Sweet Victory

When speaking to diabetic athletes new to training, or more common, parents of diabetic kids in sports, a common question is how to handle a high blood sugar during an event. Common sense would tell you to skip your nutrition and let the exercise bring down the blood sugar. In practice for me, this works, albeit slowly and at risk to performance in the given event. So staring at my 351, I took about 65% of the insulin I normally would when that high, and still loaded up at food at the aid station and headed out for my second 10 mile loop. Another diabetic complication soon followed. When CGMs and blood sugar readings are as far apart as these 2 were, it’s not uncommon for the CGM to ask for another calibration test. Because I just left the aid station, I didn’t have time to give it one. Soon after, the CGM stopped reading until I would provide it with that test. Despite the diabetic issues, the run was going well at this point and the second loop progressed uneventfully. I came i...

Note: I've never written a multi-post race report. Until now. “Don't forget the joy this weekend, Marcus. It likes to go hiding in the dark hours of the night but it's still there if you look for it.” Those lines appeared on my Facebook wall as I was packing for my trip to the NJ Ultra Fest and my first attempt at the 100 mile distance. They were written by Leon Lutz , a local runner known as much for the length of his beard as for the length of his runs. Leon was speaking from experience, both from his own successful hundred mile race last year as well from his hectic lifestyle which often sends him on his regular runs when the sun is gone. Very well, Leon, I thought. I’ll look for the joy. I won’t use this post to recap my training, though I recognize that the runners who stumble upon it will be particularly interested in it. That being the case, let’s just link to my public running log here . You’ll see a lot of long runs beginning ninety days prior to the race,...

48 hours from now, the NJ Ultra Fest will be underway. It will be my 6th race greater than a marathon, though of course that doesn't include all of the training runs that have been longer. My longest race to date has been 55 miles. This is nearly twice that. I'm scared, but then again, that is kind of the point: to see if I can accomplish what I haven't. And I can't say I'm any more terrified than I was before my first 50 and that day was a dream come true. For most 100 mile races, a third or more of the field don't finish. That's a sobering number. When I'm feeling cocky, I tell myself that those people were probably undertrained, but when you think about it, most people going into a hundred mile race, including me, probably are. As far as my health goes, I'm fairly close to 100%. I've been battling foot tendinitis, but have cut my miles so much this week that it currently feels perfect. Still, I'm not betting it will stay quiet for t...

Last week I resigned from my position on the running team at Team Novo Nordisk, ending a more than two-year relationship including being named the Amateur Athlete of the Year in 2011 for Team Type 1 – to this day perhaps the award I cherish most. There has been a lot of Internet chatter about the changes that have occurred since TT1 became TNN. From what I saw, some of the comments were right, and some of them were wrong. And as far down the chain of command as I was, it’s probably fair to say I’m not the best judge of what all was true. Here’s what I can say: Novo Nordisk shares Phil Southerland’s dream of putting a professional cycling team into the Tour de France. That’s what makes the partnership perfect for both of them - a common goal. Novo Nordisk is a pharmaceutical company. As such, they are governed by a lot of rules and anyone who works for them (or represents them, in my case) has to agree to play by those rules. My decision to leave the team isn’t based on what I thi...

Just like that, I'm now tapering for my first 100 mile race on March 23. Insert your favorite phrase: The hay is in the barn. The cords of wood are stacked. Whatever. For better or for worse, this is what I have. Research into 100 mile plans varies so much that I think it's really impossible to know if I'm ready. Broadly speaking, what I've done is taken what worked well for me in a 50 mile race build and added as much as I could. Here are some stats: Running up to my first 50 mile build (which I'm using for comparison since it was the same time of year): 1. I had 6 weeks 50+ miles per week. For this 100 mile build, I had 8 of those and will likely have a 9th this week. 2. I had 4 weeks 60+ miles per week. For this 100 mile build, I had 5 of those. 3. I had 0 weeks of 70+ miles per week. For this 100 mile build, I've had 3. 4. I had 3 long runs of 30+ miles with the longest of 35 miles. For this 100 mile build, I had 5, maxing out at 39.4 miles. I also ...

Someone recently asked me if I'd registered for my 100 mile race, yet, and I commented that I was waiting to get through these 3 critical weeks of training. Armed with confidence, I felt, I would be thrilled to enter. Instead, this past weekend I missed my first scheduled long run since I don't know when, and still entered the race today. The missed long run was just that. A head cold that came on around Thursday, didn't effect my Thursday or Friday runs, but peaked on Sunday morning when I'd planned to run for 6 hours. I got up after 11 hours of sleep, got dressed to run, got the paper, and went back to sleep for 6 more hours. Got up. Ate breakfast. Slept for 2 more hours. Yesterday I was off work and slithered through 8 miles, and did another 7 today in the freezing rain. The headcold is going away, but slowly, and in its place is the divot left from a key missed workout. It's not entirely bad, of course. When I went through a similar build in 2011, I had ...

So I did something different last weekend. For all of my previous ultras, I've done 1 single long run on the weekends. The core of what makes a long run for me seems to be about 5 hours or 30-31 miles, though I've done a few at 5.5 hours and as long as 35 miles. The other school of thought is to do back long runs, but have them be shorter. Until this past weekend, I'd never done that. I can't say going into it, I had a great reason for doing it, either, other than training plans for 50 milers don't look much different than training plans for 100 milers, and that just scares me, so I decided different might be good. On the other hand, many runners say that the risk of injury is greater on back to backs, and hey, I'm not getting any younger here, so injury is a concern. To recap, last weekend, I did 31.1 miles in 4:55 of total running. For some reason, even though I'm a stickler about running time for ultras, I focused on miles for my btob. On Sa...

Warning: not about diabetes or running. Just a rant because I feel like it. Enough already. Enough with your Second Amendment rights being taken away, for a couple reasons. The first is the idea that limiting magazine sizes is a slippery slope to losing handguns. I don’t buy it. There are speed limits on our highways. By and large, they keep us safe on our way to work. At the very least, they send a message all drivers can understand, so that we can work together to get to the office in one piece. There are also limits to how much beer I can buy at the store. Make no mistake: I like beer. But these limits don’t keep me in bed at night clutching a cold bottle of Yuengling for fear the government will take it from me. Oh and by the way, those limits are plenty high enough for me and most people to catch a decent buzz or get through a Sunday’s worth of football. Moreover, I suspect the government likes the tax revenue generated by alcohol sales, just as they do the tax revenue gen...

Just like that, January is half-way gone. Quick update on my shoulder: after an unsuccessful month of PT and a clear MRI, one well placed cortisone shot did the trick. Granted, it also put my blood sugars through the roof for a week, but now I'm sleeping through the night again. Speaking of blood sugars, I also received my latest A1c, which was 6.1. That's pretty darn good. I think I may have had a 6.1 1 or 2 other times, but that's close to my best ever. Meanwhile, the miles add up, with 102.3 in the books for January and it's only the 14th. I expected to miss some time last week when I was in NYC, and while a few runs went a little short, I actually didn't miss a single day, which was nice. Last weekend, I did my 2nd 5 hour run of this build, reaching up to 31.1 miles in 4:55, which was a nice tick faster than the last one. While the weather was a little better, I attribute much of the improvement to my new Hoka One One's . If you're not familiar...

If you're not a diabetic endurance athlete, this likely won't matter to you, but history was made yesterday! My teammate Tommy Neal finished the Houston Marathon in 2:30:36, good for 16th place among men out of a projected 13,000ish starters. To the best of my knowledge, this is the fastest marathon ever run by a Type 1 diabetic. Missy Foy commented to me on Twitter that she believes it broke Bill Carlson's diabetic record of 2:38. Perhaps most impressive? Tommy was disappointed in his time, which happened in a rain-soaked race. As the owner of a 65:00 half marathon, he's got 2:15 speed , so it's just a matter of putting together the right race on the race day. And as far as mastering diabetes? Consider this: Tommy tweeted that his BG was 153 at the start and 83 at the end . I'd say he's well on his way.

So with a 30.4 mile run including headwinds of 20mph and windchills in the teens, that pretty much does it for 2012. Without trying it, I discovered that my total mileage for the year came in around 2,270... just about 10 more than I accomplished in 2011. More immediately, though, the 230.5 for December was my second highest total of the year as well as second highest all-time... all of which is good as I aim for the NJ Ultra Fest in March. And because my long runs were technically 6 days apart, I just wrapped up an 81 mile week, my longest week ever, too. I still haven't officially signed up for the 100M in NJ. I need to make sure the calendar is clear and the training goes well, and even if it doesn't happen, 2013 is going to be a great year. But still, things are starting to line up that way, with the long runs now officially up to 5 hours with more than 10 weeks to go until race time. If I can confirm that Team Novo Nordisk Training Camp isn't that weekend, I'll...

After participating in Girls on the Run on Saturday, the wife and I decided to tackle the Jingle Bell 5k on Sunday, encouraged by some of her students, who were also participating in both. As this was also my weekend of no long run after 3 weeks in a row of being "up," it seemed like a good idea at the time. That said, the weather was fairly yucky, 40ish degrees and light rain. I would've considered it horrible, if it weren't for the fact that I remember doing this race in 35 degree HARD rain only a few years ago. Though not a hard course, this one can't be described as a PR course, either, and I've run this race 3 times somewhere between 19:40-19:50. Though I was hopeful to do that again, I've only had my mileage up for about a month, none of which has been speedwork. My blood sugar was high at the beginning; right around 180. I was nearly done with a 6 day pack of steroids, aimed at helping my rotator cuff. I'd kept my pump around 130% basals f...

Last year, I went to speak to at my wife's elementary school about goal setting, as it relates to me as a distance runner. I was walked to her classroom by a 5th grader who impressed me with her poise and conversation as we walked the halls. I told my wife if she had the chance to get the kid in her homeroom the falling year, I bet she'd love her. A year later, Maria is definitely one of my wife's favorites in a room full of great kids. Periodically, my wife likes to use my insanity as fodder for classroom material; the result of which is that the kids have a wide range of opinions about my foolishness on the roads and trails. But when Maria signed up for Girls on the Run , this year, she asked my wife if I'd be her run buddy, which is how I found myself at Clipper Stadium on Saturday morning. I'm no Girls on the Run expert. I only know it's about teaching girls how to have fun through running events. The 5ks skew more fun, less competitive, and those that d...

When last we left this blog, I was coming off my 3rd ultra in six weeks, looking for a month of downtime, prior to my next build. And that's pretty close to what's happened. The month of November was only about 160 miles of largely unstructured running. The early weeks were shorter, mostly due to some foot tendinitis that took a while to heal, but at the moment is completely gone. And last week I got in over 50 miles, including an easy 3.5 hours. All of this is because I'm hopeful that 2013 will be big. My tentative race schedule includes my first 100 miler in March and my first 24 hour race in July. I've done enough 50s now that they don't scare me, so I want to go bigger. And speaking of bigger, today brings with it news of Team Type 1's rebranding as Team Novo Nordisk . There's little I can say about it at this point other than to say I remain so grateful to be part of an organization that is doing amazing cool things. And, yet... there is a ...

Given the Hallmark sponsored world we live in, you might be aware that November is American Diabetes Month, so if you were going to buy me something, you're fresh out of shopping days. All of this culminates on World Diabetes Day on November 14 . As you might expect, there are a couple things you could do, if you're so inclined, to celebrate the festivities. I've listed a couple of these things below, with my own opinions as to how I feel about them, given my lifestyle as a Type 1 diabetic and my vocation as a marketing professional: 1) The Big Blue Test . The concept here is simple. Do a BG test, exercise for 20 minutes, and do another one. Upload your results. I'm a big fan of this one because it's primarily going to be done by diabetics (more on that in the next paragraph) and it's a concrete way to show the benefits of exercise. It's not foolproof - someone who doesn't understand how anaerobic exercise works might lift weights for 20 minute...

(L-R) Ryan Jones, Matt Patrick, Marcus Grimm, Jon Obst, Tom Kingery, Benny Madrigal and Rhet Hulbert Nearly two weeks ago, I found myself at a cocktail party for a business expo. It was a good event with a lot of local business people. The cocktail party was sort of a pre-game for the expo, which was starting the following day, but not for me. Toward the end of the expo, I found myself in a conversation with three other people and learned that one of them was also a type 1 diabetic . She’d also had it 24 years, nearly as long as my own 28. In the course of the conversation, she dropped one of those sentence “bombs,” as I call them – words that can derail the entire conversation or at the very least change the attitude of all the people who hear them. “Let me tell you,” she said, mostly addressing the two non-diabetics in our foursome. “Diabetes is the worst.” Admittedly, I have trouble with such declarations. On one hand, I can’t deny someone their own feelings, gained hones...

This past weekend was the Tails 4 Trails 40 Mile Ultra in Hanover, PA. For me, it meant the 2nd of 3 ultras in a 6 week period. Going into this race, I wasn’t too sure of what to expect. I had never run in Codorus State Park, before. Moreover, the previous weekend had been my only failed workout of this build so far – a scheduled 5-6 hour long run that I pulled the plug on at 4 hours due to a head cold. And just to keep the mystery elevated, I elected to get my flu shot the day before the race. I’ve been getting them for years, and tend to respond fairly well to them, but sniffles and a little fatigue wouldn’t have been unexpected. But rather than stress about these unknowns, I opted to go into the race with a “Let’s just see what happens” approach. Either way, I had to run long this weekend, so why not make it a race? I woke up at 4am, with a perfect blood sugar of 112. I arrived at the race site an hour before the scheduled 7am start, which meant I got there in pitch blackness....

I had been interested in the 12 hour Labor Pain Endurance Trail Run ever since its first running in 2010 when my teammate, Ryan Jones had won it, but this was the first year I was able to fit it into my schedule. Unlike a fixed distance ultra, the concept for Labor Pain was different. The course consists of 5 miles of technical trail running over rocks and mud, the first half of which has 325 feet of vertical climbing before giving all of that elevation back on the last 2.5 miles. Runners could stop whenever they wanted, but awards were given for furthest distance traveled in 12 hours. Elapsed time only became a factor if you had run the same number of loops as other runners. Based on the results of the previous two years, I decided to set a stretch goal for myself of 60 miles. Fifteen minutes before the race, I tested my blood sugar and found myself at 48. Whoops! Fortunately, I had planned to take in carbs just prior to the race anyway, so I set out feeling fine. My plan con...

We are 1 week until the 12 hour Labor Pain Ultra. Man, do I hate the week before a big race. Of course, calling it a "big race" isn't exactly fair. Truth is, it's the first of 3 ultras on my calendar for the next 6 weeks and my training is structured in such a way that, results-wise, I'm probably not ready to do something awesome this weekend. Then again, who knows. I've done 3 runs greater than 5 hours so far in this build. Last time before my 50 miler I did 4. So I'm in pretty good shape and have plenty of time before my peak 50 miler on Oct. 13. But still, confidence is in a bit of short supply right now. I've noticed the paces for my 5 hour runs haven't quite been where they were on my last ultra build. I'm hopeful that it's due to the fact that these have been in August when the last time around was February, when it's easier to maintain a quicker pace. But the truth is, I won't really know for sure until the weather turn...

As always, it seems when I'm not blogging, that means I'm running. And if I'm really not blogging, well then I must be really running. The weekend long runs have now reached 5 hours. Last Saturday's topped 30 miles. My last 30 mile run 18 months ago was about half a mile further, but it was in January, and this was August, when the temp was close to 90 when I was done. All of which goes to say I think this build is going better, but it's hard to say. And of course all of this running isn't just to run, but to race. And over the next 2 months, I've got a pretty cool calendar planned: 1.) Labor Pain , September 2 - This 12 hour event will be my first timed race. I've had my eye on this one ever since it started 2 years ago, but we generally are out of town for Labor Day weekend. Not this year, and so this one is on the calendar. Ironically, the course record for this one is owned by my Team Type 1 teammate, Ryan Jones, who went 72.5 miles in 2010. Gi...