It is amazing how much you can learn while you're running. I certainly learned a lot on Sunday morning. They day began perfectly, my blood sugar was at 70 when I awoke at 5am. I was so happy to see a low number, I could have my normal breakfast and the insulin would have plenty of time to do its job before I began my half marathon. As I was driving up to Providence I was very happy to see that my blood sugar was staying right around 160. I even began to get a little bit nervous that it would be to low at when the race started at 8am.
As I began to stretch my Dexcom had the single up arrow and quickly climbed up to 260 before the arrow disappeared. I figured the adrenaline was kicking in, I started on my two mile warm up run and was feeling amazing!! When I say amazing I mean like I could have run a 1:30:00 half marathon amazing. As I headed to the start line, I felt strong, I was sweating and was feeling very confident. This confidence was with me when I hit mile seven at a time of one hour and one minute!! That is just one minute over where I wanted to be, I was confident that I could run the rest of the race in around 45 minutes. I stuck with that pace until I hit the 10.5 mile mark, all of a sudden I had no sweat and was getting angry. I quickly reached for my Dexcom thinking that I was getting low, I was at 312 and had been around 300 for the entire race. I quickly took two units of insulin and made sure to hit every water station until I finished. If having a high blood sugar and being dehydrated wasn't enough the 20mph head wind decided to show up. I kept running but had lost my confidence and each mile was slower and slower, the two mile pace ribbon would pass me at mile 12. That is when determination took over, I vowed at mile 12 that if I ever finished a half marathon over two hours that I would retire from half marathons and only do 5ks. I would pass the 2 hour pacer around mile 13 and would finish in a time of 1:59:24. The course beat me and I beat myself, I need to get better control of my blood sugars before big races.
The half marathon was amazing though, I had a lot of fun and loved the crowds. I was pleasantly surprised at how big the crowds were as we got outside of downtown Providence. As you can see below I ran the half marathon with two great friends one of which is a fellow type 1. I also wore my Team Novo Nordisk cycling jersey to run the race, it felt very comfortable, had all of supplies so I figured I'd do some advertising while I ran. What I got were numerous runners coming up to me during the race and saying that they love the team and asking if I was a member. I would tell each person how I got the jersey and I would get a "that is amazing, great to see someone with diabetes doing such a big race" I also got a lot of encouragement from the crowd which is amazing. I may have ran like crap but I had amazing people running with me and raised diabetes awareness, I couldn't have asked for more. At the end of the day it is not about my time, it is about living an amazing life with amazing people and doing amazing things with diabetes!!
As I began to stretch my Dexcom had the single up arrow and quickly climbed up to 260 before the arrow disappeared. I figured the adrenaline was kicking in, I started on my two mile warm up run and was feeling amazing!! When I say amazing I mean like I could have run a 1:30:00 half marathon amazing. As I headed to the start line, I felt strong, I was sweating and was feeling very confident. This confidence was with me when I hit mile seven at a time of one hour and one minute!! That is just one minute over where I wanted to be, I was confident that I could run the rest of the race in around 45 minutes. I stuck with that pace until I hit the 10.5 mile mark, all of a sudden I had no sweat and was getting angry. I quickly reached for my Dexcom thinking that I was getting low, I was at 312 and had been around 300 for the entire race. I quickly took two units of insulin and made sure to hit every water station until I finished. If having a high blood sugar and being dehydrated wasn't enough the 20mph head wind decided to show up. I kept running but had lost my confidence and each mile was slower and slower, the two mile pace ribbon would pass me at mile 12. That is when determination took over, I vowed at mile 12 that if I ever finished a half marathon over two hours that I would retire from half marathons and only do 5ks. I would pass the 2 hour pacer around mile 13 and would finish in a time of 1:59:24. The course beat me and I beat myself, I need to get better control of my blood sugars before big races.
The half marathon was amazing though, I had a lot of fun and loved the crowds. I was pleasantly surprised at how big the crowds were as we got outside of downtown Providence. As you can see below I ran the half marathon with two great friends one of which is a fellow type 1. I also wore my Team Novo Nordisk cycling jersey to run the race, it felt very comfortable, had all of supplies so I figured I'd do some advertising while I ran. What I got were numerous runners coming up to me during the race and saying that they love the team and asking if I was a member. I would tell each person how I got the jersey and I would get a "that is amazing, great to see someone with diabetes doing such a big race" I also got a lot of encouragement from the crowd which is amazing. I may have ran like crap but I had amazing people running with me and raised diabetes awareness, I couldn't have asked for more. At the end of the day it is not about my time, it is about living an amazing life with amazing people and doing amazing things with diabetes!!
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