{"id":4885,"date":"2010-02-13T16:05:05","date_gmt":"2010-02-13T21:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=4885"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:45:15","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:45:15","slug":"diabetes-its-an-endurance-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=4885","title":{"rendered":"Diabetes – It\u2019s an Endurance Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve always had a great appreciation for endurance sports. I prefer soccer (where the players play for a minimum of 90 minutes with only three substitutions) to basketball or football. I\u2019m amazed by ultra marathoners and Ironmen. And my chosen sport and hobby is long distance running. I also think of diabetes as an endurance sport.<\/p>\n

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in late may 2002. I\u2019d had symptoms for a while. I think I can even pinpoint the day it all started (but who knows?). I was at my cousin\u2019s wedding in Atlanta in August of that year. We arrived at the wedding and, as I always do at family gatherings, I went to get a drink. (I think it was a vodka tonic). A few minutes later I felt terrible and thought I was going to pass out. I stayed at the wedding and my wife Jessica assumed I was drunk, although I had not had anything but a sip of my first vodka tonic. I don\u2019t recall anything else from the wedding. I was sick for the next few days, kind of like the flu, but without a fever. The next few months were strange. I developed a sweet tooth I\u2019d never had. I started to lose weight and drank huge amounts of liquid- water, juice, milk \u2013 anything I could get my hands on.\u00a0 I should have known something was up when I came home from work one day and announced I was going to have a couple of vanilla milkshakes for dinner.<\/p>\n

When I finally went to the doctor I had gone from a 175 pound slightly overweight guy to very unhealthy looking 148 pounds. I had lost the feeling in the three middle toes of my right foot (wrongly diagnosed by an army doctor as Trench Foot<\/a> \u2013 a medical condition caused by prolonged exposure of the feet to damp, unsanitary and cold conditions, common in soldiers in WWI), and my vision was slightly blurry. I also had a very hard time getting out of bed.<\/p>\n

I was relieved when I was diagnosed with diabetes. I didn\u2019t know very much about it, but I knew it meant I was going to live. I decided I wasn\u2019t going to let diabetes change my life (people always say that about their disease).\u00a0\u00a0 But of course, diabetes did change my life.\u00a0 It changed my life completely.<\/p>\n

For most of my adult life I\u2019ve been a runner, but I only took up long distances running three years ago. I ran my first marathon last year (April 24th<\/sup>, 2009).\u00a0 I trained for four and half months in which I also completed three half marathons. I found out that training with diabetes was just like training without diabetes, except for that not so minor issue – blood sugar. I had a few catastrophes including a few scary lows.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned that the trick to a successful run is to make sure I don\u2019t start too high and \u2013of course – don\u2019t go too low.\u00a0 Only very recently, however, I\u2019ve begun to understand that my technique for achieving stable blood sugar during a run, is all wrong.\u00a0 What I was doing throughout the marathon training, was eating very few carbs the night before a long run, and no breakfast in the morning. This way I avoided taking insulin the morning of a long run and the chances of a low during the run were smaller. When I did go low I found that eating a date was a good solution. The marathon took place on a hot and humid day and I finished it in 4:13:45. Not the best result, but I was happy and proud and I decided that I would run another marathon next year.\u00a0 And I did, only it didn\u2019t turn out the way I\u2019d hoped.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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