Update of the Update

OK - its 2:3oam and I am up for breakfast and I checked my email and what do you know, but Michelle sent a link for everyone to follow the Twitter updates. http://search.twitter.com/search?q=triabetes As for me - I have slept well and hope to get another hour or so in. The weather looks good - maybe some T-showers this evening... I was worried about rain during the bike and ended up packing all sorts of junk into the transition bags. My watch has been counting down the days until Ironman and it always seemed so far out. I remember when it fell below 100 days and it seemed like it was just around the corner. Now it says "Ironman Today" and I am actually looking forward to it. It has been such an honor to be a part of this project and to meet all the amazing people involved. Thank you John Moore for moving in next door and playing soccer with me and for finally giving me the running hat that pushed me over the edge to do this thing. As the song on Golden Girls said "thank you for being a friend" - you changed my life. Ooooookaaay.... I can't believe I just wrote that and I am not going back right now and deleting it. And Dave Shack, holy cow - he really is a machine. I have truly enjoyed the hours and hours of training and laughing with that guy. He is an inspiration - he has been my inspiration. Thank you dave. And Michelle - Yesterday at the reception, Michelle went over the story of Triabetes. It began with her and a guy from One Touch at a coffeshop. She said "I would love to make a documentary about diabetics doing Ironman." He said, "you should do it". Just a few days later, Ray and Nella Ibsen walk into her office and she offhandedly remarks about it. They say "We do documentaries...and we have a daughter with diabetes." hmm. She calls this diabetic who had done a lot of endurance stuff...John Moore....and they decide to do it. John calls Brian Foster - a guy from Animas who is quite a runner and Brian is in. John moves in next door and I am in. I mention it to Dave when I meet him for the first time late last July. When I see him a week later, Dave says "I'm in". This is funny because I wasn't really asking him. So I say "Sweet!". Michelle gets the first African American diabetic Ironman, Aaron Perry. She also gets her bike coach, Joe Brady. John and Michelle start combing the internet for diabetic athletes and find Steve Chop. Michelle emails Peter Nerothin who joins up with Insulindependence and really fills in the missing piece for fundraising and organization because Insulindependence has Nate Heinzman. So then more searching finds the first diabetic Ironman ever, Bill Carlson...who is an amazing story all on his own. Larry Smith joins on... he has had diabetes for 47 years and is doing this as a gift to himself for his 60th birthday. I was talking to him yesterday and he said that he thinks one of the reasons he is in good health today was that his lifestyle was always active - he remembers running to deliver papers as a kid with diabetes...which would have to be back around 1960. Amazing. More searching find Anne Findlay who was a crucial piece for me because she kind of acted like my coach. She did an Ironman just a month or two ago, by the way. And after a couple dropped out, we found Steve Parker who had already signed up for Madison and then been diagnosed AFTER. This is his first one as a diabetic. I think the world of all these people and I only wish I was fast enough to see them finish...just one of them:)

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