Don't let anything limit you....

All of the participants in the Orangeman Triathlon received an email about a week ago asking for a "human interest story" about their participation.  Below is what I submitted.

"With self-disclipline most anything is possible."

-Theodore Roosevelt

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I read a lot of literature on nutrition; cyclist bonking, marathoners running out of energy, all of these stories about total depletion of glycogen after total failure of an athlete’s nutrition plan.  Each time I think, “I wish it were just that simple”.  

That’s because I have Type 1 Diabetes.  An autoimmune disease in which the body destroys the beta cells in the pancreas that creates insulin.  Unlike most athletes who only have to think about their fuel, I have to think about the balance that fuel brings to my blood glucose level. 

Normally dealing with diabetes is a lot of simple math; carbohydrates (not sugar like everyone thinks), insulin, and ratios of the two.  Throw in an ocean swim, a hard run or a big brick workout and everything turns from a simple addition problem to a calc equation.   If endurance sports are a series of yes and no questions, then endurance sports with diabetes is a series of jeopardy. 

I’m one of the lucky ones though.  I’ve always been strong, never letting it slow me down.  In my mind a challenge that others will never even know about.   That’s why I run for Insulindependence; a nonprofit that believes using exercise as a way to help manage ones diabetes.  I want to show all the kids and adults out there with diabetes that have ever been told they can’t do something that they can do anything.