D-Skills is probably the worst 'slang' term I have ever made up. It is what I sometimes call my best kept secret that is not really a secret at all...that I am a diabetic. I only say this because it is not that I don't tell people about it. I do if they ask, but no one seems to ask and I don't think anyone cares to know so I don't openly bring it up.
Now that my dirty secret is out I want to write a post that I have been meaning to write for a while...being a diabetic runner. For some more background I am a type-one diabetic, which is a 'real' diabetic not a 'fake' who would stop having complications if they would just eat better (yeah I am calling you out type-twos). Being a 'real' diabetic my body does not produce insulin which is needed for the body to absorb glucose. This started right before my 16th birthday (woo-hoo happy birthday) when my pancreas broke, well not really but you get the idea. About a year and a half ago I started to use an insulin pump to replace my broken pancreas.
And the insulin pump has completely changed my life. Without it I would not be able to make the small adjustments in insulin rates that are essential for endurance activities. But the real question is how do you know what small adjustments to make, well that is an interesting question and what this post is actually about.
Training last year for the Los Angeles Marathon I thought I had everything all figured out. At the time I was following a 'typical' hydration and glucose intake schedule. That is I would take Gatorade during long runs and use gels every 45 minutes. Throughout training this seemed to work; however, during a few of the long runs I noticed some problems but attributed them to running distances that I had never run before and not anything 'D' related (sorry more bad slang).
Finally when I got to the marathon I learned a big lesson at a rather inopportune time. It started before the race. I was so excited/nervous about the race that adrenaline was flowing rampant in my body. Well for you non-diabetics adrenaline causes a release of glucose, or decrease in glycogen (can't remember which) and that means my blood sugar skyrocketed. Also, I think I was having issues with my pump injection site, which didn't help. At this point I was thinking there is nothing I can do but wait until the race and let the running balance out my blood sugar. Well during the race, I was so worried about hitting the wall that I figured I need to drink Gatorade at every stop and consume plenty of gels. I felt pretty good until mile 18 or so, and then I started to fade quickly. I panicked and thought I was about to hit said wall right in the face. I started consuming gels like a sorority girl consumes free jello-shots (sorry that was awful). This turned out to be a bad, bad idea.
At mile 20 I could not go on any further, my entire lower body was cramping, so I stopped at an aide station. I was treated for cramps, but it didn't seem to help much. Luckily I had my glucose meter with me, and upon checking my numbers I found my blood sugar was above 500. Again for you non-diabetics normal blood sugar levels are between 90 and 120, so yeah I was 5 times that. When your sugar gets that high your body has an interesting response and that is to expel the excess glucose by what ever means possible. Looking back I had used the restroom during the race at mile 17 about 5 minutes before my problems began. My body had expelled all the glucose it could and without a proper amount of insulin in my body none of the glucose that was there was getting to my muscles. Well all you runners know what happens when your muscles don't have glucose...they cramp. And that is what happened to my entire body pretty much.
To try and end this long tale of woe, I spent about 2 hours at the aide station. The doctor there wouldn't let me go until my blood sugar level had dropped below 300. I would like to thank that doctor for being persistent about this because I wanted to leave much earlier. After my blood sugar was closer to normal I continued on. My muscles still did not have the proper glucose supply, but I managed the last 6 miles in about 58 minutes (walking and running).
Looking back I think that this was actually a positive experience. First thing was that during those two hours I got to experience much more of the marathon than I would of had I just ran straight through. I met a volunteer who lived near Bakersfield and had driven to the event at 4am that day and had done so for the past 12 years or something!! Not only that but I got to see so many courageous runners struggling but persisting. That was very inspirational. Of course the second thing is that it made me reevaluate my entire glucose consuming strategy. Which I actually intended to discuss in this post, but that story just went on and on. So it will have to wait for another post...until then friends.
