Sunday's TdC Chicagoland Bike Ride

Continued from yesterday's post...

Instead of getting to the start of the Tour de Cure bike ride at 6:30, as originally intended, we instead arrived fashionably late at 6:55 AM.  Cleaning up my knees was more important than being on time.  Plus, my team knew what happened because we texted them.

After parking, getting all of my biking stuff out of the car, and finding my team, I wanted to get my Red Rider jersey.  I found it a bit odd that they did not give these out ahead of time.  I went into the venue to get it, asked a man where they were, and was told the wrong way to turn.  Then I asked another volunteer where to go.  Instead, I got this response:

Old Man Volunteer: "You shouldn't ride with your knees in that condition."

Me: "I'm fine.  I fell running this morning."

Old Man Volunteer: "It is not safe for you to ride."

Me (already pissed off at this point): "Where are the jerseys?"

Old Man Volunteer: "There is a medical tent outside.  You need to go there."

Me: "I'm fine.  Where are the jerseys?"

Old Man Volunteer: "You shouldn't ride."

At that point, my frustration had gotten the better of me.  I was already late because of falling, and now this old man was trying to tell me not to ride.  If he only knew that whenever someone tells me something is not possible it only makes me want to go prove them wrong even more, perhaps he would have stopped talking.  Instead of yelling at him, which is what I wanted to do, I simply turned and walked away.  I eventually found the area, got my jersey, and headed back to my team, my friends.

At this point it was already 7:30, and the first wave was long gone, as they started at 7 AM.  Me, my running friend, and another guy were starting together.  After getting to the street, we contemplated which way to go, and ended up following the arrows.  We were the only ones on the path, which we thought was odd.  We weren't even biking that slow.  By the time we reached mile 6.5, both of their phones rang.  We pulled off the path to see who it was, only to find out that our other team members, still at the start, called to tell us we were going the wrong way.

At that point, we turned around and made our way back to the start.  By the time we got back, we had already biked 13 miles, and I knew the century would not happen.  However, I was okay with it.  It could happen another day instead.

By the time we got to the first rest stop, they were packing up.  All of us, runners first and cyclists second, found it a bit funny.  The there of us run well, and often finish near the front of races.  It was like we became the slow runners.  It was a different feeling, one that I didn't particularly like.

When we reached rest stop 2, the same thing happened.  By rest stop 3, we had finally (!!!) caught up to some other riders.  By rest stop 4, we caught up with two other people on our team and biked with them for a little bit.  At that rest stop was the dividing for the century and metric riders.  However, the century riders had to leave that stop by 11 AM to continue on the course.  We got there at 11, so we knew the metric was what we were going to be doing.

My running friend was starting to feel tired and her legs hurt at this point.  She started to bike slower, with one of the other teammates, and by the next rest stop decided she would rather take the sag vehicle back to the start than finish.  This was at 100k, or 62 miles.  However, the guy (D) who was biking with us and me and the other two continued on.  D and I biked the last 13 miles together.  I was getting tired, and on the hills he would pull me up so I didn't have to work as hard, which was very kind.  We ended up crossing the finish line together, wheel-by-wheel, 75 miles later.

My knees did not hurt at all during the bike ride.  I did, however, get many interesting questions asked:

Many times, people would look at me, up and down, and then say, "what happened to you?" or "does that hurt?"

My canned response was: "I went running before the ride and fell this morning.  I feel fine, and I am ok."

D and my running friend joked that I should just put a sign on my jersey that said "I am fine."

Even though the day did not go as I thought it would, I wouldn't have done it any other way.  To live with diabetes is to overcome an obstacle every single day.  Therefore, biking with scrapped knees is only fitting.  It was just one more obstacle to overcome.  And I can say that not only did I overcome it, I demolished it in the process.

Sunday's Run Before the Bike

One of my friends always says that when her family says her training is crazy, there is always someone out there who is crazier.

Yesterday was the Chicagoland's Tour de Cure, an event that I had a small role in helping out with and  was also a team captain.  My friend and I had these grand plans to ride 100 miles in this event ever since we signed up.  We both have never completed a century ride.  My farthest was 75 miles, done last fall, and hers 98 done at Ragbrai a few summers ago.  Plus, a century ride is on my bucket list for the year.  I thought it would be meaningful to complete it at the Tour de Cure ride.

However, as much as I love to ride my bike, running is my true love, and yesterday was the kick-off of marathon training.  I was supposed to run 12 miles yesterday, however, my friend (also a marathon runner) and I decided 10 miles would be good.

She came over to where I live at 4:15 AM on Sunday morning so we could fit our run in before the ride.  We promptly left at 4:20 and ran out 5 miles, had some GU, and started to come back.  Then, at mile 7.5, this happened to me:

Ouch!

I tripped on the uneven sidewalk and scrapped my knees.  After laying on the sidewalk for a minute, my friend promptly told me I had to get up because if any cop cars drove by they would think she beat me up, which made me laugh.  Luckily, one of my hands landed in the grass and the other, which held a handheld water bottle, was unharmed.  The handheld, though, sustained all of the damage and broke. 

We ran the remaining 2.5 miles back to where I live, and maintained the same pace as my pre-fall.  My friend so kindly posted the picture above to Facebook, where the comments were entertaining to read.  I changed into my bike clothes and off we went to Aurora, the city where the Chicagoland Tour de Cure started.  Who says a little fall will deter me from riding my bike?

...To be continued tomorrow...

5k is not the same as a Marathon

I had the pleasure of viewing this conversation on Facebook.  Two people I went to high school with recently got into running, and have been running all of the local 5k's or similar back in then tristate area.  

This was the conversation that happened under a picture that they posted.

Runner #1: I ran the race in xx:xx and placed 13th out of 75 in my age group!!!  I am starting to get the hang of this marathon thing :)

Person #1: You flew by me at mile 1 and I never saw you again

Person #2: I love your matching shoes!

Runner #1: You should join us for one.  We are doing the race in (city) next weekend.

Person #2: I can't because i have to work.

Runner #1: At the end of the month we are doing the Color Run.  We are also running two more marathons in July in the area.


It amazes me how Runner #1 interchanged the words 5k and marathon, acting like they were the same thing.  Personally, I have always known the difference because I grew up around running.  Marathons were a great distance, 5ks a short run.

Having trained for both 5ks and marathons before, I can, as well as anyone else, say that there is a gigantic difference.  It takes a few weeks to train for a 5k, but months and hours upon hours to train for a full marathon.  It would be like saying that you got a home run in baseball when really you were walked.  You still got on base, but it was only to first.  You did well, but could have gone farther.

This isn't to say that running 5ks is easy.  I think they are incredibly hard if you run them all out.  However, they are nothing like a marathon.  5ks are done in 30 or less minutes, while marathons take a few more hours to finish.

Are there other things that you often hear people confuse? I have heard 5k and marathon before, but also biathlon and duathlon often get confused.

Rockford 10k Race Report

Do you ever have the feeling that you are capable of much more than your performance showed?  That is the feeling that I left the Rockford 10k with last Sunday.  After speaking with my running coach the races held that day, we decided that it would be most beneficial if I raced the 10k and not the half marathon, as I originally wanted.

Mile 5.5 

My goal was to run the first mile in 7:00 or 7:05 and then run the rest in the 6:50s, so I would average 6:55 or so for the race.  I'm here to say that did not happen.  It wasn't even close.  I ended up averaging 7:04 for the race, and ran about 20 seconds slower than my PR from last year.

Getting my check

There is a lot I should be happy about.  I was 13th overall and the 2nd place female.  This race gives out money to the top 3, so I got a $50 check.  This is the first time I have ever won money for running.  Three of my running club teammates were running in the races, and there were an additional 4 that came to spectate/bike/cheer for us.  Doesn't it all sound great?

This past year, I have had concrete goals for a lot of races and fell short every single time.  The races where I had no goals were the ones that I ran my fastest.  I don't get it.  I can get 3 hours of sleep before a half marathon and run a 1:36 on the hilliest course in Illinois, but actually get sleep and proper rest only to run a 43:53 10k on a flat course?

With all that aside, I'll continue to race and have goals.  Hopefully I can achieve them this summer/fall.  I did accomplish one goal for this race, although it had nothing to do with time.  I've always felt that my body is too fat to only race in shorts and a sports bra.  But, I wanted to overcome that, and I did.  I raced in my shorts and sports bra, and was thankful I did due to the incredibly high humidity.  At least I achieved one goal, right?  It is the small things in life that matter!

Diabetes Blog Week #6 - Art Day

I dumped a plethora of used test strips from my meter bag and came up with this design: 

I think it is fitting, as I am racing tomorrow.

Diabetes Blog Week #5 - Switch Disease Day

When you consider all things, diabetes, although it is a pain sometimes, definitely is not the worst chronic condition one could have.  I thought about other chronic conditions and many are a lot worse, so coming up with a disease I would want to switch with was rather challenging.  Ideally, diabetes would just go away.  However, that isn't happening soon, so instead I would become Celiac in its place.

Changing my diet wouldn't be too awful to do.  I went gluten free for a bit last year during marathon training and it was just a different way to think about food.  Obviously, if you do eat gluten than that would suck.  However, there are so many people jumping on the GF band wagon that it is easy to find options to eat at most restaurants.  Some of my favorite foods are GF anyway, including my favorite: 

Although I don't truly consider myself part of the DOC, given the fact that not too many diabetes topics are spoken about here, I don't think it has impacted how I treat others' medical conditions.  I am a caring person by nature, so I am concerned when someone else gets hurt, injured, or sick.  But that is part of who I am, and would be regardless of other people.

Diabetes Blog Week Post #4 - Accomplishments

Today's post deals with stating your biggest accomplishment.

Non-diabetes-wise, my biggest accomplishment is qualifying (and then running) the Boston Marathon.

Diabetes-wise, my biggest accomplishment is not having an A1C over 6.5 since I was in 5th grade.  It could be longer, except I haven't bothered to look at reports from 18 years ago.

Diabetes Blog Week Post #1 - Doctors

As I've done attempted in the past, this year I will be participating in Diabetes Blog Week.  This year my goal is to actually blog about diabetes for the entire week.

Today's prompt deals with doctor visits:

I think I am in the minority in that my doctor spends more than 15 minutes with me, rather 30 minutes.  I don't hide the facts of my life from my doctor.  He knows that I am a runner and that I do a plethora of cross-training.  He knows that I have always struggled with low blood sugars, and the panic that I feel when I see a number over 200 come across the screen on my meter.  He knows that change for me is very hard, and also that I don't like to use the Bolus Wizard on my pump when I eat.  I believe in being completely honest with my doctor.  This means telling him the good things happening, the bad things, and the ugly things.    

If my doctor read my blog, I don't think he would at all surprised.  I blog about what is important to me on it - mostly running, a little diabetes, with some random stuff thrown in.  Having diabetes requires a lot of work, and even more so if you are an athlete.  Diabetes is always present, and needs a lot of attention.  I think that many people start to have problems because they do not pay enough attention to it.  It is more than counting carbs, finger sticks, and insulin shots/boluses.  It is carrying GU with you on any any run over 3 miles and wearing a bracelet that identifies me as having a dysfunctional pancreas.  

I feel incredibly lucky to have a doctor that understands me, and can help me take care of myself better.  

Perspective

After a rough few weeks in regard to running, including a half marathon that included a stop at the med tent at mile 6.5 on what was supposed to be a 1:32 half PR, I've been especially hating diabetes.  Sometimes having it just sucks - and there is no other way to put it, but especially so when it derails my plans.

Today I opted to run a little later in the morning instead of in the 30* weather.  On the schedule was a "long" run of 10 miles, which was broken down into a 1 mile warm-up, 8 mile MGP run (7:37 pace) and a 1-mile cool-down.  As I got out of my car and waited for my satellites to load, I looked at the beauty around me.  I could see flowers rapidly moving in the wind, and a bright blue sky.  It was incredibly windy, but a good day to run.

A few steps into my run I had to stop and wait for a car before I crossed the street and continued to run on the path.  As I waited for the car, I noticed two people on the other side of the street.  One man was wearing a Boston Marathon shirt from this year, and was talking to another man.  Not really thinking much of it, I looked down at my watch to see that it was paused.  It was then that I realized the other man.  He had a prosthetic leg.

After the car passed, I ran by, saying hi to both men on the way by.  As I ran 1 mile out, I thought about how different life would be without one of my legs.  How much harder running would be.  Could I even bike?  Everything would be different.  And as I turned around and hit the 2-mile mark, I saw the man running by me the opposite direction and said "hi" again.

I am constantly amazed by other people.  This man was out on the prairie path today running, just like me.  However, although I am 100% positive he does not know it, he changed my perspective.  Did the run today go as planned?  No, not in the least bit.  I had a low blood sugar around mile 6 and ended up running an over pace of 8:00 miles, instead of 7:45.  But I could care less because I could still use my legs to run.  It made me thankful that the majority of my body does work well.

This run today was more than just a run, but helped me gain perspective of the good things in life, and to be thankful for what I do have.

A New Chapter

In my five years of being a runner, I have been self coached.  I took advice from others, but ultimately it was me who dictated what I did.  Being self coached requires a great deal of discipline.  The only person you are accountable to is yourself, which can be both a blessing and a curse.  I think that worked out fairly well for me in the past.  I achieved some respectable PRs under my own guidance.

But, I want to become better.  I don't just want to be "average"...I want to be considered "good".  I don't think I can achieve this on my own, which is why I am going to start working with a running coach on Wednesday.  My coach "W" is a runner himself.  He actually coaches my best runner friend, who I have trained with for the past year.

The self-coaching door is shutting come Wednesday and the "getting coached" door is opening wide.  With it come all sorts of excitement, dreams, and goals that I hope to accomplish.  I realize my goals are ambitious, but W says that they are attainable.  This scares and excites me at the same time.  In the next six months, my goals are:

1.  Break 1:30 for a half marathon (sub 6:53 average pace)

2.  Break 20:00 for a 5k (sub 6:24 pace)

3.  Break 3:20 for a marathon (sub 7:38 pace)

And as Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."  It will take work, but I believe my body and mind are capable of running these times.