A shoutout to JessicaD - She is incredible!

I wanted to post a little bit about @JessicaD, because she is absolutely amazing! She was so helpful to me, and also so helpful to my wife this past week. She made things so much easier for us on our recent visit to Boston.

First of all, she helped me figure out the race-day logistics. There is a lot of stuff that is not very easy for a first-timer to navigate. @JessicaD (and her husband too!) talked to me several times in the weeks leading up to the race to help me figure out the travel and how to handle some of the challenges. She was very patient in providing me with all of the information I needed.

We talked about meeting up for dinner. Part of the necessary lead-up is to have a big carb dinner 2 nights before, which was Saturday. (Pasta is tradition for that!)

So rather than meet us at a restaurant, she actually hosted us at her house, and made dinner for us! :heart_eyes: She was so incredibly gracious to host us in her home!

Before dinner, she walked us over to the race course so we could see it, and get an idea of where we’d see each other. It’s really tough to navigate that as a first-timer, and getting the visual made it so much easier to see Leslie! She also brought us to a little grocery shop so I could get some sugar-treats for my hotel room.

Then we went back to her house to eat. While she was cooking, she had hors d’oeuvres for us, and glasses of wine. :star_struck: It was incredible! Olives, vegetables, nuts, cherry tomatoes, hummus, crackers. And beer!

(She was also very gracious in bailing me out of a plummeting low! I had been dosing up all day as I was trying to carb up a bunch!)

And then dinner! Fresh pasta with 2 different kinds of marinara (spicy for me, non-spicy for Leslie), roasted vegetables, bread… and more wine! I had seconds of everything, of course!

Dessert was also incredible! It was a variety of different pastries, including some gluten-free selections for Leslie. (And she sent me back to my hotel room with a box of the leftover pastries, which I completely polished off on Monday night as third dessert. :yum:)

During dinner, her daughter was with us. She was extremely polite, helping serve. And then sitting there listening to the boring adults talking during the entire dinner. So well-mannered and sweet!




@JessicaD was so incredibly gracious and hospitable to us. She is absolutely phenomenal.
:star_struck: :heart_eyes:




This picture says so much about how awesome @JessicaD is. This is the picture that says it all!

It was raining, and Leslie went out to give me water and carbs around the midway point. Then she drove to @JessicaD’s house so she could meet me around 21 and give me more. (Also a shout-out to Leslie, for being able to navigate to 2 different places on the busiest day of the year in Boston! :grinning:)

Leslie was shivering from being out in the rain. And @JessicaD has her sit on a chair in her house, covers her with a blanket, and puts a cute snuggly dog on her lap and asks her if she wanted some hot tea.

I love this picture, because afterwards I looked at the timestamp for when it was taken. This was Leslie at the exact time when I was out in the rain going up Heartbreak Hill. :joy:




@JessicaD is really incredible. Gracious, hospitable, kind, and sweet. I love her! :heart_eyes:

Thanks for everything, @JessicaD

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With a support group like this, it’s no wonder you did well, Kudos to Jessica, Leslie and the snuggle pupper.

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@JessicaD is indeed incredible!! So glad you did the Boston Marathon, too! I recall a post some time ago in which Jessica mentioned her husband was a runner and could give you some hints should you choose to run it. And now months later, you did, and you all met up!

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Awww it was SO WONDERFUL to have @Eric and Leslie in for the marathon and to get to spend this time getting to know them! I really cannot describe how cool it is to have so many flash points of “I get it!” with other diabetic friends. Well, lots of you probably get it. And to meet Eric in person seriously topped the cake! I really hope we can arrange more get togethers – such a wonderful thing!

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And this is what makes FUD so great.

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I absolutely love ALL of this! The friendship, collaboration, support, and 100% generous positive energy is what I really appreciate about it. @Eric is so good about offering help to all of us. And I love seeing @Eric receiving help from @JessicaD, her family, and of course, Eric’s awesome wife, Leslie. Just so nice to see the whole positive cycle of people sending and receiving support…and rooting for each other.

Y’all are the best. Thank you for sharing this SUPER awesome journey with us. I’m proud of you, @Eric! And I love that @JessicaD and (and therefore the FUD Community) got to play a role in your amazing accomplishment 50 years into T1D!

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