From Team Type 1 SANOFI's Run Across America: Happy Birthday, Ingrid


Happy Birthday, Ingrid written and edited by Tom Grossman & Marcus Grimm

Tom Grossman had felt many things since the start of the Run Across America a week ago; highs and lows, both in spirit and in blood sugar, as well as fatigue and energy. But what he hadn't felt until today was the realization that he was simultaneously exactly where he should be at the same time it seemed he was precisely furthest away from where he wished he was.

Grossman, like all on Team Type 1 SANOFI, understand the importance of what they're attempting here, to revise the public understanding of diabetes, so that they can better encourage those that live with it it. As someone whom has lived with diabetes for nearly three decades, Grossman is particularly qualified to understand the misconceptions diabetics are prone to receiving from those around them.

But there on Highway 56 in Kansas, Grossman felt his mind drifting, as it did often, to his home and family in Midland, Michigan. He thought of his dear wife, Jennifer, his son, Tommy and daughters, Gretl, Liesl and Ingrid. Truth be told, today he thought the most of Ingrid, celebrating her eighth birthday while her father pounded the asphalt on a windy Kansas highway that couldn't care less about his cause. Still, Grossman was steadfast in his purpose.

"Ingrid turns eight today," he reflected. "The same age I was when I got diabetes. Seeing her at the age I was when I was diagnosed drives home the importance of our mission; how much it matters and what we're trying to do."

For Grossman, the choice was made and the sacrifice of time followed, but not without love. In Midland, Michigan, Ingrid Grossman received a bouquet of flowers addressed to the birthday girl, sent from a loving father, still more than a thousand miles away from seeing his children, but getting closer every day.

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