By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Marathon training partners Gerry Moreau and George Gibbons were on pace Sunday to finish their first big race together in 4 hours, 30 minutes , the goal they'd set after months of practice.

They lost 20 minutes working to save a man's life.

The two paramedics from Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services were nearing mile 15 of the 26.2-mile Rock 'n' Roll Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans when Gibbons saw that a small crowd had gathered around a collapsed runner.

Gibbons, 45, who has more than 15 years' experience as a medic, rushed over and dropped to his knees. He checked for a pulse. It was very faint.

He placed his hand on the runner's chest. He knew the man's heart was stopping.

"He was barely breathing, maybe two or three times a minute," Gibbons said.

By then, Moreau, 41, was kneeling beside him.

"What's happening?" he asked. The paramedics, who rarely team up in Austin, began working together to keep 54-year-old James McKinnon of Waterloo, Ind., alive.

For the next four minutes, the medics, tired from the race and with sweat dripping from their faces, took turns pumping McKinnon's chest. They learned his name and hometown from the bib runners are required to wear.

A nurse who was watching the race joined in, pressing a few breaths into the roadside patient.

Paramedics for New Orleans Emergency Medical Services and the agency's top doctor arrived a short time later and continued CPR. Gibbons and Moreau told them everything they'd done.

They watched as medics loaded McKinnon into the ambulance. Then they decided to resume running.

"There was nothing else we could do at that point," Gibbons said.

New Orleans EMS officials said by the time they got the man to the Interim Louisiana State University Public Hospital, he was breathing again.

"All the stars lined up for this guy," New Orleans EMS spokesman Jeb Tate said. "What happened was a passage right out of a textbook."

McKinnon remained in intensive care Monday. Family members could not be reached for comment.

Moreau and Gibbons spent the rest of the race ticking away the miles and wondering whether McKinnon had survived.

Moreau finished the marathon, his ninth, in 4 hours, 52 minutes — about 10 minutes ahead of Gibbons, who was running his first. When Moreau crossed the finish line, he got a medal draped around his neck with thousands of other runners. But he wanted to find out the fate of the man he and Gibbons had helped.

Then he saw some New Orleans paramedics a few feet away.

He told them that he was one of the runners who had tended to McKinnon.

"'We've been waiting for you guys this whole time,'" Moreau said one of them told him. "'He made it.'"

Moreau said he needed a moment to take it all in.

"It was amazing," he said. "That was best part of the whole weekend."