Approaching 100

Please comment below and suggest events for my 100th race of marathon length or longer.
My official Marathon Maniacs count is currently 89, 76 marathons and 13 ultras.
Thank you.

I have a lot of events I should write something about, but I've been lacking inspiration.
These are the long races I've done since the last one I wrote about on this blog, Dances With Dirt, July 8, 2017:

2/3/2019     Surf City Marathon
1/12/2019    Avalon 50 Mile
12/1/2018    Death Valley Trail Marathon
10/27/2018   Lake Hodges 50K
10/7/2018    Long Beach Marathon
9/15/2018    Flagstaff Marathon
8/19/2018    Pikes Peak Marathon*
7/28/2018    Harding Hustle 50K
6/16/2018    Holcomb Valley Trail Run 33 mile
6/9/2018     Shadow of the Giants 50K
3/18/2018    LA Marathon
3/10/2018    Catalina Island Marathon
12/3/2017    California International Marathon
11/5/2017    Santa Clarita Marathon
10/7/2017    St. George Marathon
7/22/2017    Harding Hustle 50K

I had a DNF/unofficial finish at Pikes Peak, where I ran the distance but came in too late to count. That race is not counted in the 89 I mentioned above.

I have 5 more long races I am registered for this year. I expect to add more, and I expect to hit 100 sometime in 2020.

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:

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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.

Bad-Assedness

I wrote this a few days ago in the "Diabetics Who Run Marathons" group on TuDiabetes. It occurs to me that it might be OK for a blog post, and I'm not writing much else. So here it is.

So... I've been thinking about the headline "Stunts to Impress" in Higdon's advice on multiple marathons, and the much appreciated comments on me being "BADASS" and "amazing."
Of course I'm often looking for opportunities in the conversation here to brag about things I've done. I like to be called bad-ass. And I don't see anything wrong with that. Some of the greatest achievements of mankind have been done so someone could say the equivalent of "Look, Ma! No hands!"
A good part of people doing this is that it expands the realm of possibilities for others.
In that spirit I feel like I should point out that I know a type 1 diabetic who's run about twice as many marathons as I have, and run them faster.
I've met two diabetics who have gotten the silver buckle at the Western States 100 mile endurance run, and I'm aware of at least one other whom I haven't met. You get the silver buckle for finishing in less than 24 hours. There are probably others I'm not aware of.
There is a type 1 diabetic world class marathon and ultra marathon runner.
I could go on. I guess the point is that while I like being called "BADASS" and that's at least part of why I do some of the things I do, I'm aware that there are others more bad-ass than I am.
And 14 years ago I was a diabetic runner afraid to try a marathon. I was inspired and comforted by reading about or meeting other diabetic athletes, and not just the fantastic athletic ones, but the ordinary folks like me.
Wherever you're at with diabetes and exercise, there are people ahead of you and behind you on the bad-ass scale. Well, since everyone is different, and every life situation is different, there really isn't a scale we can all be measured against.
We are all inspiring each other.
Reading back over this, I kind of rambled. I hope I had something to say.
"Stunts to Impress" aren't necessarily a bad thing.

In other news, along with a contingent of runners from Glucomotive, I ran the Denver Rock 'N' Roll Marathon last Sunday.

Things I should have posted about

As a race, the Carlsbad Marathon on January 23rd went as well as I could expect. That means awful. But it was still a great experience. It was a huge Glucomotive event, and my brother Jon was also there to enjoy the festivities and support the race.
I had close to zero training, so I figured I had to be conservative. I thought 4:30 would be a remotely possible time goal, so I aimed for 10 minute miles.
I saw Gary Schmidt and Emily Iannello at the start and ran with them for a bit. I also met Ed Ettinghausen, who is going for the world record for marathons in one year.
He isn't keeping his stats up to date, but you can get an idea of what Ed's doing by looking at his stats on the Marathon Maniacs site.
Anyway, I ran OK to about 17 miles. It was clear well before that that I wasn't going to last, but at a big steep hill along the beach, at the last turnaround, I really came apart.
I slowed way down for about a mile. Realizing I was just trudging along, I started walking. Several times I tried to start running again, and it just seemed too hard. Then at about 20 miles, right before the marathon course hooked back up with the half course, I started running again and felt fine. At least fine enough to just jog through it.
I ran for a couple of miles, then came across some Glucomotive folks doing the half, Jim Collins and Ashley Ernst, who was one of the "Heroes of the Marathon", and Ashley's friend. I have to apologize for not remembering her name.
Jim was having cramp problems, so they were all helping each other along, walking and jogging as possible.
With a little over 3 miles to go, we got to the Glucomotive group of volunteers, where my brother Jon was with his girlfriend, Gina.
I asked them if they wanted to walk to the finish with me, and they did.
So I walked it off.
I had about a 20 mile run, and a lot of walking on the day. It was not a good race, but as I said, it was a great day.

In general, my new Animas Ping insulin pump is working great. I swim with it frequently. I just stick it in the side of my suit with the clip sticking out and the pump against my skin.
There are some little annoyances, but the same could be said for Medtronic pump I was using before. I wish I could take the good points from each and put them together. It all seems like common sense to me, the things I don't like, but I'm sure there are some patents that are keeping it from being as good as it could be.
For example, the Animas pump will calculate the bolus for me, then just display it. It's then up to me to enter how much I want to bolus. There's no way to just say, "Give me what you just calculated that I need, you stupid machine."
Then entering an amount to bolus is ridiculous. You can click up or down 0.05 units per button press, or you can hold down the button and it will start to roll by increasing amounts. You know how this goes. It's a similar to the Medtronic pumps. It's actually a pretty common interface, for setting digital clocks, thermostats, etc.
With Medtronic, it's easier to get used to. Animas is fricking crazy. It seems to go 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.50, 1,5, 3.5, 5, 8, ... not moving at all, then moving way way too fast. And the kicker is it doesn't stop when you take your finger off the button, so if you take your finger off at 5, it will probably stop at 6.5. Entering carbs is about the same.
So you either click up one step at a time or go way over then back down too far, then over, then under, getting closer and closer to what you want to enter. It's terrible. And I can't believe they could have failed to see this in usability testing.
Maybe I'll get used to it, but if I do, it will take a while, and I will be getting used to something that's more difficult than it has to be.
Changing the reservoir is harder on the Animas, but inserting an infusion site is easier. The Animas pump times out frequently, rapidly, while changing the reservoir. And when it times out, it goes back to the Home screen, so you have to click back into the Prime/Rewind screen. Crazy and annoying.
The woman who trained me on the Animas said that I'll eventually be able to change the reservoir and an infusion site without it timing out. After changing everything out several times, I doubt it. It would take the kind of skill required of Marines who can disassemble and reassemble an M16 blindfolded in 60 seconds.
The only way I've been able to get close, and still not avoid a time out, is to put in the new site and fill up a new reservoir, having everything ready before rewinding. It's not user friendly. It's unfriendly.
Still, I'm getting comfortable with the new pump, and as I said, it's great for swimming.

The Dexcom CGM is just incredible. I know my A1c is going to be down at my next checkup. I can't help it. Being able to see what is going on with my blood sugar all the time means I am fixing problems I wasn't even aware of before.


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Glucomotive 2010 Ragnar Great River Relay

Yes, this relay was run in August, the 20th and 21st. Yes, it is October. That's how slow I am.

Andrew, the driver for van 1, the van I was in, had just injured his ankle on a bike ride. It was so swollen and ugly that we wondered if he could reliably work the accelerator and brakes as he drove us up the Mississippi.

Andrew's ankle later that day, as we waited for van 2 to come into the second van exchange. In the small version of this picture, it looks OK because the swelling has gone down, but if you zoom in, you can see the tiger-striping from the bruise being wrapped with an Ace bandage. But Andrew did fine driving. He kept us guessing about whether he was about to run into things, but he must have known what he was doing.
You get a good look at some of our Costco supplies in this picture, too.

Dave and Daniel relaxing at the first van exchange, I think, before Saci (below) hands off to Pratt from van 2.

Saci in Triabetes gear smiling through his first leg, which was rated "Very Hard."

Daniel, Saci, Jennifer, and Igor after a dip in the Mississippi at the second van exchange.

Daniel by our van in the early morning of the second day, at the fourth van exchange.

The runners from both vans get a rare chance to spend some time together at the fifth van exchange, waiting for Saci to come in. This is counter-clockwise from Daniel, shirtless, Gary in the "Diabetes. Run with it." shirt, Emily in her "Running on Insulin" shirt, Dave, Jennifer, Andrew, and Corinne.

Pratt hauling up a monstrous hill on his last leg.

Dave, Daniel, Igor, Anne, Saci, and Jennifer at the finish, ready for our anchor runner, Corinne, to come in.

Corinne tearing down the pavement toward the finish.

Post-race joy.

Gary, Emily, Mike, Corinne, Pratt, Anne, Igor, Jennifer, Saci, Dave, me, and Daniel.
Not pictured, the awesome drivers, Andrew and John.
Here's a great video Peter put together from stuff we shot during the race.




(Teammates, I left out last names because I wasn't sure if anyone would mind. Am I being silly?)

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2009 Myomed Ragnar Relay Del Sol

Insulindependence is organizing an all type 1 diabetic team to run in the MyoMed Ragnar Relay Del Sol, February 27th and 28th, 2009, a relay of over 180 miles, from Wickenburg to Mesa, AZ.

From the relay web site:

"Running three legs during a 24-hour relay race is much easier than you think. Each team member runs three legs, ranging between 3 and 8 miles. This relay race is physically demanding, but legs vary in difficulty, and participants can choose which legs they run. This unique relay format makes the Del Sol an accessible race for beginners yet challenging enough for the most competitive."

That web site is:

http://www.ragnarrelay.com/delsol/index.php

Take a look, and if you're interested, sign up at:

http://www.insulindependence.org/ragnar_2009.asp

Incidentally, I get to be team captain!