Diabetes Awarness -Tom Kingery

We still need a ton more folks to sign up for the Virtual 5K.  You can Sign Up HERE!  Find Information HERE!  There are tons of prizes!! Please Sign up, get a friend to sign up, you can walk the 5K, you can run the 5K, you can run further, you can walk shorter and split it between two days, JUST SIGN UP!! Please, Pretty Please! 

Next up for Diabetes Awareness is an amazing athlete Tom Kingery.  He has Run Across the US, He has biked Across the US (twice), Competed in 5 Ironman distance triathlons, run countless marathons and if that isn’t enough is now helping lead Team Type 1 as their Director of Amateur Athletics.  I am in awe of all of his accomplishments.  If he doesn’t prove you can do anything you set your mind to (with or without Diabetes) then I don’t know who does. 

At what age were you diagnosed? 28

Does anyone else in your family have Type 1? No, I was the first one.

Tom I know you were diagnosed about 8yrs ago and were quite an accomplished athlete prior to diagnosis and of course are an amazing athlete now. What were some of the hurdles you encountered after diagnosis so far as training goes? When I was first diagnosed, I was training for my 7th marathon. After being told that I had Diabetes, I immediately thought that my athletic career was over - I simply didn't know enough about the disease to know that I could live a very active lifestyle and that I could actually become a better athlete. I luckily had a great endocrinologist who was also a biking friend. He really helped me see that this diagnosis wasn't going to limit my life if I took control right away. I won't say it was always easy thought - we had a lot of workouts that were cut short as I learned to manage my highs and lows and how my body reacts to insulin and exercise.

How long did it take you to get your diabetes under control so you could train at the level you wanted to? I was never really out of control. Yes, my blood sugar was really high when I was diagnosed, but I think I caught it fairly early and from the start, tested my blood sugar constantly and controlled my blood sugar levels with insulin. I knew that I didn't want to give up training so it was just a matter of figuring out the right formula to do it all. I'm still working on that. It changes with so many things... what I eat, what I'm doing for training, the weather, the time of day, the location. Diabetes is a learning disease... I will learn about it until the day I die.

How do highs and lows affect your training? Both highs and lows negatively affect my training. If my sugar gets low and I don't get it up fast enough, my workout is over. I get really weak, I sweat a lot, and quite honestly it's too dangerous for me to go on. If my blood sugar gets too high, then my legs and arms tingle, I'm super sluggish and I feel like I hit the wall. That's why I constantly monitor what's going on with my body. If I tend to be heading low, I make sure that I consume fast acting sugar (a gel usually or some sports drink). If I'm heading high, I might take just one or two units of insulin. For me, exercise mimics insulin in my body, delivering the sugar to the right places so I find that I struggle with low blood sugar during exercise more than high blood sugar. But again, this is so individual. I have a bunch of teammates who will take 6-7 units of insulin before a workout. That wouldn't work for me.

Congratulations on your record setting Ride Across America. Can you tell us a little about that experience and specifically what goes into your diabetes care to make something like that possible?

Well Race Across America (RAAM) is an amazing event that's been going on for over 30 years. It's a 3000 mile bike race from Oceanside, CA to Baltimore, MD. Team Type 1, the team that I race for, has raced as an eight man team six times and has won the race overall (against non-diabetic eight man teams) four times. We currently hold the world record for the fastest transcontinental journey (5 days 9 hours and 5 minutes). I was lucky enough to be part of the team in 2009 (when the world record was set) and 2010. The experience was unlike any other that I've had in life - seeing the country from a bike! And knowing that we were doing what we were doing, all while managing our disease was pretty amazing. It really helped us get across our message that diabetes doesn't have to be a limiter and that you can do anything you want with proper control and exercise. As far as what it takes in terms of diabetes care - we all were just continuously on top of our individual management. With eight of us dealing with highs and lows, we all had to look out for each other too. But my body's reaction to the high intensity intervals was totally different than my teammates. Many of us are on continuous glucose monitors which help us know what our bodies are doing and we just made sure that we were always in range. Throw in sleep deprivation, heat exhaustion and altitude, all of us needed to test all day long and adjust our insulin levels according. This year, our team set out to Run Across America. We had 10 guys that ran from Oceanside, CA to New York City, ending the 3000+ mile journey in 15 days and ending in NYC on World Diabetes Day. It's just another example of how we don't let this disease limit what we are able to push ourselves to do.

What do you mean by your quote "You can't manage what you don't measure"? Simply put... you can't control your diabetes if you don't know what's going on inside your body. There is no manual for the disease - it's a very individual disease and each of us needs to know our bodies and the way we react to things. I "measure" my blood glucose all day long. It's the only way to know exactly what's going on in my body. That number tells me if I need to eat some sugar or if I need to take some insulin. I'm lucky enough to be on a continuous glucose monitor which gives me a blood sugar reading every five minutes, and graphs for me if my numbers are rising, falling or staying the fairly constant. I can't workout if my numbers are too high or too low. For me to be in control of my disease I need to know what's going on at all times.

Do nerves before a big race mess with your numbers and how do you handle that?

For me, they don't really do much to my numbers, but I have a lot of teammates who have adrenaline spikes - as their nerves get the best of them, their blood sugar spikes. It can be a little hard to manage because usually as soon as they calm down, their blood sugars drop. So they don't really want to treat the adrenaline spike with insulin, but it's nerve wracking in itself to know if that's what's really causing the spike.

I run ultras, specifically I love the 100 mile distance, and during those races I have to be on top of my nutrition, I take in 200 calories an hour. What is your caloric intake like during an ironman distance triathlon? Does it differ at all from someone who doesn't have type 1? First, that's amazing that you run ultras. I completely admire anyone who can run for hours and hours at a time! In terms of caloric intake, mine is no different than any other athlete's. I am probably a little more careful to make sure the carbohydrates are more slow acting so that my blood glucose numbers don't spike and drop. I always eat a big bowl of oatmeal in the morning because it is such a slow burning fuel. And then I try to take in 250-350 calories an hour. I'm a fan of solid food, because that's what I train with. I use bars, gels, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, etc. For my drinks, I am a little bit more careful to know what I'm drinking because a lot of sports drinks are really sugary. But my exercise kind of mimics insulin so I find that I don't take a lot of insulin throughout an Ironman.

You seem like the type of guy who believes he can do absolutely anything he puts his mind to doing? Were you always like that? How has Type 1 changed that if at all? I've always been very determined. If I set my sights on something, I don't finish until I get it. That's just the kind of person I am. But I think diabetes just helps reiterate that in me. I constantly hear of people who were diagnoses and then told that they couldn't do something - play sports, eat cake, live a normal life, etc. That's not true at all. With proper management and understanding of the disease, you can do anything that you put your mind to. Team Type 1 is a group of 100+ "amateur" athletes. I quote amateur because these guys and gals are amazing people LIVING with their diseases. We have multi-time Ironman finishers, Boston Qualifiers, elite cyclists. We also have three people who have participated in Olympic Qualifiers, one who has summitted Mt. Everest, one who has won a 140.6, and more podium finished in running, cycling and triathlon events than I can count. Every single one of us is out to show that you can do anything with Type 1 Diabetes.

Is there anything you want kids out there with Type 1 to know? Any words of wisdom for their parents? First and foremost, don't be ashamed of having diabetes - be proud... there are some amazing people living with diabetes. Tell your friends about it and make sure that they understand what you are going through and that it doesn't make you any different. Second, don't let diabetes stand in your way of what you want to do with your life. Make sure that you are in control of your management (not your parents) and follow your dreams. For parents... kind of the same thing. I think it's important that they don't do everything for their kids - there is a responsibility for the child, but the parents just need to be there to help. Also... there will be good days and bad days forever. Encourage your children to take risks and live a very normal life.

What is the craziest place you have found a test strip? This is probably a better question for my wife. She always gets on me for them being everywhere. She has found them on my mom's driveway, in her closet, all over the car. Really, they are everywhere... that's just the life of a good diabetic! :)

Thank you so much to Tom for answering all of these questions and for being an all around inspiration and leader.  You can find out more about Tom and Team Type 1 Here!

Diabetes Awarness - Meet Scully

This year in conjunction with the Race to Cure Diabetes 5K (Register HERE find out information HERE) I am doing some diabetes awareness.  As a runner I was interested to find out what it would take to be a runner with Diabetes.  Meet Chris Scully, an awesome woman who is insanely active and just ran her first marathon.  I met her while at my sister’s house a year ago.  She drove down from Canada to support Joe in his JDRF walk.  How cool is that? I contacted her about doing an interview for this fundraiser and she was game so …. Here we go (my comments are in purple).

When were you diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes?

 At the age of 22, July 2002

Does it run in your family?

 Absolutely no family history of either Type 1 or Type 2

What was it like adjusting to life with diabetes?

It was difficult to say the least. I didn't get any proper training or education at all in fact my Doc didn't think to treat me with insulin for two months. I was flying by the seat of my pants for the first few years of diagnosis.  Scully lives in Canada, their medical system is different but, this is scary, it could have killed her.  Eaaaakkkkkk!

How did you life change?

I had to pay attention to what I was eating. I had to be careful about exercising. I had to deal with highs and lows and constantly never being in the sweet spot. It was a very steep learning curve to say the least.   From reading her blog and listening to my sister (with Joe’s care) I gather that this is a constant battle no matter how long you have the disease.  A type 1 is always searching for the sweet spot and everything seems to effect their numbers.

How did your family react?

Everybody was in complete shock. At the time none of us really knew the different types of diabetes. They all said I was too healthy and fit to get diagnosed with diabetes. We all later learned that it was nothing I did (or didn't do) to get diabetes. My mum wanted to go after my doctor for not treating me but we were all too busy and weak to deal with anything but learning how to keep me alive. Yes, I was living with my parents at 22. I had just moved home from college and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

Other impacts?

I didn't take it seriously enough until I began feeling crappy all the time. It certainly made my couple years teaching in Taiwan a mahoosive headache. It impacted my friends a lot, especially my boyfriend at the time. He was just as scared as I was.

Were you athletic before you were diagnosed?

Yes I was but I wasn't as into endurance sports as I am now. I was a rock climber, mountain biker, snowboarder, back-country camper etc. I was a runner too but I hadn't been doing it seriously yet. I was just getting used to learning that I was going to be a long distance runner.

How did that change after you were diagnosed?

Scully in a recent Snow Shoe Race. Can you see her smile?

It took me years to understand the basics of exercise and diabetes (I'm still learning). I remember snowboarding with my pockets full of candies. I remember going camping and getting stuck in the middle of the night with a low because my food bag was hanging in the trees. Or another time a raccoon stole all my food and I was on a slippery slope of adventure to get out and call for help while trying not to expend too much energy. I was backpacking alone.

Basically, any physical activity meant I had to carry sugar somehow, somewhere on my person, no matter what! Even if it meant attracting bears. Ok never would have thought of any of these issues.  Super impressed with Scully’s adventurous nature and that she didn’t let Diabetes stop her.  I am floored by her.

Last year you ran your first marathon, wahoooo! What was training like for that?

It was a giant mixed bag of trial and error. A lot of testing my blood sugar while running. My blood sugar would react depending on the time of day and the duration of the run. Also, the heat of the summer and the type of run would effect it all differently. So a speed workout in the morning vs. the afternoon would have a significantly different effect on how I managed my insulin levels. It takes a lot of pre and post run insulin adjustments since most of the time I need to set my pump at least an hour before I plan to exercise. I had to try and predict how things would go on race day by experimenting with different types of fuel and the timing of carb intake. In the end I felt like I had encountered any situation which made me feel confident that I could make decisions on the fly should anything happen. And happen it did! due to a diabetes crisis that I had no control over my marathon was wrecked before the gun even went off. Aside from that I can't count how many times high or low blood sugars ruined a run for me. I said, "there's always tomorrow" so many times.  Wow!! Just Wow!  I think most of us will agree this is stuff we never thought of.  Just running a marathon is hard enough but with all of the Diabetes care it is a whole other ball game.  Super impressed that she started and finished her 1^st marathon.

What goes into a marathon (4+ hrs of activity) for a diabetic, what do you have to consider that the average runner out there doesn't have to think about?

She says the picture says it all.

Well see the answer above for a start. The biggest difference is that yes, we all experience pre-race anxieties but people without diabetes don't understand that stress severely effects blood sugars. So to manage stress levels is hard. I might not lower my insulin AS MUCH on race day as I would on a training run of similar duration. We also need fuel just like the next person but fuel usually means carbs so there's a delicate balance that exists between input and output. Personally, I adjust my insulin so that I am expected to take in gels. I just have to be sure not to miss those gels. Finally there's the baggage. I choose to run with a glucose meter so I can test while running because I can't afford a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) as often as I'd like. I will also carry more gels then the next person in case I go low. Some diabetics will drink the Gatorade that is provided but I can't stand the pasties.

Type 1 is an autoimmune disorder and many type 1's have other issues like with Gluten. I believe that is your case as well. How does that affect your training and life?

Yes Auto-Immune disorders tend to hang on to each other. With one often comes others. I also have Celiac disease so I can't eat gluten. It certainly effects my life but I just remind myself constantly about how awful I used to feel. That thought alone is worth it to me. Gluten free options are often much higher in carbs so I try to limit them. For training? well, it just means I have to plan in advance new and exciting ways to get my nutrients. That aspect is not unlike someone who didn't have diabetes. Being gluten free kind of still sucks no matter what.

My Sister Reyna and Scully last year.

I know right now you are sitting in your chair thinking…Holy CRAP!  That woman is amazing.  I totally agree. 

Happy Running Everyone!

Go enter the 5K HERE.  We need to find a cure for this.

Why JDRF

Why do I host this 5K to earn money for Juvenile Diabetes?  Take a look to the right of your screen.  See that kid flipping you off...that is Joe (he isn't flipping you off btw he, is flipping off Diabetes, or showing a cut that wouldn't heal because of the stupid disease).  He is my nephew and when he was 3 1/2 his mom realized he was way to thirsty and hungry and peeing excessively.  Joe was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when he was just 3 1/2 yrs old.  The diagnosis completely changed my sister's world and that of her entire family.  They had to learn to be a pancreas for Joe because, his went belly up.  Since that day Joe has endured 10-20 finger pricks a day, a site change for his insulin pump (large needle placed in his booty that delivers his insulin) every few days and sometimes a third needle to his arm where he wears his Continuous Glucometer.  The kid is phenomenal and diabetes doesn't slow him down or define him.  He is an amazing hockey player, in fact he is an extraordinary athlete all around.  His being so active requires my sister and her husband to be on their A game.  They have to be the perfect pancreas so that he can lead the life of a normal kid. 

There isn't much I can do to help but, I have hope.  Hope that with research one day someone will create a closed loop system to act as a pancreas for Joe.  Hope that his life will be as normal as possible.  Hope that he will grow up to be a strong healthy kid with no side affects from this horrible disease.  Hope that someone will come up with an answer as to why Type 1 even happens.  Why does a persons body attack it's own pancreas and shut it down?  What I can do is support JDRF, support the research necessary to get answers.  This is why I host this 5K and pray that I can make a difference.

This year we are celebrating Joe's Birthday with a 5K.  The Virtual 5K will be on the weekend of April 28/29th (Joe's Birthday Weekend).  The cost to register will be $15.  The raffle of prizes will be huge like last year and this year to earn extra entries into the raffle you can pay an extra $5 for every 5K you want to run after the initial for an additional entry.  So if you want two entries you can pay $20 and run a 10K.  Or three entries would be $25 and a 15K.  More money for JDRF + more running = all good.

We already have the following raffle items:
6 Gift Cards from Road ID
1 hat from Head Sweats (left over from last year still trying to get more for this year)
1 necklace from CreativebyLiz
Crocheted items by Cindy Roeing
1 package by Todd and Moore Sporting Goods

WAHOOOOOOO!!! We are getting there.  I sent out a ton of emails asking for raffle items and got a few responses but I will continue to work this.  I know we can earn more this year.