I woke up at 4:30 this morning with a pretty excellent blood sugar of 127, had a bowl of Chex cereal (gluten free!!! YES!) to which I put in about half my bolus, and drove to my uncle's house, who convinced me last night that I should run this race. We drove to downtown Buffalo, NY, arriving about 6 am, and I went and signed up, paid my money, got my "goodie bag" with my race t-shirt and number. I tested for the first time since breakfast and was 243--I guess I left too much bolus out. (On a side note, I EVER run in the morning, so managing my blood sugar during a morning race is somewhat difficult for me).
I drank some water and just chilled for 30 minutes until we made our way over to the start line of the race. I tested again, 153 and had a minor freak out as my sugar was dropping pretty fast, ate some glucose tabs. At the start line, I met up with a Team Type 1 athlete who I work with at diabetes camp. I ran the entire way with him, and we talked about all sorts of stuff, mostly diabetes and endurance athletics related, and the time flew by. This "race" for me was just a long run, not a determined effort to get a specific time or win, just finish the distance with a friend.
I tested at about 3 miles.......let's just say I took some insulin and was not worried about being low; my blood sugar pretty high, most likely due to the glucose tabs I ate (too many) and nerves--I should have accounted for that. I tested at 10 miles and was coming down nicely.
My partner and I parted ways near the finish line (for me) and he continued on to run the full marathon.
Running down the last section of the race was absolutely a wonderful feeling! My time was 1:37:48! My blood sugar was 223.
Here's a picture of me afterward with my finisher's medal! Someday I'll actually RACE a full marathon.
