A Haiku

New post dedicated to Type One Run. A Haiku.

on the longest run,
no end in sight, remember
leave no ones behind


OK, one more.

we're incurable
we run with diabetes
not away from it


Credit to Craig Stubing for the "Leave No Ones Behind" motto and James Mansfield for teaching me to count syllables.

Dancing with Dirt at Devil's Lake

Somehow I got registered for the Dances With Dirt Devil's Lake 50K. Well, I guess I know how it happened. My youngest brother Chris, who had done the marathon at Devil's Lake twice, and who lives in Wisconsin, asked me if I'd like to come out and run it with him. We've met up to do races before, some of them described elsewhere in this blog.
Chris has done at least a dozen marathons, but no ultra marathons. He was considering the 50K, I think, and I had always said that a 50K is really in the same category as a marathon, like a ten mile race is in the same category as a half marathon.
But then, as I said in an earlier post in this blog, I ran the Relay Del Sol with a team of diabetic runners, and got inspired.
One of the things I got inspired to do was to quick sign up for the 50K at Devil's Lake and call Chris. "Hey, Chris, I registered for the 50K. You better sign up before it fills up!"

So Chris and I did the 50K last weekend. No big deal.

Even death?

 We were only concerned about finishing. We were both under-trained. Chris continually said he was doing less than I was, but that's what he always does. Then usually he runs my butt off on race day.
Thankfully, that didn't happen this time. Chris really was as out of shape as I was.
We had to beat the cutoff by reaching the 25 mile point before 1 PM, 7:30 after the 5:30 AM start. We did it with minutes to spare, then walked it in.

We went all over the country you see in the background.

Overall, a nice trek through beautiful country with good company. We ran a lot at first, but walked the steep hills from the beginning, then every hill, then after the cutoff, we just walked.

Dirt dancing legs.

My blood sugar behaved. It was a little high through the early miles, but came down to normal and never got low.

I am now inspired to harden myself up at the Harding Hustle next week.

That Thing on my Arm

A couple of weeks ago, I was just getting ready to leave the gym, stuffing my sweaty shirt into my bag in the locker room, when this guy, Burt, came over and said, "I hope you don't mind my asking, but what's that thing on your arm?"

Actual photo of that thing on my arm

I said, "I don't mind you asking, but it's a long story, and you wouldn't believe it anyway."
He seemed amused, even though I wasn't trying to be funny. He kind of laughed and said, "Well, that just makes me more curious!"
I said, "Look, if I tell you what I know, you won't believe me, and you still won't know what it is."
Now his brow furrowed. I couldn't tell if his face was red because of his workout, or because he was getting pissed off at me.
"I'll believe you! Just tell me!"
"Then you'll just drop the subject and leave me alone?"
"Sure."
So I told him the story.
"OK. I was walking the dog one night, and suddenly I was surrounded by a bright light shining down from the sky. I looked up toward the source of the light, but it was so blindingly bright, I couldn't see any details. I could see that it was coming closer and closer, and as it did, I started to hear a high-pitched noise getting louder and louder... then I blacked out.
When I came to, it was hours later, in the early morning, before dawn. I was a mile away, lying in an empty parking lot, and I had this thing on my arm.
I knew where I was, so I was able to walk home. My dog was on the porch, all right, but shivering with fright.
Anyway, I don't know what it is, but that's how it got there."
"Why don't you just pull it off then?" He asked, clearly thinking I was pulling his leg.
"Whenever I think about doing something like that, a voice in my head says, 'DO NOT REMOVE THE TRACKING DEVICE.' and I forget about it. It really doesn't bother me."
"How about if I pull it off for you?" Burt was obviously angry now.
"Whenever someone starts to do that, I black out again. Please don't do that."
"Oh, so you do this a lot?" He asked, moving closer.
"I'm starting to hear that high-pitched noise. Please don't..."
Then I blacked out.
I came back to consciousness miles away, in the woods, with a shovel in my hands, standing on a mound of freshly turned earth. I was able to follow my footprints back to my car. They were deep footprints, as if I had been carrying something heavy. My phone was there, so I figured out where I was and drove home.
But I would like to know what happened when I blacked out. I would ask Burt, but I haven't seen him around the gym for a couple of weeks.

Hello, Is this thing on?

First post on this blog in almost 5 years. I'm not sure who will notice this. The main reason I'm posting here is I'd like to write a little about an upcoming event, the St. George Marathon, and leave it here and link to it from Twitter and Facebook.

Type One Run has a few members going to the 2017 St. George Marathon, October 7, and is asking other interested runners with type 1 diabetes to register and run it with us.

If you buy a nice Type One Run running shirt, it will help us all make a good showing and represent people with diabetes. You can only get in on this order of shirts until 4/28/2017.

In the time since I last posted here, four and a half years, I ran 16 more marathons. Sadly, they were all terribly slow, mostly because I haven't trained properly.

Here are the details:

-->

6:37:19	15:10	2/7/2016	126	CA	Surf City Marathon
5:22:53	12:20	10/4/2015	154	MN	Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
5:21:36	12:17	5/3/2015	64	CA	OC Marathon
6:29:49	12:35	2/28/2015	27	CA	Orange Curtain 50K
5:06:01	11:41	2/1/2015	85	CA	Surf City Marathon
7:46:08	17:47	11/8/2014	27	CA	Catalina Island Eco Marathon
5:26:18	12:27	10/12/2014	35	CA	Long Beach Marathon
5:49:38	13:21	9/7/2014	84	CA	Ventura Marathon
5:51:10	13:25	6/15/2014	42	CA	Fathers Day Marathon*
5:30:51	12:38	5/4/2014	44	CA	OC Marathon
9:01:21	20:39	3/23/2014	35	NM	Bataan Death March Marathon
5:27:15	12:30	2/16/2014	28	CA	Majestic Marathon*
5:37:11	12:52	1/19/2014	133	CA	Carlsbad Marathon
5:35:07	12:47	9/8/2013	224	CA	Ventura Marathon
5:55:57	13:35	1/27/2013	77	CA	Carlsbad Marathon
6:06:03	13:59	11/11/2012	294	CA	Malibu Marathon

That number between the date and the state in my spreadsheet is "days between", as in days between marathons. Since as you can see, the last marathon was February of 2016, and I'm not registered for another until July, the next "days between" number will be the highest ever. I've gone more than a year without running a marathon.

But just in time I've gotten inspired by this great group, Type One Run. I was incredibly fortunate to meet Craig Stubing, founder of Type One Run, at a JDRF Summit in Pasadena. We spoke briefly about running and the fact that Type One Run had a team in the Ragnar SoCal Relay.
Then a week later, I got an email saying that one of their runners had dropped out, and asking if I would like to join. Of course I would!

I've had this experience of being on an overnight relay with a team of diabetics four times now, and I would recommend it to anyone dealing with this disease.
My experience with Type One Run was relentlessly positive and inspiring. And it reminded me of a lot of things I've been missing in my life recently.

OK. A couple of things to explain in that list of marathons:
The Catalina Eco Marathon is just really, really tough, especially for a fat old, out of shape diabetic.

I did the Bataan Death March Marathon for my second time in 2014, but this time my youngest brother Chris did it with me, and we did it in the "Heavy" category, meaning we wore 35 pound backpacks. That is also a tough marathon, even without a pack, but not quite like Catalina Eco.