Sweet Victory

If you didn't know, the blue circle symbolizes World Diabetes Day , which is coming up... uh, sometime. Wait, let me check. There: it's November 14th . Plenty of shopping days left. There have been some discussions of late about why the JDRF and the American Diabetes Association haven't embraced the blue circle. These are fair questions, but it's kind of like asking the Phillies and Major League Baseball why they don't sport the Olympic rings. Yes, we're all playing the same game, but we're doing it in different ways. At least, that's my opinion. More to the point, I've been thinking about why I don't use the blue circle in my own avatars, much like these fine people do . To be fair, I like the look and I like the color, and God knows I like the cause. What I don't like is the STAMP that it signifies to me. To me, the blue circle suggests that when people see me, they see a diabetic. While I'm infinitely cool with that, I'm not cool...

I kid because I care. In honor of National Infusion Set Awareness Week (who knew?), Roche Diabetes is offering free temporary tattoos. The idea? You shouldn't put an infusion set in where one was before for ten days. Put on the tattoo and there's your reminder not to replow that field until it's healed. Tattoos are free for the asking, while supplies last. More info can be found here . I didn't feel I'd be a responsible blogger without trying one out. Hence, you'll see the tattoo where I removed my old set (this one reminds me of Optimus Prime's face ), and the new set correctly positioned more than two inches from the original. Let's be clear: this will end ugly. If the idea is you keep the tattoo on for 10 days, but the average site lasts 3.5 days, you're looking at 3 fading tattoos plus 1 infusion set. Add in a CGM and the assorted site glue that accumulates and let's just say you won't be the prettiest guy or gal on the beach. But that...

So three weeks from today, assuming I don't break a leg or something, I'll be an ultra-runner, with one ultra-marathon under my belt. How does that happen, exactly? How do you go from saying that you're not training for a fall marathon in one blog post to announcing that you're taking stupid to a whole new level just two posts later? Well, first up, you don't blog so much. That helps. But beyond that, you do something I haven't made a habit of doing: you run a race that you're not trained, peaked or rested for. This all started bout eight days ago (yes, that's how much mental planning has gone into the process, too... about as much as I typically put into mulching the yard) when my training buddy, Dave, mentioned the Susquehanna Super Hike and Ultra-Trail Run to me during a 12 mile run. Dave and I - it should be said - are in a similar place, runningspirit-wise. I went into the late summer fairly fit but mentally fried, whereas he entered it too-soon r...

After two months of being on the Omnipod, I'm pretty much declaring the experiment to be a failure and have put my Medtronic pump back on. DISCLAIMER: Your mileage will vary. This post is only about why the Omnipod hasn't worked out for me. There are essentially five main reasons I've switched back to the pump, but they can all be placed in the same category: the Pod demanded too much of my time and attention. 1) It came off too easily. I'm not talking about the adhesive here, as I've got plenty of heavy duty glues. I'm talking about door jams that would rip it clean off and pods that jiggled loose after seven or eight miles of running. While I've experienced all of these things with pumps, I estimate they happened on 5-10% of my pump insertions. With the Pod, I got the full 3 days out of less than 1/3 of them. 2) The failure rate was greater for me. Whether it be Pod failures (which Insulet would compensate me for) or occlusion failures (which they would...

Somewhere in the middle of my 15 mile run last week, I decided not to run the Philadelphia Marathon in the fall. There are many reasons for this, none more important than the other: 1.) Physically, I don't feel up to a strong build. Three years ago, all of my easy runs were around 8:15/mile. Now, there's nearly all at 8:40/mile. 2.) Emotionally, I don't feel ready for the burden that comes with focusing on a marathon. Previously, I'd done one marathon per year, but with doing one in the spring, I'd doubled my frequency. While that's nothing to people who run marathons, I think it's a big difference for people who focus on peaking for them. 3.) Meteor-logically, the weather wins. Interesting: before this year, I would've called myself a great summer runner. I don't feel like one anymore. Global warming, 1. Marcus, 0. 4.) Vocationally, I'm just busier. That isn't a complaint about my job - I love my job and 99.9% of the people in the world have...