Marathon meet-up, little angels, and a BQ

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Yesterday was an incredible day for so many reasons. I got to meet-up again with my very special friends, Carmela and her family - Nicole, Phil, and Jojo. :heart:

Race day is special. The miles strip away your veneer. Mile after mile, layer are peeled off. When it’s over, nothing is left but your bare soul. At that point you can share so much from your heart.

If only we could always share in such a way - when filtering your emotions feels like it would take too much energy, so you open your heart and let it speak for you instead of speaking from your mind.

I cherished the time we had after the race to talk!

These two are so precious! :two_hearts:

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I got a BQ yesterday.
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Because I told myself to.

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On the course, around the midway point, there was a sign that said - Remember your “why”

I had mine written on my pod. This was Carm’s day.
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I knew my “why”.

I haven’t crunched my numbers yet, but I had 75 grams for breakfast, and averaged about 44 grams per hour fueling the race, which is right in the middle of the desired fueling range for carbs during an endurance run.

BG’s were 64 at the gun, and 91 at the finish. They ranged from 58-122 during the race.

Just boring diabetes stuff there.

A special thanks to my wife Leslie, who is incredible with managing logistics. How is it I get to the race, flights booked, hotel reservation, car rental, and always have all the carbs and water I need? It’s all her. :heart:

And also I want to say a special thanks to @daisymae for her pre-race prayers, @T1Allison for her support and frequent sanity checks during the weeks leading-up, and to @LarissaW for knowing that the best way to get me to do something is by saying the magic words - “you can’t…”. (Not that she thinks I can’t, she just knows that it’s what I need to hear more than anything else.)

This is one of my favorite people in the world!

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@Nicole, it was so awesome to see all of you yesterday! It was wonderful to talk with and see your adorable young ones.

The best post-race recovery in the world are the chats with the sweet little ones and seeing their smiles. :heart_eyes:

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Nice job on the photos, story telling, diabetes management, and of course the Boston Qualifying time. Great that you got to spend some time with special people as well.

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Congratulations on the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon @Eric ! Wow! The pics and accompanying story were also very very cool. :). Thanks for sharing :running_man:

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Congrats and glad diabetes was boring! That always makes for a wonderful day!!!

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Wahooooo!!!

Congratulations, @Eric!!! PR and BQ is almost as awesome as you are!!!

I love how you have created a world in which diabetes is the boring thing…but your team and your inspiration and your actual goals are the focus! Only a very special, creative, motivated, resourceful, selfless person could do that!

I’m glad Leslie is your wingwoman! She sounds pretty amazing at it! She’d have to be to keep up with you!

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Wow, sounds like a perfect run!! Just amazing how you are able to keep your BGs in such tight range during the race!! Congrats on qualifying for Boston, too!!

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VERY impressive! Great story and story telling! I go low just using a back pack leaf blower for 45 minutes, I’ll have to tap into your skills and methods!

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Here is my BG graph in case anyone is interested.

Most of my fueling was in the first half. If I had been more aggressive with the insulin in the 2nd half, I could have had more carbs.

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What tool is that graph created in? Looks awesome

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Thanks!

I use Excel.

There is some manual stuff I need to do because I always want to convert it over to miles, instead of time of day. But the BG meter shows time.

So I enter all the BG numbers and the time, add the minutes to the gun time (which was 7:45 am), and then take my paces for each mile and calculate where I was for each BG check.

Anyway, it takes a little bit of effort to get it all plotted out over miles like that.

For the most part I only bolus when I have done a BG check, so those are almost always lined up with the same time as the BG meter time. That part is pretty easy.

I synch the times on all my meters and my PDM’s a few days before the race too. Meters and pumps don’t keep perfect time, so they have to be synched a few days before.

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Wow, awesome graph! Just amazingly flat! For all those carbs, you barely had any bolus! Were you on zero basal? I guess you did not spike post race? Any bolus needed for post race? Were your carbs mostly gels? Thanks for sharing, Eric. You are truly an inspiration and I love seeing your amazing accomplishments!!

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Hi @Trying! Thanks!

Ya, it was only 0.50 units for the carbs. 166 grams of carbs total.

Zero basal the whole way. I turned it off 15 minutes before the gun.

All the carbs were Huma gels, except for some jelly beans a few minutes before the gun because I was a little too low. I went off at 64, but took a gel right at the start, so that worked out pretty well.

I like the Huma gels a lot. They are easy to eat, and they are 20-25 grams each, depending on the flavor.

I wish I had taken more insulin later in the race so I could have had a few more gels. But I shouldn’t complain, 166 grams isn’t horrible.

I stayed pretty low for about 24 hours.

But yes, I did bolus after the race because I wanted to eat stupid amounts. And I did. :grinning:

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Thank you, Eric, for sharing this!! I love the Huma, too, though they are pricey. I learned about them from you!! My favorite are the choco rasp with 25gms! I take it at the start, too, but usually do not have call to take addl gels, just sips of grapefruit juice along the way.

166 carbs is amazing for so little insulin!! Goes to show how hard your body was working to use up all of those carbs!! Looks to me that you had the most perfect race, BG wise and otherwise!!

And, yes, you certainly deserved to treat yourself with copious amounts of good food after your BQ race!!!

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Amazing!! By the way, I saw a study recently and wondered if it was about you :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Hi @TiaG,
Thanks! That article was interesting. I appreciate it!

Yes, I think it would be fun to be in a study where I can let them know I have diabetes! But I kind of wonder if they would always stop the treadmill every time I got below 70. :joy:

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@Eric That’s some impressive graph work! I suspect an Excel aficionado!

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So fantastic! Congratulations on all of it! Will you plan to run Boston? I live at mile 21.3 and would love to cheer you on if you’ll be here! So happy for you! Jessica

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Thanks Jessica!

I am planning on running it in 2023. The registration window for 2022 closed the day before my race, so I have to wait until the following year.

Would be great to know someone who will be there! I would eagerly take carb handouts! :grinning:

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Wonderful! I cannot wait! Would also love a meetup when you’re here if you are up for it (but I also understand how hectic marathon prep can be - my husband has run Boston 6x + others) and happy to give insider advice (and connect you w my husband who can give even better insider advice) when you’re ready for it! Congratulations on this!!!

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Thanks a bunch! That will help.

There are some different logistics with Boston, for sure! They have limits on fuel and hydration belts, things like that. I just need to figure out a way to carry all my carbs easily and not go over their limit.

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