Sweet Victory

I don't know how many times I caught my daughter trying to sneak a look at my blog this weekend... I was tempted to say, "It's a little hard to write a blog when I'm doing your laundry and cutting the grass." Alas, I think she's waiting for my race report, so here it is. Allie and I were accompanied by my niece, Tania. As mentioned before, Allie has a pre-race goal of going sub 30, but I felt her fitness pointed to more like a 32/33. She had another goal, though - run the whole 5k, only walking through the water stop. This is a big race - more than 2800 runners and walkers. I'd learned my lesson in this one last year, so we lined up closer to the start than you'd expect, due to all the walkers who didn't know where to line up. We went into the first mile and settled in around 9:30 pace for the first half mile. After that, Allie said it felt a bit quick to her, so we nudged down to around 10:00 pace. She was talking to us, but also working. A good p...

I've been a bad blogger of late, mostly because I've been a good worker and runner. Mileage is steady and climbing and things are getting to done on my to-do list. Many times, that means a lack of reflection time. But still, there are things to say... This Saturday I have a 5k. Even though I really really feel I'm in PR-shape and would have a shot at 19:15-19:30, my goal time for this one is 30:00. How's comes? I'm running it with my 12 year-old daughter. The kid has done the work, at least as well as a 12 year-old can, which is wicked better than I could've at 12. Nobody hated running back then more than I did. But for the last 9 weeks, she's been solid about running with the school club twice per week and running with me once on the weekends. In all that time, she missed one week. Not too shabby, I'd say. Don't know if she's in 30:00 shape - our training points to more like a 32. However, I've noticed that kids seem to have the ability to s...

Sorry to hear about the thyroid, Jerry - definitely keep an eye on it. To me, it's a bigger pain than diabetes, simply because it takes longer to fine-tune. Thanks for the comments re: my A1C's. It's that nice run of them will likely keep me off CGM for the foreseeable future - 50% because I'm not sure what benefit I'd gain and 50% because no insurance company will believe I can benefit enough to warrant the expense. Since Alan's asked about me and CGM's, here's my complete spin. HOWEVER, I always says that diabetes is a personal disease and my circumstances are different than anyone else's. Thus, this shouldn't be read as the CGM Gospel According to Marcus, but rather, The CGM Gospel FOR Marcus. 1.) I rarely have no awareness of my current bloodsugar. 90% of the time, I can very closely predict it. Maybe once a month, I'll be surprised by a blood sugar test. Many diabetics are not so fortunate, and if I weren't, I'd be more incline...

Note: This is somewhat of an obligatory post. I suspect some diabetics ignore this blog because I so rarely write about my diabetes. To do so - IMO - would be akin to writing about shaving: it's a necessary evil and one that needs to be approached with caution, concern and care, but otherwise, I've got more fun things to talk about. Anywho, I had my regular check-up scheduled two weeks ago and had my fasting blood work done. Heading into the week of the appointment, however, I told my wife I was bagging the appointment because my schedule that week was a mess. She looked at me as if I was shirking my diabetic responsibilities, but I said, "Here's what's going to happen: My A1C will be good, my thyroid reading will still be off and they'll adjust my Synthroid. If I'm wrong, I'll go in." Sure enough, I was right. My A1C this time was 6.5. The coolest part about bagging my appointment was the doc actually sent me a copy of my lab records, including a ...

Today diabetics blog-wide are "raising their voices" for Type 1 Diabetes. For lots of great posts, just visit Kerri . On this blog, though, we'll continue my own personal war with the Medtronic Global Heroes program. Over at InsulinFactor - a group I read but don't often post to, there have been a lot of cool posts about the program, so I thought I'd share some of them here. For starters, though, don't miss Jerry's comprehensive complaint here . Now, here's what you can find from InsulinFactor: To Whom It May Concern: I am writing to express my opinion about the Medtronic Global Heroes campaign. First, I applaud your efforts to motivate, recognize, and reward people affected by chronic illness to pursue an active lifestyle. However, I am disappointed and rather disgusted by the clause that states "Runners 40 years and older, who have had diabetes for more than 15 years, are ineligible." As a 32 year old, living with type 1 diabetes for over...

OK, if you're looking to NOT set a PR in a half-marathon, just follow the steps below: 1.) Be sure you under-train . On my road to recovery, I've been doing a nice job of getting my mileage up to 35 miles per week. However, my long runs have only been increasing a mile a week, so four weeks ago I did a 10, 3 weeks ago an 11, 2 weeks ago a 12, and 1 week ago a 13, which brings me to #2. 2.) Taper, schmaper. Last week, I didn't think I'd be racing this weekend, so I did a 13 mile run at a decent pace. 3.) Choose a course w/ hills. Lots and lots of hills. They didn't look so bad on the elevation map, but basically, there were 3 big hills, spaced out about 1 every 4 miles. 4.) Choose a course that's long. This is tough, because you won't know this until you look at the Garmin at the end, but an extra tenth will up your time by about a minute. 5.) Just for kicks, pray for wind. When I arrived at the race location, the sun was just beginning to rise and the fl...

Verizon turned our phones back on. You're all heart, you bastards. Just found out the half marathon I'm planning on running this Saturday has 20 entrants. I really don't know what to think about that, other than I'm expecting crowds to be a bit sparse and the line for the porta-potties to be very manageable. Just got the new issue of Running Times, sporting a whole new layout and a new font size that must be like 9 points. Holy moly is it small. Complaining about font sizes makes me sound realllllly old, doesn't it? Didn't get out to run today, which sucked a little. However, it'll do for a mini-taper going into Saturday. I got called to federal jury duty next month... 60 miles away in Philly. This, less than a year after serving local jury duty. I guess they liked the fact that I kept to myself and didn't complain too much. Oh, the joys of public service.

This is my verizon wireless story, dumbed down with numbers rounded off. In January, we moved all 4 wireless phones to Verizon from AT&T. Mid-way through the transaction, though, the geeks at the store convinced us to do this all through my wife's account (rather than mine) since her employer got her a better discount and free activation charges. This rocket science move resulted in us having 2 accounts rather than 1, and payments ended up being applied to the wrong account. 75 days later, I've got one account with a $300 credit and another account with a $300 past due balance. After countless phone calls, I finally get them to apply $200 of the credit to the past due account. The last $100, though, is the credit for activation charges and Verizon tells me they can't just move that money, but instead must send me a check. (Never mind the fact that the credit should NEVER have been applied to that account in the first place.) So... 1 week ago, I have a zero balance on on...

Remember how two hours ago I wrote that I wasn't racing this weekend? Well, plans have changed. I thought girl wonder (aka, my 12-year-old daughter) had a tennis conflict this weekend. Turns out, though, she doesn't. Now, I *know* I said it was more important to build my mileage... and it is. I'm still planning on running the same miles I intended. And I *know* I said I don't think I can go sub 1:30 and I don't. Actually, considering I just ran 13 miles three days ago, I'm very positive of that. In fact, with no taper and a slightly sore shin, I think a top goal might be just to go sub 1:33, which would still be a PR for me. So, I *know* I said it didn't make sense to do this race. Then again, as this blog has shown many times, I don't always make sense. Want to run a half marathon with me this Saturday? I'll be here .

Thanks for the continued comments about the Medtronic Global Heroes program. Here's an update: For those that missed it, Jerry clarified my statement about Bill Roberts, pointing out that Steve Sterner was actually the medical director of the TCM in 2007, the first year of the "over 40" restriction. There's still some question as to the complete situation, as Roberts lists himself as being the medical director of TCM from 1985 to "present" on the resume I linked to in an earlier post. I also tried to contact Steve Sterner via an e-mail address I found for him. Alas, the e-mail was rejected. More to the point, Bill did eventually respond to my e-mail. He wrote: Running marathons with diabetes is one of those conditions that should be decided on a case by case basis with the physician who is monitoring and helping manage the condition. I am a big advocate of regular exercise for all. We do not exclude diabetics from running the marathon. My opinion was used...