SEA WHEEZE HALF MARATHON

I have always been up for any sport or fitness challenge, so when I was offered a spot to run the Lululemon Half Marathon in Vancouver, BC, how could I say no? 

Well numerous ways, like "no gracias" or I could have pulled the D-card and said, "sorry, I am diabetic and need to more time to prepare so I can see how running for 13 miles will affect my blood sugar". The D-card always works because most people don't know how to respond.  Or a simple, "I have never run a race before and have not run over 1000m in over a year".  Even though these are all true statements, my wife who hates running and will even avoid the Crossfit classes I teach if there is running involved, convinced me to go ahead and give it a try because she watched extremely overweight people do it on the Biggest Loser television show.  Yes my wife judges reality based on TV shows.  

The fact is, I had actually trained for a half marathon over 5 years ago, but sprained my ankle two days prior and was unable to run. I put in weeks of training and made multiple adjustments to insulin regimes and dietary intake before/during/after running.  It took a lot of preparation, so the D-card really is a legit excuse, but my wife ended up making the call and two days before the run committed to running 13.1 miles on a whim.  The only difference this time around that I am older, but what made me feel much more comfortable is that I now have my Dexcom G4 CGM, so I could track my blood sugars the whole time.  Also, my training through Crossfit should prepare me for any physical feat, right?  Below are some fun pictures from the race and more insight into my diabetes logistics for our grueling run. Also, the stunning beauty Vancouver made for an enjoyable and picturesque race. (Yes, those were legit drag queens at one of the cheer stations, very entertaining! ) Check out the video of the race here... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBwtQ9fYWmQ) 

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Overall, we finished the race in 2.5 hours, which isn't spectacular, but without any running prior, we ran/jogged the whole race with minimal stops for gel packs and water.  I packed 4 gel packs with me and with the race stations, only started to go low once at around the 7 mile marker, but the gu gel packs popped me right back.  To my surprise, we made it without much tribulation, except for my quad cramps at around mile 11.5.  It helped that the race was full of cheer stations with some great costumes and the turnout for the race was really amazing.