finish line in Monday's Boston Marathon, he had one thing in mind: the medal he would receive.
He had completed the race in 7:31:35, the penultimate finisher, ahead of his friend, Michael McBride, who was a second behind.
As soon as he finished, though, BAA personnel escorted Gaudet to the medical tent because he was breathing heavily. Five minutes later, he was en route to Massachusetts General Hospital by ambulance.
"Everyone said I was saturating and having trouble breathing," Gaudet said. "But if they knew my condition, they'd have known it was normal."
Gaudet, 54, was born with "fixed asthma," a severe case of the disease. He said the condition has "pretty much destroyed" his lungs.
When staff members learned of his condition and realized they couldn't treat him, they called an ambulance.
However, Gaudet was more worried about the medal to which all finishers are entitled. He was determined to get his.
The BAA uses chips in runners' shoes to determine race times, and once a runner turns in a chip, he or she receives a medal.
Because Gaudet was whisked to the hospital, he was unable to complete the exchange.
Jack Fleming, marketing and communications director for the BAA, said similar situations in which runners do not immediately obtain medals occur every year. They simply contact the BAA and coordinate an exchange, sometimes by mail.
"We make every effort to ultimately get a medal to every finisher," Fleming said.
At age 49, with his health deteriorating, Gaudet was forced to retire from his 27-year career as a respiratory therapist. At that point, he started looking for something to keep him active.
"One day I decided rather than just stay home and die, I would try some self-directed pulmonary rehab," Gaudet said.
"I tried biking and swimming, but it was too much. But walking worked."
Since 2007, he has completed five marathons and nine half-marathons, which he details on his website at breathinstephen.com.
Gaudet is recovering at MGH and said he should be returning home in a few days. He will look into obtaining his medal but said the experience won't be the same.
"I feel like I kind of missed the most important part of the race," Gaudet said. "I did it, but all the glory after, I didn't get any of it at all." 