Today I decided to run the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia. I will raise $500. I will train for 12 weeks. And I will finish. All with type 1 diabetes. I've never considered life with Type 1 to be too difficult. I just had to commit to it. I had to accept the fact that I would always have to pay attention to what I eat or I would suffer the consequences. And for lots of reasons, I'm thankful that I have it. I've never been overweight, I have two wonderful children that I was able to give birth to with no complications and I have an amazing husband who has learned to accept that I get really mad at him when my blood sugar is really low.

The one thing that I've always avoided is running any more than a 5k race. I've been worried about my blood sugar dropping or spiking at any point during the race and ruining the whole experience for me. Then I realized that I can do it as long as I train differently. I can't just follow a training regimen from the internet. I can't just run each day and change my diet slightly. I need to Type 1 train.

Why do I want to do this? I have a tendency to strive to do things that either I think I can't do, or that other people think I can't do. And while no one has said that I can't do this, the thought crossed my mind that I may not be able to do it and so was born my motivation.

So today is the first day of figuring out how to do it! I thought I would keep track for the benefit of those who may want to do the same thing. Ironically, I had an appointment with my endocrinologist yesterday (best endo in the business - Dr. Ripu Hundal at First State Endocrinology). My A1C is at 7.2. and all other bloodwork came back normal. I'm working at getting my A1C into the 6 range and hopefully training will help with that as well. I'm excited to see the overall effects of training to see if its beneficial to my overall well-being.

Of course, I have no medical background whatsoever so anyone reading this should know that I'm not giving medical advice in any way shape or form. Always consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program, especially if you are a Type 1 diabetic. This blog is strictly for me to record my experience and, hopefully, my accomplishments!

So today, I am going to get familiar with a few "normal" training programs and see how I may need to adjust them. I also need to find some sort of running "fanny pack" since I will need to run with a blood glucose monitor and some sort of glucose packs in case of low blood sugar while I'm running. My plan is to train with that so its normal for me on race day.