Sweet Victory

The revelation came to me somewhere around the middle of the race. I'm pretty sure it was after I'd fallen the first time, sending my glasses flying into the brush while I was yelling, "I'm fine!" to those around me while I staggered to recover my pace, but still before I'd fallen the second time, cutting my hand open and yelling a slew of bad language into the trees. Sidenote: if this runner falls in the woods and he can not see another runner in front or behind him, I assure you: he does makes a sound. Plenty of them, in fact. The scene for all of this was the On the Rocks Trail Run at Rocky Ridge Park in York, PA. This was my first trail race in nearly a year and more importantly, my last prior to the Susquehanna Super Hike, a 28.4 mile ultra coming up next month. On the Rocks featured a 2 loop course; runners could choose between the 8.5 and 16.3 distance. I'd chosen the latter. Given the name and location of the race, it shouldn't surpri...

So a "security expert" (read: hacker with a salary) who is also a diabetic, found a way to hack his pump and CGM. Rather than approach the pump companies "partly out of fear for his own safety," he revealed his findings at the Black Hat security conference. In other words, he wanted his hacker friends to be impressed. Strange that he feared for his safety yet titled his talk, " Hacking Medical Devices for Fun & Insulin ." Read about it here . I don't mean to downplay whatever security flaw there is. Radcliffe's right - these devices shouldn't be easily compromised. Still, in saying, "It would only take one person to do this to kill someone and then you have a catastrophe," he neglects to think about the potential negative impact of what he has done: 1.) The FDA in the US is notoriously slow in approving devices for diabetes, despite the fact that these devices enhance care, improve lives and, by association, save lives. Radcliffe...

Here's a copy of the e-mail I sent to the 10 legislators I'll be visiting tomorrow: Dear Representative or Staff, It's hard for me to believe that tomorrow's the big day, when I will be looking forward to meeting with you and/or your staff about House Bill 1338! It's been a whirlwind few weeks of preparation and I'm looking forward to hitting the pedals tomorrow. A couple of notes before I do: 1) THANK YOU for your cooperation. When I first had the idea to attempt ten legislative visits in one day, I had no idea all ten of you would say yes! It's been thrilling for me to witness first-hand the willingness of elected officials to meet under such time constraints, and it's one of the messages I've been spreading to all those I speak with. So thank you. 2) THANK YOU for your flexibility in advance. Traveling more than 80 miles by bicycle with 10 appointments is as much of a logistical challenge as it is a physical challenge and I am particularly gratefu...

We're just 2 days away from the big day - more than 80 miles of bicycle riding, coupled with (hopefully) 10 legislative meetings, all in 1 business day. Below is the map of my journey which begins in Lebanon County with 2 meetings barely 1 mile from each other. From there, I have the biggest leg of the trip (24 miles) over the biggest hill, too, toward Ephrata. From there, it's between 6 and 14 miles to each office. This past weekend, I tried to navigate a quicker route from Manheim to Columbia, but the there were too many back roads to navigate and I don't want to risk getting lost. Time will be of the essence. Originally I thought it would make sense to trim a mile or 2 here or there, but now I'm more worried about staying on course. A couple notes: 1) I can't say enough about how accommodating the legislators have all been. All 10 are opening their offices to me, and 5 of the ten meetings are with the actual legislators. They are all also aware of the fact that m...

It's amazing to me how quickly things have come together for the July 7th ride. The first thing I've been shocked to learn is how willing the politicians would be to meet with me. Consider this: given the fact that I have a tight schedule to keep, I didn't give them any choice in the matter. I told them the day I want to come and the time I want to come. The results? All 10 offices are welcoming me. In 5 cases, I'll be meeting with the politicians, themselves and in the other 5 cases, I'll be meeting with staff members. That says a lot about the political process, and I'm quite impressed What needs to happen, yet? Well, a few things. 1) Iron out the maps. While I've done 1 set of maps, coming out to 83.3 miles, I'm going to revisit them again. It's not about going 83.3 miles, after all - but about getting to all 10 offices. If I can find an 80 mile route, we'll take it. 2) Nail down my elevator pitch. If I average 16 mph (a reasonable assumptio...

8 hours. 480 minutes. 28,800 seconds. What can you accomplish? On July 7th, 2011, I'm going to find out. Here's what I'm hoping to do: 1.) Visit all 10 of the State Representatives in Lancaster and Lebanon County at their offices. If they won't meet w/ me, at least meet with their staff. 2.) Introduce them to a healthy Type 1 diabetic athlete. 3.) Obtain their support for HB 1338, a bill designed to give school children more options for controlling diabetes in the classroom. Full text here . 4.) Travel from office to office to office by bike. 83.3 miles. You can see the map here . There's so much that could go wrong. I could have a bad blood sugar day, and leave the legislators with the idea that diabetes is impossible to control. I could flat out or ride too slowly and throw the entire itinerary hopelessly out of whack. I could speak inarticulately and be unable to convey the importance of the bill or why I'm doing something so radical to get their support. ...

Disclaimer: I'm going to write about a subject I have little business writing about - being the parent of a diabetic child. I avoid this subject, for the most part, because though I know the disease intimately, I don't know what it's like to have a child w/ the disease. So, humor me, ok? So my wife's a school teacher, 6th grade to be exact. Not surprisingly, she's got a soft spot for the handful of diabetic kids and shares many of their stories with me. As you can imagine, they run the gamut from the kids who are already managing it with military-like precision to the kids that don't give a rip and everywhere in between. Though she's periodically asked for my advice, this was the first year she suggested I meet one of the diabetic students. Her and the nurse both felt that said kid was entirely motivated to manage the disease better but wasn't getting the support he needed at home, for many reasons that extend beyond motivation: education, language, etc....

Over the next 3 weeks, I'm doing 2 Tour de Cure rides - one of the annual fund raisers for the American Diabetes Association. I'm doing these as a rider with Team Type 1. In no particular order, here are 10 reasons you should give money on my behalf : 1) My butt is going to hurt for this. Seriously. I'm a runner folks. I've barely been on my bike in a year and in 3 weeks, I'm going to ride 62 miles. Can you say ouch?? 2) The ADA is a cool group. Seriously, they do a lot of neat things for diabetics. True, they recently did NOT hire my company to make a digital edition of their magazine, but why hold a grudge, right? 3) Halle Berry is diabetic, even if she doesn't think so. And I'm posting a link to a pics of her looking berrylicious . 4) If I raise enough money, I get a cycling jersey. This is good, because my current cycling attire consists of t-shirts and running clothing. Other bicyclists look at me and snicker. 5) Because I posted this link to my favori...

I love my insulin pump. I really do, and though I make it a point to discuss potential benefits of multiple daily injections w/ other diabetics, to me, the pump always wins out. That said, the pump does mean you've got something the approximate size of a cell phone attached to you at all times, which means that thing has to go somewhere. But where? That's where Pak Bara comes in. Pak Bara make a small zip up case, but unlike so many camera cases and cell phone cases that have been adapted for insulin pumps, this one was engineered specifically for insulin pumps (though it would work just as well w/ a cell phone, small camera, etc.). I recently had the opportunity to try one out and this is what I thought: 1) Out of the box, the wrapping was very nice. The case was wrapped in tissue paper and secured by a sticker w/ the Pak Bara logo. Immediately, you don't feel as if the case was made in China at a factory making 1000 similar products. 2) The thing that really grabbed me,...

Official results haven't been posted, yet, but yesterday I finished the Bob Potts Marathon in 3:17:30 - 2.5 minutes faster than I needed to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Though Boston's new registration process means I might not get to actually run, I can't control that; all I can control is my time, so I am thrilled beyond belief to chase down a goal I've had since I started running again five years ago. In addition, this was my fastest marathon, ever.. another great surprise. How did it happen? A lot of things came together: 1) Ultra-success. In March I did my first 50 miler. That race had me so scared that I trained like a fiend, with 5 runs of four hours of more. Those weeks and months of high mileage gave me a higher base than I'd ever experienced before. In addition, running a 50 mile race is the simplest way I've learned to not fear the marathon distance. I used to hit the 10 mile mark and think, "Holy cow, 16 miles left????" but that never c...

My favorite diabetic song + my favorite diabetic event = sweet awesomeness!

It's amazing to me how every facet of my life is marked by numbers. Professionally, I monitor the number of leads we provide to our sales team on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. I do a lot of things at work but at the end of the day, that's the most important thing. Running-wise, my brain is always preoccupied with pacing and mileage -- how much this week, how much today, how fast to hit my goals, eet. And then, there's diabetes, which I have called a lifetime sentence of doing third-grade math 24/7 for the rest of your life. The A1C serves as a diabetic's test in how they did last semester. And yesterday, for the first time in a while, I didn't ace it, coming in with a 6.6. Understand: a 6.6 isn't horrible. It's barely a notch above the 6.5, which is recommended by a group I can't recall at the moment, and it's a good bit below the 7.0 recommended by another group I can't recollect. But the point is, it's the first time in a while I've bee...

So I attended a diabetes fair at Hershey Med last weekend, which was fun. I wore my Team Type 1 jacket, which caused virtually everyone who saw me to say, "You must be a cyclist!" to which I had to correct them about what all Team Type 1 has going on. It was also fun to watch the vendors bad mouth each other -- as a marketing guy who constantly does battle w/ my competition, it was awesome to see a battle where I'm the prize (via my insurance company), rather than the soldier in the fight! I also spent some time with my Medtronic rep, who hooked me up with their CGM several months ago. As always, I said my CGM was good but not great, and he kept banging on me about calibrating only when I'm stable. Though I've heard that many times, on the way home I thought a lot about that and how good I am about making sure I am stable when I calibrate, and truth is: I can do better. I enter a lot of BG's when I'm not stable, and then end up cursing the CGM hours later ...

Three weeks removed from my 50 miler, I went into a local 5k completely unsure of what would happen. On one hand, I've done more mileage over the past 4 months than ever in my life and most running books will tell you that the simplest secret to getting faster is to run more. On the other hand, aside from the occasional tempo run, I hadn't tried anything resembling speedwork since my last 5k, which was in late November, if memory serves. And yet, no more than 100 meters into the race, I found myself in 2nd place. There was never any chance I'd win -- last year's returning champ had shown up in better shape and he took off from the gun. But that soon into the race, I realized something interesting could happen. Rather than rely on my Garmin, I decided less than a quarter of a mile into the race that I had 1 goal: finish in 2nd place. I wasn't sure how that goal would hold up, as I could hear a lot of footsteps behind me. I also decided at that point that my enduranc...

As a writer, I'm struggling to make this race report interesting. You see, bad races have agony and disappointment and a writer can cling to them for good lines like a poor comedian clings to f-bombs. And races where you overcome bad spots and are triumphant; who doesn't love that? But if you have one of those rare days where everything just lines up and you knock it out of the park? Man, it's a great race, but I'm not so sure it makes for good writing. Still, it's important to record these days so that we remember them on the days that suck, so let's do it, shall we? The official tale of the tape will say I ran 50 miles in 7:55:47 . It also says I finished in 6th place, 5th among men. Recause first and and third place overall were in my age group, I was also technically the AG winner for 40-49. And finally, everyone who recorded the race with Garmins (including me) found the course to be anywhere from .4 to .7 miles long. All of which goes to say that if you ac...

I have a race report to write; a very long report for two reasons: 1. It was the longest race of my life. 2. It was arguably the greatest race of my life so far. It's going to be a good report, but here's the thing: I have to write this post first while it's fresh in my mind. It's about the other runners on TeamType 1 who were at the NJ Ultra Fest with me and my family. While I only spent a few hours with these guys, it's important to me that you understand who they are and what they're like. It seems to me that many times in life, we're looking for role models; people who cause us to aspire to do better in all things. I was blessed to be surrounded by several amazingly inspirational people this weekend, and I want you to know what I learned. Perhaps in this crowd, you'll find someone to think about when the blood sugars suck or the roads are too hilly or the wind is constantly in your face. Tom Kingery What Happened in NJ: An Ironman and member of Team...

The next time I write a blog post, God, Newton & Hammer Nutrition willing, I will have completed my first 50 mile ultra-marathon. In no particular order, here's a list of thoughts regarding the race. 1. I've been asked about a time goal. Do I have one? What is it? The answers are yes and no. First off, I am 100% comfortable with whatever happens. I can miss the following goal by two hours and will be fine with myself. But still, I am a competitive person. Moreover, the important thing about a time goal is that it can help you to set your pace early in the race when you don't want to go too fast. In last week's newspaper article, I said I expected to come in around 8:30 and would be thrilled with an 8:15-8:20 . Many articles say that a first time 50 miler should double their marathon time and add two hours. (3:20 x 2) + 2 = 8:40. However, I've noticed that many guys around my speed don't need that full 2 hours... many are closer to 1:40. Hence, 8:20. In addit...

So over the weekend Reyna commented on my Facebook wall wondering why comments were turned off on my blog, which caused me to go, "Huh?" It seems when I switched blog templates a while back the commenting got all messed up. I didn't even notice it since many people comment on FB when I post on the blog, and those of you who aren't my friend on FB, well I just figured you didn't have anything to say! So it appears comments have been restored, though I will keep an eye on it to make sure. In other news, if you're coming here via the Lancaster Sunday News article, yesterday, welcome! And if you don't know what I'm talking about, feel free to read the story here .

So yesterday was my last long run prior to next week's 50 Miler at the NJ Ultra Fest. How did it go? Well, see for yourself... Road Work from marcus grimm on Vimeo .

In my last post, I mentioned that Team Type 1 is sponsored by Newton this year and that I'd be talking about that a bit. Since my first pair showed up last night, I took them for a spin today. First a disclaimer: I won't be wearing the Newtons at the NJ Ultra Fest for one reason: the race is only 10 days away and Newtons are a different running experience. I'm crazy, but I'm not that crazy. If you aren't aware, Newtons don't so much encourage midfoot striking as they force you into a midfoot strike. Running with a typical heel strike stride just feels wrong in these shoes, so you quickly learn to do what feels right. Landing properly on the midfoot feels good and the fulcrum of the shoe gently propels you to almost rock forward to toe off. Pretty cool, I must say. While it's a very different running experience, if you are a midfoot striker, already, it's less of a big deal. I put myself through the transition a couple of years ago and currently was ru...