{"id":10998,"date":"2010-10-07T13:05:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=10998"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:41:58","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:41:58","slug":"race-day-reflections-sprint-triathlons-are-good-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=10998","title":{"rendered":"Race Day Reflections: Sprint Triathlons Are Good for Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case you didn\u2019t see the little comment post I made after I finished the race last weekend, here\u2019s the news:\u00a0 I finished the race!<\/p>\n

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A few of the crew from the JDRF NW Tri Club\u2026 with medals! <\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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I fulfilled all of my goals of finishing, never stopping, and having fun.\u00a0 I also fulfilled the bonus goal I had to keep my blood sugar levels in safe ranges at all times.\u00a0 And I fulfilled the extra-bonus goal of meeting new people and bonding over the fact that we were about to jump into a freezing cold lake together!\u00a0 It was fantastic!\u00a0 My new friends from the SDGNW<\/a> and JDRF NW Tri Club<\/a> stepped up to help me set up my space in the transition zone and encourage me along the course.\u00a0 In fact, on the day before the race, I received emails from everyone involved with little suggestions and words of assurance.\u00a0 One especially gracious guy offered to do the whole race by my side.\u00a0 I was moved to tears and continue to feel overwhelmingly grateful when I think about how the diabetes community truly has become a community for me.<\/p>\n

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So, let\u2019s get right down to it.\u00a0 I promised you a re-cap of my Race Day, and that you shall have.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ll go ahead and answer your most burning questions first, then move into more general reflections.<\/p>\n

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Suits and caps (and raincoats) on. LET\u2019S DO THIS. <\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Number One:\u00a0 Yes, I peed in my wetsuit.<\/p>\n

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Have you ever put on a wetsuit?\u00a0 It is very difficult.\u00a0 When I went to try on the one I had reserved, the woman gave me verbal directions, pointed to a step-by-step diagram poster on the wall, and then literally brought in and turned on a fan in the dressing room before walking back to the front of the store with a smirk on her face.\u00a0 Needless to say, once you get it on, you want to keep it on.<\/p>\n

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I arrived for the triathlon around 7am and my wave didn\u2019t start until 9am.\u00a0 I probably went to the bathroom in the distant porta-potties three times before I put on my wetsuit, but there was no stopping it.\u00a0 As we approached the T-minus-10-minutes mark, I jumped into the lake and swam around for a few minutes to get adjusted to the water temperature and get into the racing mindset.\u00a0 And, right then, I knew it was going to be a pee-now-or-forever-hold-your-pee situation.<\/p>\n

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Number Two:\u00a0 No, glucose tablets are not waterproof.\u00a0 At all.<\/p>\n

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Somewhere along the way, during the bike portion, I realized that I had forgotten to stick my glucose tablets and gummies in the back pockets of my tri shorts.\u00a0 When you run out of the water, you\u2019re ripping off your wetsuit, throwing on a t-shirt, and jumping on your bike.\u00a0 In that transition, I had planned to stick my low supplies in my pockets.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0 So, while riding my coworker\u2019s bike miles away from my base camp, I resolved to put the supplies in my pockets when I got back, and at least have them with me for the run.\u00a0 Biking has never significantly dropped my blood sugar, anyway, so I figured I was ok.<\/p>\n

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I did<\/em> remember to stick them in my pockets before the run, but I did not<\/em> end up using them, and I found them about two hours after crossing the finish line in a solid, pasty glucose mass stuck to my shorts.\u00a0 (Did I mention it poured all morning?)<\/p>\n

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I lifted my towel out of my bag to start cleaning up to go home and this is what I saw. Such is the transition zone for a person with diabetes. <\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Number Three:\u00a0 Yes, blood sugar levels and times can be easily confused.<\/p>\n

How many of you have had an experience similar to this:\u00a0 You test your blood sugar sometime in the early afternoon and say to yourself, \u201cTwo-o-nine.\u201d\u00a0 Then you zip up your meter and look at the time, and it\u2019s 2:09.\u00a0 Confused, you unzip your meter and scroll back through your numbers to make sure you were looking at the glucose level, not the time.\u00a0 Anyone else ever have double-takes like this?\u00a0 (I guess I don\u2019t often have blood sugar levels in the two-hundreds, but certainly have confusion more frequently in the one-hundreds.)\u00a0 For me, since numbers are often difficult to remember in the first place, I seem to blend them together or exchange them quite easily.<\/p>\n

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Well, when I arrived at my little bike rack area in the Transition Zone on the morning of the race, I was greeted by a veteran triathlete standing next to me who welcomed me to the race and assured me that Black Diamond was a great \u201cfirst.\u201d\u00a0 (Here\u2019s how you can tell the veterans from us first-timers:\u00a0 they have a can of Pam Cooking Spray in their bag of transition gear.\u00a0 That\u2019s right; Pam.\u00a0 They spray it all over themselves and their wetsuits to make it slide off more easily when going from the swim to the bike.\u00a0 This man was one of the Pam-holders.)\u00a0 As the start time approached, we both headed off to the lake.\u00a0 An hour and some later, when I returned from my biking portion (with 2.8 miles left to run), the Pam Man was packing up his things to go home, having finished the race a little while ago.\u00a0 We briefly said hello as I scrambled to rack my bike, pull out my meter and get a drop of blood from my finger amidst the pouring rain.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t necessarily worried about being low or high, but was delighted to see 109 flash on my meter\u2019s screen.\u00a0 I turned to one of my SDGNW supporters and yelled, \u201cOne-o-nine!\u201d\u00a0 Pam Man looked shocked as he turned to me and almost jumped with congratulations, saying, \u201cOne-o-nine for your first tri?!\u00a0 That\u2019s amazing!\u00a0 Great job!\u201d\u00a0 I very quickly realized what was happening and almost had to stop the man from hugging me so that I could explain that, \u201cWell, actually, I have type one diabetes\u2026 and this is my blood sugar\u2026 not my time\u2026 and I still have the run left to do.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure who was more embarrassed.<\/p>\n

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Rack your bike. Take off your helmet. Test you blood sugar. Run.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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As far as other race-related things go, I have good news to report:\u00a0 I took a chunk of time off of my swim time, had a PR, and finished 78th<\/sup> out of everyone (213 in the Sprint Tri) for the swim!\u00a0 Honestly\u2014and I don\u2019t know why this was surprising to me\u2014the swim was the most fun.\u00a0 I would do that again any day.\u00a0 I think it was the part I was dreading the most, only due to my terrifyingly cold test-run in Green Lake the day before, but it turned out to be the part I enjoyed the most.\u00a0 I was able to find some openings to slip through and some pockets to pop up out of, but I probably could\u2019ve taken another minute off my time if I didn\u2019t have to spend so much time treading water, stuck in a pile of people, at the start.\u00a0 The biking was fine; much bigger hills than I had trained on, but fun to see people and yell encouragement to strangers as they passed.\u00a0 My run time was a couple minutes slower than what I had been running; I think I was so worried about pushing too hard that I didn\u2019t push hard enough.\u00a0 There\u2019s always next time.<\/p>\n

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Overall, I am very pleased with my results.\u00a0 I kept my blood sugar levels in check for the entire race and crossed the finish line smiling.\u00a0 My parents were the first (and only) people I called after I finished, and they quietly stepped out of a political get-together they were attending back in Ohio just to hear about my race.\u00a0 Not having many friends or family members in the area, I did wear my medal to work the next day, to the chagrin of my coworkers.\u00a0 And then, it was on with life.<\/p>\n

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One of the reasons I originally decided to do this sprint triathlon was to battle some of the anxiety I have related to \u201cHow will diabetes change my life?\u201d\u00a0 I wanted to prove to myself that I could still do a sprint triathlon if I wanted to.\u00a0 Now that I\u2019ve finished it, it seems obvious to me.\u00a0 \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t I be able to do this?\u201d is what I hear myself asking now.\u00a0 I still have plenty of worries about how diabetes will affect me in the future, but my hope is that I\u2019m further down the path of accepting my diagnosis and thinking optimistically about the challenges I\u2019ll overcome.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had a bunch of sunny days here in Seattle recently, so I\u2019m taking it as an omen of good things to come.\u00a0 Fast swim times, unexpected sunny days, caring friends:\u00a0 these are the things that bring joy.\u00a0 And we ask for more.<\/p>\n

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