Diabetic Runners

1

2008 Long Beach Half Marathon (Read 295 times)

    I finished the Long Beach Half Marathon in 2:31:22 today, a mere 1:22 off my goal, so I am very pleased. It was also an interesting day for my blood sugars, so I thought I’d tell you how it went. On background, I’m a 51 year old Type 1, diagnosed in January 2003, on insulin since 2004 and on a MiniMed pump since 2005. I have a Dexcom CGM, but didn’t wear it during the race. Woke up this morning at 5:30 am with a BG of 315. WTF!!!???? That came out of the blue. I was running a little high before bed, but this is not expected. The only cause I can think of is pre-race stress/nerves. I was a little sleepless and have been kind of anxious with anticipation for the race. I was seriously wondering if I’d be able to run. I had a bowl of oatmeal anyway, used the Wizard to calculate a correction and carb bolus, then knocked the bolus down two full units to account for the upcoming 13.1 run. Then I cut my basal rate in half, to .20 units/hour for the next 4 hours. This would kick in the regular basal at about 9:30 (half an hour before my planned finish) but not have any real effect until about 11:30, an hour after my planned finish at 10:00. The race started at 7:30 am, my BG just before the race was 264. Not coming down as fast as I’d like but trending that way. It crossed my mind for a very brief moment that I ought not run, but only for a brief minute. I knew I had on-board insulin, was about to engage in some strenuous activities and it would come down further. (Aside, I recently saw a new CDE who gave me two pieces of advice that served me well in this race and in the short period before: 1) when correcting, correct so you come down gradually - cutting two units from the morning bolus helped with this, and 2) NEVER turn off your pump because you always need SOME basal insulin. I used to turn it off for long runs and two times ended up with ketoacidosis. No more.) I planned to test every three miles/30 minutes and, lo and behold, at 3 miles (running strong by the way, but at an easy pace so I wouldn’t flag at the end) my BG was down to 191. Going the right way. At 6 miles my BG was down to 105. Good, but going down fast. I didn’t want to bonk so I took two glucose tabs and at 9 miles my BG had held quite steady at 108. Since it worked before and I had only four point one miles to go I took two more glucose tabs based on the last results. I finished in 2:31:22 (did I say that before?) but was unable to test at the finish. The reason was that I was using a new, light-weight belt to carry my testing supplies. Being unfamiliar with it because I had stupidly used new equipment without training with it beforehand, it seems that I had dropped my test strips somewhere along the course. Most likely at mile 9 - ya think? Smile Aside No. 2 - Sr. Romualdo Sanchez passed me in the last mile. Romualdo was the winning marathoner with a time of 2:29:59. We were neck and neck for about, oh, .05 seconds. To give you some perspective the only difference between the two of us is that he ran twice as far as I did in the same amount of time, and I ran 13.1 friggin’ miles! Also keep in mind that a large proportion of the marathoners had only just finished the first 11 miles, with 15 and change to go. He was a beautiful thing to behold, so strong and graceful, next to us plodders and pacers. We clapped and cheered him as he passed by. After stretching and rehydrating I met up with my family. I was not very concerned about not being able to test, although I was curious and cursed my bad luck. I ate an apple on the way home, figuring it couldn’t hurt much since home was only 30 minutes away, and it wasn’t so bad. When I got home I had to recalibrate the friggin’ meter because the new strips had a different number but showed a BG of 158 at 11:30. That’s about 90 minutes after the race ended and after an apple, so not too shabby. Except it was still going up 30 minutes later, to 170. I ate, bolused and corrected and got back on track right away. Oh, I also did another stupid thing the day before the race. I signed up to train for the 2008 L.A. Marathon. . Terry
      Congratulations Terry, on running a great race! It sounds like you did a great job dealing with unexpected bloodsugar issues. Stuff like that almost never happens in training - if my bloodsugars are going to go crazy it will be during a race. Good luck with your marathon training for 2008! Please keep us up to date on how it's going Smile Stacie


      The voice of mile 18

        great job! the 315 would have freaked me out a good bit but you handled it very well. congrats

         Tri Rule #1 of Triathlon Training/Racing - If Momma ain't happy nobody is happy 

        jpnairn


        straw man

          Way to go, Terry, and good luck in the LA Marathon! Jerry

          He who has the best time wins. Jerry