There and back again...(and back there again) - A Triabetic Life

Its not a candle, its a test strip..

2010-10-30T20:23:00.011-04:00

CAT, TEST STRIP, CAT

Ah, Halloween... the anti-diabetic holiday:) We actually had quite a beautiful time - Damascus is a wonderful community for our only community holiday. Life is becoming normal again. I talked to David M at the farmer's market today - he's in the club, you know... actually he is the president. What club you ask? The "I'm a diabetic and I have a diabetic kid" club. Its not one that I wanted to be in, but the company is quite enjoyable... good folk in the club. David has 3 type 1 kids. Imagine that.

Adia is doing quite well - she is settling into the routine of being a diabetic - doesn't seem to mind the testing and shots are not that bad (she ain't beggin for them though). I was gathering wood with our dear neighbor Homer and I was telling him about Boo and I said that she will never know any different life - which is a blessing (well she might know a different life - we have been told to expect the cure in her lifetime... of course, I have heard that one before). She is quite a pro - I am very thankful for that.

Pumpkin pickin in Damascus....

Adia and her gourd..... if you look carefully, you will see her ROAD ID necklace... Is that something to be happy about? Maybe. Road ID is great... just didn't expect to need it for Boo.

Pre-diagnosis at the Washington county fair - we rode the ferris wheel together... I had never been on one before - Adia and Zoe loved it. Odd to think her pancreas was dying at that time... the deep fried oreos surely didn't help

The sponsor shot. Dave, Matt, and I at the diabetes get together last weekend. It was sooo good to see everyone again. Dave, Reid, and I (and maybe Matt) have agreed to get our sorry butts back in shape - cause is not just ugly... its depressing. We are looking at the Grandfather marathon this summer. That gives me time to delay training.... But now that the musketeers are back in contact, its harder to dodge a workout... thank God.

Here is Adia testing her blood sugar at the diabetes get together at the park. She was quite the superstar. Notice Uncle Dave... we may joke around but he is all about concern, hope, and love... look at that body language

Here is the Indigo Bunting and the Scarlet Tanager. Ash and the kids made these wings.... from FEED BAGS! Amazing - they had a blast running around the yard and on Halloween flapping around.
Still flapping. You might notice the American Goldfinch on the right.
Still flapping. To those who have posted responses in the last few weeks - Thank you so much. Diabetes kind of claimed the spotlight in our lives for a bit and the encouragement from everywhere helped a ton. But we are doing good again and its time for diabetes to get its butt back in the back seat again. Its always there, but it ain't drivin'

There could be some turbulence

2010-10-22T01:35:00.003-04:00

Its 1:30am and I could be returning from a full moon hike with my buddy Shane, but it is way too early in the diagnosis to be sacrificing sleep.... which is ironic because here I am awake after I tested Adia (who was 155 - nice) because I am low (51 - not so nice). I've eaten but it will probably take me another hour to fall back asleep... at least tomorrow is friday.

Thanks to those who have offered thoughts and support to me and my whole family through this thing. I never realized how helpful it is to hear that someone else cares. Adia is doing really great - we went to the Pediatric Endo on tuesday in Asheville and had a really good visit... however it took 3.5 hours! And that wasn't waiting around - various folk kept coming in to talk to us - CDE's, PA's etc. It was a well run show and we are pretty happy with Dr Artz. They are going to be our team, not just a doctor that tries to tell you what to do. My mom and dad met us there and watched Zoe and Esme... which turned out to be a lifesaver. It was good to see them. I have gotten a whole new appreciation for my parents because I don't know how they handled my diagnosis so well. Most of what we are doing right now with Boo (Adia) is done with confidence because I know it worked with me. Adia sure seems to be growing bigger and her hair even seems thicker! I wonder how long she has been partly diabetic.....

The depression part of the diagnosis is ending for me and Ashley and we are getting back to the business of living (except for blogging in the dead of night). We have decided to buy the place in Glade ... which was not an easy decision. At first we wanted to run. But I truly feel that there is work that we need to do here... with the farm stuff, with the AT2 group, and with diabetics in the area.... as there seems to be not much of a support system. I don't know what the future holds, but we are going to try to move forward into it. There was a quote from some article about a guy from some African nation (nice documentation, I know) - "If we go forward, we die. If we go backward, we die. So lets go forward and die." I'm not so much looking to the future, but I am not worried about it anymore... thats a nice place to be in. We'll see what happens.

I never knew

2010-10-16T20:49:00.002-04:00

Well, its almost been a week since Adia's diagnosis... and time has effectively stopped. I remember the sight of the meter when I checked her and it was over 600... then blackout.... I remember the transfer in the ambulance to Johnson City - little Adia strapped into the gurney and asleep at 1am... I only barely remember the hospital stay - day and night blended - the occasional battle with the hospital staff (who were great, its just that a hospital is a terrible place to try to manage diabetes) - then we've been home for a few days I think. Today (and the last few days) I have been struggling with what I hope is fatigue ... I was sitting on the couch today seriously thinking that falling asleep would take too much effort. I was thinking of all the things I don't care about... milking the cow, feeding the chickens, bathing, getting off the couch....

HOWEVER, I am doing a bit better tonight. We went to the park and just being outside had the usual restorative effect. The kids played like crazy and I even was able to move around a bit. We topped it off by going to the grocery store to get a huge pack of bacon for dinner.

Adia is doing great. Her blood sugar did not go over 200 all day. Most days it is in pretty good control with the occasional spike... she is only 30 lbs which makes it touchy. She gives me all my shots and tests my blood. She doesn't like shots and finger pricks and fights them but it seems that they don't hurt her too much. She has tested her blood on her own and I wouldn't be surprised if she takes a shot on her own soon. It really seems as if its mom and dad who are having difficulty here... Adia is a pro.

I talked to my mom tonight and asked how in the world she did it... how did she and dad handle the diagnosis. she gave me lots of great insights, but the best one was that she said that she doesn't remember the initial anguish much.... Thank God... please let that be me and Ash. Its funny - controlling her blood sugar is not really a worry or anxiety for me - what is killing me is just the fact that she has diabetes. I can't imagine what parents who aren't diabetic (which is most) must go through at this time. I will be soooo much more compassionate with new diabetic parents from this point on. To think I used to say "its really no big deal" Yeah, from the patient's point of view.

Jesse Alswager's JDRF ride in Death Valley was today and amazing Michelle...on this important date for her son.... taped my daughter's diagnosis date (10-10-10) on her bike and dedicated the 10s on the ride to Adia - the 3's were for her son. Amazing. That simple act kept me from falling into full force depression I think. I don't know what plan God has, but I am thankful for the people who are in place in my life.

Well, I'd better go - Zoe is reading a couple of diabetes children's books to Adia and Ashley...

I hope and pray that the ride in Death Valley went well today.

Adia is a diabetic now

2010-10-12T08:10:00.001-04:00

Sunday night we suspected Adia's blood sugar was up, and when the meter read "over 600" a defining point was made in my life. It was like a death. So sudden and so permanent and I so knew what it all meant. I was so sad. I never wanted Ashley to be a diabetic parent. This sounds odd, but I myself never wanted that level of commitment to this disease. Its easy being a diabetic - in the sense that you are the one on the field. It is so difficult being a diabetic parent and I always dreaded it. We fashioned our lives around trying to limit all the possible triggers for this disease (no vaccinations, the whole diet thing - including the cow) and still my tiny, perfect angel of a daughter got it.

On the flip side, it has been awful "fun" battling the hospital when it comes to managing a diabetic. I left it in their hands for half a day and I realized that their best effort comes from a textbook. For instance, last night at 3am she was 143 and the hospital formula said that she should get half a unit. This was stupid and I refused. This morning she was 103. She has been at normal blood sugar level for 12 hours for the first time in awhile - she slept good, she's eating good... there is a lot to be thankful for as long as I don't spiral into the self pity thing..

Looks like I'll be blogging again...

Godspeed, Jesse - Thank You

2010-02-09T02:47:00.006-05:00

On February 3, 2010 - The amazing 13 year old Jesse Alswager passed away because of diabetes. Jesse had been a type 1 diabetic for 10 of those 13 years and because of that, Jesse saved me.

Jesse (in the "Running on Insulin" T shirt) is Michelle Alswager's son and Michelle Alswager is the force that dreamed up the Triabetes project and then saw it and the documentary through to its completion. Michelle is why we went to Madison, WI to run Ironman. She was in a coffee shop in Madison talking with someone about Ironman (which she had done the previous year) and she said "You know what would be cool? To get 10 Diabetics to do Ironman and film it." Yes, of course it would be cool, but how many people would be able to take that idea and make it happen? Just one, I think. Michelle has been a fundraising force in the diabetes world for 10 years. I did a quick search and found where on one of her first walk a thons, she raised $22,000.... like I said she is a force. A quick search will pull up events in Jesse's life like "7 year old holds diabetic cookbook signing - 'Cooking Up a Cure" or you can see a couple of years ago, the Governor of WI mentioned Jesse in his State of the State Address for the Alswager's work on Stem Cell research with JDRF.

Here is Michelle doing what she has done since I met her - which is simply whatever it takes to get my butt up the hill.

Michelle's motto was always "Cure Jesse" and because of that, I got to be a part of Triabetes and was given a gift of life. I was taught that this disease sucks and it takes cheap shots but that it WILL BE BEATEN. My health is better than it has ever been thanks to what I learned through Triabetes and none of that would have happened without Jesse. So Jesse, Thank you. I will never forget you. My focus has been resharpened and the Mantra I will use is "Curejesse". Godspeed.

There has been a fund set up - which is accessible though paypal at the Caringbridge link below:

Jesse Alswager Memorial Fund
c/o UW Credit Union
PO Box 44963
Madison, WI 53744-4963

Cards can be mailed to:
Michelle Alswager
3 Leland Circle
Madison, WI 53711

For more information:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jessealswager/

Here is another article on Jesse

On a side note - an idea has been bouncing around in my head, Heather's head, and somehow (probably because she is tapped into energy that needs no wires) in Shelly's (HCUCC) head. It was simply an idea: "How about doing to ride across the country for diabetes?" I have noticed that there is a US bike route that goes through my town - Bike Route 76. Turns out it goes from the coast of VA to the Coast of Oregon and was intended to be like Route 66 - small town scenic. My original thought was to make this a family trip - one person can ride one day while the other drives the kids to the next campground - then switch. Now my thought is that we ride it for Jesse. If Michelle and Jesse have taught me anything, its that ideas can fly.

Esme's UNO!

2010-01-27T06:30:00.008-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my kiddo! Well the littlest one is one and time is again passing in the blink of an eye. We had a little celebration on her actual birthday and then went back to SC to do a family birthday. It was pretty wonderful.

She's got the birthday crown that Ash made (each kid has one) - but its on upside down - she's already making a statement. Notice the button.. first one.

Zoe declaring that she wants a corner piece

Right side up, birthday kid!

Adia and Jan - man I would love to know what they were talking about:)

Ash came up with an idea to have everyone draw on a cloth square some picture or design and she will sew them up into a little blanket for Esme. Zoe is trying to glean some inspiration from Grandma.

Here's the birthday girl with the most important soul in her life right now...MAMA!

MawMaw and Esme make their entrance to the party

Grandpas.... the number of hilarious bubble quotes I could put over their heads... wonder what they were talking about? Probably golf:)

Grandma, mid laugh ... sorry mom, had to put this one in

This is the kimchi that Ashley and Carole made and then we forgot to bring it to SC... and it is actually the best I've ever had. Watch out, it may go nationwide

On the Korean kick - if you've got kimchi, you need some pulgolgi to go with it.... mmm mmm good.

Esme on her actual birthday - yes, we had cake that night, too

Zoe and Adia excavating bones from an amazing bone excavating brick that Carole's dad made. They removed the bones, sifted them, and then took them to Dr Tom at ASU (bone expert) to identify them - it was amazing all the way around.

And if you have kimchi and pulgolgi, why not make some tempura as well? Its Korean cooking... Appalachian style! On the wood cook stove:)

In other news, my birthday rolled around and the clock is getting closer and closer to going backwards or to turning 20 again. We had a great day - just kind of relaxing with some great food and amazing brownines and ice cream... In diabetic parlance, I had to bolus for that one.
I did go to an diabetologist here - Johnson Memorial Diabetes Center - a Dr. Andrew Rhinehart. Dr. Rhinehard maintains a pretty good diabetes website/blog called the Diabetes Expert and he wrote a book "I Have Diabetes? Now What!" It turns out that he knows Dr. Matt of Diabetes Training Camp and ran a marathon with my fellow triabetic Brian! I'd say I am where I should be.
I finished our taxes - it only took me 12 hours. But it seems my plan of making less and less money and having more and more children is finally paying off! We got a big ol refund:)
We had another snow here friday - did some cross country skiing and snow shoeing - but it doesn't look like we will miss a day - so I'd better get off this computer and get ready for school....

Christmas Holidays

2009-12-30T07:47:00.008-05:00

Here's how the Christmas break began... We had exam week which is not exactly the most fun week of them all, but I had finished my exams the week before so it wasn't too bad. The weather reports were saying that we were going to get a nice snow and it would start that last day - Friday. Well, Friday looked fine - we had a half day because only one exam had to be given. As the kids left, there was a nice rain falling. I thought this kind of stunk because I rode my bike to school - I was ready for cold, but I didn't relish a wet ride home. I did however, haul out the mountain bike because I hoped there would be a dusting of snow for my trail ride home. This will become a bit prophetic later. Well, we teachers move to the cafeteria for our Christmas luncheon - it was nice - great food. While there we notice that in the rain are a few snowflakes....

Well, lunch ends and I check my box and take the outside path to my class. There is an inch of slush on the parking lot.

Hmmm. I think. Just about that time, the rain changes completely to snow and within just a few minutes all the slush is a really nice, rather deep snow. Reports are coming in like crazy that the roads are in terrible shape and everyone gets ready to go.... and get on them. Hmmm, I think again.

I decide that the roads are the last place I would want to be and so I get ready to ride the Creeper trail home. How bad can it get in an hour? This also becomes prophetic.

Riding in the snow is one thing. Riding 13 miles in 4 inches of snow is just plain epic. It felt like riding uphill in thick mud.... for almost 3 hours. Except for the fact that on the trestles it was like riding on grease. I would concentrate - trying to stay perfectly level and invariably at the end of the trestle, I would do a 360 and hit the ground. It was beautiful however and fun in its own way - but epic nonetheless. Its been a long time since I have been that tired. Thank goodness I spent $4 on candybars before I left school. I ate 3 on the way home and was washing them down with snow because I didn't bring anything to drink....

Here is my ride home... trying to get back to "Spare Oom" (little CS Lewis ref)

Going for a walk the next day - we got about 8 inches I suppose - but I hear Boone got hammered with 20+

Snow T-Rex. If you notice, Zoe put a little prey in its mouth:)

Yes, this IS the perfect spot for "Time Out"!

Video of sledding in the back yard... we later fitted the run with a jump of course... it became known as the "spine compressor"

Then the solstice came about and I always wanted to keep it in some way - I heard that in the Norway they build a bonfire on the snow on the solstice - so I built a nice fire and we roasted marshmallows into the longest night....

Then Christmas came - here is our great ol tree that I made from dead locust branches

Maw Maw came to stay with us Christmas week and we all had a great time - Jon got the garage finished (shown in the pic - he did an amazing job) and we now all think the garage is the best room in the house... I am writing this in the garage right now - the wood cook stove is in here - it quickly became the heart of the house. There are more Christmas pics if you go to the web album

And speaking of the wood cook stove, I really need to take a minute here. This thing was really expensive, but I will never be without one ever again. I now rank it second only to a roof in terms of importance. This stove is situated in the garage (which is now a wonderful south facing room) and the garage is two steps lower than the rest of the house. Jon took out the transoms above the doors and now the little drop causes the cool air in the house to drop into the garage and the warm air rises out to the rest of the house in a wonderful convection current. But we now do most of our cooking on this stove - from quick eggs and toast in the am to Boston butt ham, to pizzas, to soups, and we even boiled and canned 11 chickens on it a few days ago. And all this time while we are cooking and heating the air, we are also heating a 20 gallon tank to clean dishes and an 80 gallon tank which feeds our water heater. So many people around us have really had some problems by having no power for a week or more and for the first time in my life, I realize that my family really will not be inconvenienced much if the power goes out for a day, a week, or a month. I have never loved an appliance, but I love this stove. If you ever find yourself looking for ways to become less tied to the grid, you ought to look into the wood cook stoves of today.

Oh, here is a Christmas Stollen that Carole made in the stove. Amazing. No sacrifice here. The Sharestead continues to eat well.

And just a couple of pics of the kids - Have a Happy New Year!

Basically November

2009-12-05T22:45:00.012-05:00

First off, CONGRATS REID! You did it, IRONMAN. Your journey was a lot longer than 140.6 miles - Thank you for letting me be a part of your journey to Arizona - I am super proud of you. Triabetes rocked the house again, 2009 - the documentary premiered and was amazing, I hear. The triabuddies (diabetic kids who paired up with Triabetics) had an amazing coastal trip. More on all that stuff in a later blog.

Now back to normal family blog stuff. November and December kind of went by in an instant. Somewhere around the end of October, we all went up to Whitetop mountain to do a little hike from Elk Garden to Whitetop. This is on a rather beautiful stretch of the AT.

Elk Garden looking away from Whitetop - Mount Rogers and Grayson Highlands are that way.

Ash on Whitetop overlooking the transition from Blue Ridge (left) to Ridge and Valley (parallel ridges in distance). This whole area is pretty amazing - we are standing on an ancient volcano and off in the distance is old ocean floor limestone. On the way home from this trip we stopped to pick up some rock made from glacial deposits. On down the trail is Buzzard Rock.

Buzzard Rock - that stuff was lava... not magma... lava.

So Halloween came next, and my camera did not want to behave. So I pretty much don't have any pictures of the Adia and Zoe in their amazing costumes that Ashley made!

You know what they say - "If you can't have fun with pumpkin guts...." actually, I don't know what they say...

We walked downtown Damascus and had a blast even though it was raining. Many churches had fun things to do and main street kind of had that halloween feel that I remember... before trick or treeting was done in malls.

Here is the only shot of Adia on halloween - she is pretty enthralled with the popcorn maker

Mid November, Zoe came with me and the Environmental Awareness club to do some trail clean up in Alvaredo.

Then we had Zoe's 6th birthday. We had some beautiful weather and did our little party outside with MawMaw and a wonderful local family that we have become good friends with. It was fun all around - I think I hooked a few of the kids on unicycling. One daughter tried to get convince me that jumping rope on a pogo stick was where it was at - I will let her keep that talent. It was rather amazing, however. And yes, the cake was a Steve Ahn special... and that's supposed to be a horse even though it looks a little like Nessie (of the Loch).

Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you...

Zoe's gift was a new bike. First off, I have a problem when it comes to bikes... I love them. But I justified it because she rides with us to town all the time. Its a neat little Specialized Hotrock - they make the best kids bikes... and I don't mean bells and whistles - they are aluminum where most are cr-mo (which means they don't weigh a ton) and the parts are just quality. Since we will be passing the bikes down the line, quality really matters. This is the second one we have bought and I would recommend them to anyone.... and they sponsor amazing groups like Triabetes.

Just a good picture. I think we were picking pears next door.

Same day. Smile.

We went to Greenville over Thanksgiving and took a hike at Paris Mtn with Morgan. Thanksgiving was good - we went to Rock Hill (where I took no pictures) for turkey day and then went to Greenwood on Friday - where the only pics I took were all bleached out. Ah well, Thanksgiving week was filled with seeing family and that was really wonderful.

So it rains for a couple of days and then the whole system blew out suddenly leaving us with an amazing double rainbow (the picture does not do it justice)...

And an amazing sunset in the other direction. Jon is pointing to the Rainbow.

The skies here have been amazing - I thought we were giving up interesting weather when we left Boone, but the opposite has been true. Every day, new show.

Then today it snows - really pretty day. You can see the limestone cliff behind the river here.

Zoe had her first sleepover this day as well. Dang, its all happening rather fast.

Adia says, "till next time, happy trails."

Not much, how 'bout you?

2009-10-24T02:26:00.014-04:00

Well, its certainly been awhile. I don't think I can begin to fill you in on the amazing journey our family has been on, but I will try to give you the short, short version.

It all begins with a decision to move from our beloved Boone to Damascus, VA. We had been working on this move for the last 4 years. Our goal was to find a place where we could buy a few acres, live a little more simply, and share a house with our friends, Jon and Carole. Well, after much ado, we finally did it.

Our place is located right on the Virginia Creeper Trail and the South Fork Holston river. The creeper trail is a wonderful old railroad trail that runs 30+ miles from whitetop mountain to Abingdon, VA. Damascus is about the halfway point. We are about 12 miles from Abingdon by trail and 3 miles to Damascus.. by trail.

Damascus has more bike shops than roads. So needless to say, I was pleased. The late summer started was all infrastructure - fences, painting,

putting in garden space that we would plant and then end up waaay too busy for and would let the weeds claim - however the potatoes did great... until they blighted... oh well. Next year we'll have our game face on.

It turns out that this area is amazing when it comes to being amazed - tons of wonderful festivals - like this 4th of July (amazing fireworks) celebration, Trail Days, the VA Highlands festival - this one goes on for weeks - it just goes on and on.

and Saltville (this was Labor Day in Saltville) - speaking of being amazed - Saltville is perhaps the most historical place I have ever been to - and it begins about 14,000 years ago when people were living here eating mammoths. Saltville sparked my interest in the geology of this area - and it has consumed me. I would go into the amazing-ness of the geology here, but I don't have that kind of time... patience

We settled into life here and quickly realized that the best thing about our location is our next door neighbors - Homer and Evon - they are wonderful people and master gardeners.. and they kept us in fresh food all summer...and fall...

And more festivals - the Washington County Fair is indeed a County Fair. My students at school were all excited about the fair because most of them had entries or were showing livestock, etc. The agricultural roots here still run deep - and I love it. The Fried Oreos weren't bad either. Adia is riding a pony above - and if you know Adia, she has some link to horses that is imbedded in her soul. The bottom pic is a duckling water table - the kids have a blast, the ducklings... eh, not so much.
Time goes by, babies like Esme start crawling around, eating food, creating havoc, but somehow through it all...
She remains a-dor-a-ble.

Zoe learned to ride a bike (this is from the first day she rode) and then within a week, she was riding to Damacus with us - 6 mile round trip. Riding with Zoe has been a dream come true for me.
Food has been great here. The Sharestead eats well.

I got my chickens to raise chicks - which is a whole lot easier than that dang grow light. We did get an order of meat chickens - and they were tasty, but of the 25 meat chicks I got and the 6 hens I got for my friend, Richard - only a handful made it. It was heartbreaking. I think I will let mama do it from now on.

Here is my world - I was happy to get this shot when someone wasn't crying ...

The paddling from our house to Alvaredo is a beautiful ride (class I with a couple of II's) along limestone cliffs. One day when my folks were up, my dad and I went down the river with Zoe and Adia. Zoe is a great swimmer and Adia I keep tethered to my life jacket... you probably know where this is going. I usually only paddle with the kids and I forgot how tippy a canoe cand be with 2 adults.. well we went over in the only rapid of any consequence. And when I popped up - I looked at the over turned canoe and saw... nobody. I gabbed the tether and followed it under the canoe and grabbed Adia and pulled her out. Then I still didn't see Zoe, so I turned the canoe over and there she was smiling. All this time we are going downstream in a decent current. Dad was at the front and somehow caught the paddles as he bashed his way along the rocks:) This probably only took less than 10 seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime. Its funny now... but just barely:)

Ash and Zoe searched and searched the milkweed for Monarch Butterfly caterpillars - it wasn't a big year for them, but they found a few and hatched them. Then Ash took this amazing picture.

I got a job at the last minute at Abingdon High School and it was one of those things that just seemed to be ... perfect. I had already traded my car for this little 250cc Ninja.... (yes, the ninja rides a ninja)... and when I had finally let go of my expectations of what I wanted (a job here) - what I needed happened. This little lesson has been taught to me over and over and over. My goal is to ride to work on 2 wheels all year long. In the worst case, I ride the motorbike and get close to 70 mpg.

And on the best days, I hop on my trusty singlespeed - hop on the trail at the bottom of our yard and ride 13 miles to work... all on the trail. That's about infinity mpg. Notice the sweet yellow fenders. I can't believe I ride a bike with fenders, but it really is the commuting way to go. I folded the sprocket yesterday, however. This pic is Ash coming up the chicken trail by the round gardens.

Speaking of round gardens, here they are. There will be much more on these later, but the idea is really intensive gardens and really good soil. There is about 18" of manure, hay, and cardboard - just waiting for spring.

My buddy at school, Lisa A.. (who prefers nicknames... she calls me "cycle-man" and we all call her "momma") invited us to this amazing thing her family does. Its a massive molasses-making, apple-butter stirring, ice-cream churning, meat-grillin community event. They do this so that the young people can still see how things were done. It was inspiring. After that we did our fair share of pear butter. Mmmmmm-mmmm good.

Then Halloween came. We went to Wytheville and went through a corn maze (below) and went on a hay ride and did some pumpkin picking. The corn maze is below. We spent halloween in Damascus and had a wonderful time going up and down main street. It had a hint of how things used to be.

So that's it for now. Reid is off to Ironman in 2 weeks and the Triabetes documentary will debut there (Arizona). I will write more on that later. Hope you all are well. Hopefully I will keep this up a little better from now on.

School is OUT!

2009-06-12T09:43:00.004-04:00

Finally! after a long end, school finally ended. Now we can begin to concentrate on our move to Damascus, VA. Jon and Carole have been working nonstop for the last few months getting the house in order. We are trying to rent our place now and that should totally determine how fast we make the move. In the last few weeks, I have been rather cranky - but now much of the stress is off and its time to renew. My thoughts go out to the 5 people at Watauga High that lost their jobs on the last day of school. We lost 16 positions total and I'll be surprised if we don't lose more in the next year. All the talk about "don't worry" was just talk, as usual. I am happy for our choice to go to Damascus - it kind of insulates us from some of the financial world madness. Even if I lose my job, we are not hopeless - we will have a lot less expenses there because we are sharing everything. The experiment begins soon. We will set up a real website to chronicle the journey - I even bought the domain yesterday... nothing is there yet but it will be at sharesteading.com - it pretty much sums up what we are doing.

Adia at Valle Crucis park at Aspen's birthday

Katherine (who I work with) and her brother Keith are great paddlers and I tagged along with them down Wilson's creek. We had a blast - my shoulders are really sunburned in that PFD style. It was Dave's (old student....sold him my old boat - that's not it, however) first real paddle and he did amazing. Ah, time goes by. It was so nice to get thrashed around again:)
This is up on Bobcat hill - we go up there to look for tracks, bobcat scat, and to feed the horses. Adia loooooves horses.
Aspen's birthday party - his parents (not shown) are pretty wonderful people that we are lucky to know.
Adia and a sheep. yep, that says it.

Dave at Wilson's creek - I have some other videos posted at Facebook if you are interested. But no way I am going through the time to repost again. Bye!

Reunion....niiice

2009-05-31T14:02:00.006-04:00

I have been gone for a looong time. But as life tends to do, it teaches lessons all the time - and all I have to do is pay a little bit of attention. Well, the most recent lesson I have learned is that I have an amazing family and I am a complete moron for losing touch with them for so long. The past weekend, Zoe and I zoomed down to Atlanta to see my Korean side of the family. It was all my Dad's sisters and whoever else could make it. It was a mountain of food, laughs, and love. It was wonderful.

Here is what every reunion needs... a snake - and it wasn't me! The real men (brother in law Dave, cousin Caleb, and myself) went down to the river to muck around a bit while the less manly crowd went to get steaks and alcohol:) But we came upon this black rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta, of course) at the trail head and I really got to turn into "Mister Science Teacher" for my 6th grade cousin. Yes, he's like 12 or 13. Yes, he could thrash me. But he's sooo cool.

My Aunts with Liza, Zoe, Mia, Lauren, and Caleb. It was so much fun to talk to my aunts again. Its pretty sad, I didn't get a pic of my cousin John (but we did stay at his house the night before), my cousin Keebs, my cousin Jason, or any of my uncles....Igoo, Igoo, Igoo.... They (my aunts) asked if I wanted to take some food home - I said "sure, I'll take a bit". They worked for 45 minutes and the doggie bag was an actual cooler. My family ate Korean for lunch and dinner for a week. It has been a week and I am still eating kimchee....niiiice.

We Koreans do the picture thing right.
I hadn't seen my sister Aimee and Dave for too long. I absolutely loved hanging out with her again.
John's wife Cindy - I used to go see them all the time when I was in high school - it was wonderful with those guys again. Zoe was a huge hit.
Zoe with Mia, Hannah, and Lauren. Hannah is an amazing person and was absolutely wonderful with the kids. Mia and Lauren (I hadn't seen them since they were babies) were just a joy.
Post reunion stuff - Adia at a petting zoo.
Zoe and Adia adding some amendments to the soil in Damascus this weekend. Lookey how nice the taters are doin, boy! I need to get one of those rice paddy hats....

Bye Bye Clot!

2009-05-20T18:36:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post. Ashley got her leg scanned yesterday to see how the clot was doing. We both just figured that it would be solidified and stable and maybe Ashley could get of coumadin. We figured that things were going fine, but the scan showed

NO CLOT!!

God, that is such a relief. Something that caused so much anxiety and pain for so long... to be gone and having blood flowing is wonderful. Thank you to whatever grace delivered that. And today she got the news that she could get off coumadin. And today we got the news that the balance of $800 that we owed the hospital is now zero. Good couple of days.

LIZA!!!

2009-05-03T07:54:00.008-04:00

It was a long time coming but last weekend was magical. And I really won't do it justice here but I need to at least report it. I got to meet my long lost sister. Thats right (technically half sister, but I'm counting her as full). Her name is Liza and she lives in Atlanta and is married to a super cool guy named Tony. She is absolutely wonderful - an absolute force of nature - if there was a "beautiful day" equivalent to a hurricane, it would be Liza. I have always been a bit reserved when it comes to expressing how I feel towards people and it has done me no good in my life. Liza thankfully has none of that and even better, she spreads it like a breath of fresh air on these wonderful spring days we've been having. Any person that gets others to say "I love you" easily - is in touch with some greater force. Thank you Liza.

(2 things - 1. I did something to mess this up and it linked itself to something so I just changed this link to the album of all the pictures (just click here) and 2. yes, she's a model) We went to Asheville on Saturday to meet up with Liza, Tony, Mom, and Dad and we were going to go to the WNC Nature museum but never made it off the grass at the little park outside. We spent all our time at by the river on a blazing spring day - eating, talking, playing, eating, talking... It was pretty much wonderful. It was a gift of a day anyway, but they all brought gifts - Liza and Tony gave the girls a little pink castle (oddly perfect because Zoe has been really into Camelot recently) - and Mom had made these wonderful tutu play skirts for the kids - and Aimee sent some amazing dino stuff for Zoe (which I totally forgot to call her about - sorry Aim! - will call today!). Ash made some great linen bread bags for them and I made Ash's hearth bread - but I messed it up in some way and it wasn't the great loaf it always is. But that is appropriate - its like me - a useful, tidy package on the outside, but a messed up loaf on the inside!

We then went to downtown Asheville for some wool stuff Ashley needed and the great times continued but now out of the sun and with ice cream and wool spinning lessons. Pretty sweet. When we left, Zoe cried for Liza... and I did too, a bit. In fact, when we got home I actually passed out due to either emotional overload. Thank you Liza for being such a wonderful person and a healing force.

I just really couldn't resist. I told her to look mean:) But its not all my fault - Liza helped! (this is great - another sister to blame stuff on!)

Tony, you had me at hello.... you had me at hello. Tony was amazing with the kids (I include myself in that group) - I can't wait to get to know this guy better.
Sunday was still great - there was an Earth Day church service outside and we spent the rest of the day at Russ' house cutting down dead locusts for fence posts. Niiiice.

Here is a quick video of everyone doing what we do best - hanging out and eating. This video is soooooo much more to me than a shot of people sitting around eating. I can't wait to have a couple of more sisters in a video sitting around eating, too.
Remember to click the linked paragraph to my pictures - if anyone wants a higher quality image than what's on picassa - let me know and I'll send it

5.2

2009-04-25T06:55:00.003-04:00

So I've been putting off going to Dr. Morgan because 1) I am lazy and 2) Dave had an A1C of 5.5 the last time and I knew that there was no way I'd ever get my A1C down that far.
For those who don't know, the A1C is a blood test that looks at glucose attachment to red blood cells - this happens when blood cells are made - and since blood cells live around 120 days, you get basically a 3 month shot at your blood sugar control. Normal (I guess I should say Non-diabetic) levels are 3.9-6.5.
Before Triabetes, I had never broken 7... in 25 years. Not that 7 isn't pretty good. Then while training for Ironman, I got down to 6.2. I thought that would be the low point. Since the 7 months since Ironman, I haven't swam one time.... I've only run a few times... and there have been very few bike rides. Everything I gained through training, I have lost:)
Actually, its not everything apparently. My A1C yesterday was 5.2 - on the lower half of normal! It looks like I have learned something about being a diabetic over the last year and it seems to have something to do with taking this "disease" seriously - i.e. testing when I need to test, being conscious of the interaction of insulin and food and (lack of) exercise at all times (thank you Diabetes Training Camp), switching to a morning and evening lantus shot, basically (as Dave used to say) being a "professional diabetic"
And I still can't count carbs
PS - I wasn't low that much in the last few months (like 7 months) - so it was a kind of genuine A1C
I emailed the Triabetes folks and the Diabetes Training Camp guru Dr. Matt Corcoran and basically thanked them again for saving my life.
On a related note, the guy who talked me into Triabetes, John Moore - is gearing up to run the Leadville 100 with another Triabetic, Peter Nerothin. They both are on the board of Insulindependence. The Leadville 100 is a 100 mile RUNNING race through the Colorado Rockies. The only other diabetic who has done this is Bill Carlson... the most famous Triabetic. If you want to help out John, please consider giving $10 - its easy and fast and safe at FIRSTGIVING. He is trying to raise $10,000 for Triabetes and Insulindependence by having 1000 donors of $10 each. Thanks for considering it. Please pass it on to anyone who might have an interest in Diabetes - Because inspiring diabetics is as important as any of the medicine or technology out there.

Question for Beekeepers

2009-04-17T09:35:00.007-04:00

Ok, its spring and my friend Jon and I have 3 hives... had 3 hives. Now we have 2 dead hives and 1 strong hive. I have a couple of questions for beekeepers here. I am pretty much a novice and I tend toward a hands-off approach to beekeeping. The yellow hive on the left is dead (bees still there), the top bar hive in the middle is dead (no bees), and the white hive on the right is strong.
Here is the entrance to the yellow hive - it was never strong - captured from a swarm from the white hive.
Inside the super of the yellow hive. There are a bunch of bees still here (dead). There is very little honey left and that honey is on the outside frames.

Inside the brood chamber - no bees on the brood frames. I assume these guys fell from the top.
Question #1: Did this hive starve?

Inside the yellow hive brood frame - small white flakes in the comb.
Question #2: Any ideas on what those are?

Top bar hive. Inside are top bars that had only a small spline coated in wax. Caught a swarm from the white hive and put them in. The sides are sloped at such an angle that the bees think the sides are floor and so do not attach the comb to the sides (so you can take out the frames)
They build the hive from the front to the back - so brood is in the front and honey is in the back (instead of top to bottom like conventional hives). This frame is from the back. Totally empty.

This frame is from the front. Totally empty.
Question #3: Any ideas why this hive might be gone? There's no honey. But there's no bees either. Is it CCD, or is more left behind with CCD?
Question #4: Why does wax turn dark? Is that where brood was?
Question #5: Any opinions on whether we should start a new hive in this and leave the wax, or harvest the wax and start from scratch again?

Thanks!

Spring's a coming

2009-04-16T09:33:00.003-04:00

So spring is coming and there is nothing I can do about it. Zoe and I went to Damascus the other day and planted a bunch of potatoes (German Butterball and Yukon Gold). I had never planted potatoes before, so we'll see. Homer (our neighbor) had plowed up the garden plot down by the road (and river) but hadn't tilled it yet - so Zoe and I worked pretty hard to get out the sod - but the soil under it was pretty nice. Then we planted 30 asparagus crowns. Getting a bit hungry just thinking about it. Then the next day we used Jon's idea of folding newspaper seed pots and planted our seed beds. It was a neat little origami trick to make a plantable pot for free.
These pictures are all backwards... as usual - you would think I would figure it out someday. Anyway, this is Easter night - we were invited to Rosa's house for a little impromptu get together. Easter egg hunt, dinner, bonfire (I think that is Aidan with sparklers)... it was a pretty wonderful time - thank you Rosa. And that was after Reid and I went for a bike ride to the greenway, where he then ran with Ashley. I don't do that stuff anymore:)
Easter Egg hunt. They were master egg dyers. Art people, how I love basking in their glow.
Adia had a great time as well. All the kids played so incredibly well together (especially the older kids with the young ones) - thank you Dargan, Marshaun (probably spelling that wrong), and Aidan.

DUML 2009... Done!

2009-04-07T12:30:00.004-04:00

Whew. Trip number 6 (I think) is in the books. Well, there are still a few bills to be paid that total around 10 thousand dollars... but for all practicality, the trip is over. We had a great week atDuke University Marine Lab. It started out a bit rainy and cold but quickly turned sunny, windy, and cold:) The kids seemed to love it and Zoe had a HUGE time. It was shocking to see your beloved 5 year old suddenly not need you – but it was also wonderful. Food was wonderful as usual (thank you Gilbert, Sly, and Sandy). Here is a quick rundown:

Day 1: Left the school at 7am and got there by dinner. Got settled in and then went for a walk to radio island. I totally remembered a gate preventing us from getting to the water – I was only wanting them to burn off some energy before bed – but the gate was no more and there by headlamp, a few brave souls plunged into the still sound water. As they squealed and splashed, I did inform them that this was prime shark feeding time...

Day 2: We split into 2 groups – one went kayaking and the other went to Rachel Carson Estuarine Reserve (Bird Shoals). It was pretty rainy. I led the Rachel Carson group each time and we found some great stuff – though the water was murky and the second group was there at high tide. The kayaking groups had a good time (I hear) and even some close encounters with dolphins. Dawn Keller – the Pirate Queen took good care of us again.

Day 3: Weather cleared and we went into Beaufort for a double decker bus historical tour, Maritime Museum, toured the huge research vessel the Cape Hatteras, and then on the Susan Hudson for dredging and trawling. I got sick that night but it cleared on the night beach walk... thank goodness.

Day 4: We went to the NC aquarium in the morning (I had to take a student to the Urgent Care center, but it all worked out well) and then way out to Shackleford banks (via Perry Barrow at Outer Banks Ferry) for the entire afternoon. A perfect barrier island – we landed on the sound side, stayed there awhile, then marched across the island to the surf, found a well sloped beach and the mountain kids got to play in the (ice cold) waves. That night we spent time watching basketball, playing ping pong, pool, foosball, and working puzzles.

Day 5: We bid bon voyage to wonderful breakfasts and got back to Boone in time for dinner.

Now there is 4 inches of snow on my deck and it should snow the rest of the day. Ahh, Boone.

Here is a link to pictures

Great Spirit, thank you for a great week, great group, and good weather!

PS - the skirt is one Ash made for Zoe while we were gone. Sorry I couldn't move around the pictures to make the blog flow a bit...

Duke Marine Lab trip in progress

2009-04-02T20:00:00.003-04:00

36 kids, 6 chaperones, 1 crazy triabetic group leader, dolphins bubble fishing next to our kayaks, mating horseshoe crabs, rain, seine netting, horse poop, bones, living lettered olives, great food, rain, flounder, mud snails, wading waist deep across tidal ponds, swimming, cold, sharks, rays, crabs, tired, day 1.... almost done.

March Ahn

2009-03-17T05:36:00.005-04:00

Aw, Esme is just growing like a weed. She smiles all the time now. Last night she just studied my face and smiled as I talked and sang to her - for quite awhile. She seemed to be partial to U2 and The Cure:) She interacts like this all the time with Ashley, but it was neat to get a piece of that action.

I know, cute or horrifying? It was a nice warm spell last week and Adia was out on the porch playing. When I came out, she apparently felt the need to take a dip in the dog bowl. Adia has been a lot of fun and a lot of challenge recently - she is really asserting herself and since she doesn't do many words, she has found that she can register a protest by crying really loudly. My 3rd and 4th periods are the same way.

And just go ahead and break my heart in two equal but separate pieces. Last night Adia was rummaging through my diabetic bag and I was making a rather stellar off the cuff chili so I just let her play (hoping that she wouldn't figure out how to expose the needle...yes the same needle that should be thrown away after each use). So here she is taking her shot just like her dad. I'm OK if it is always a pretend thing.
In other news, if you want more pictures - I uploaded more to the picassa site - just click on the scrolling Esme album top right of this page.
School is going well - the Duke Marine Lab trip is in a few weeks and I am beginning my time of stress over that. I've got 33 kids going for a week... but it is a great time, just a lot of ducks to put in a row. I think Zoe is going to come with me - that should be fun, except for the struggle of what she is going to wear each morning.
Jon has been on a buying spree for amazing things - like a fresnel lens for solar cooking, everything food prep related - grinders, sausage stuffers, presses, etc along with all tools wonderful like a crosscut saw, froe, garden forks, hand drills, etc - its like the best christmas ever on little house on the prairie!
We ordered our seeds from Seeds of Change the other day. It turned out that we (Towers and Ahns) still had a bunch of seeds, but even then we spent $160. Its going to be a fun planting season. And we joined the Abindgon CSA for the spring and summer. My goal is to can, can, can, and can this season. Remember in a few months when I am moaning about this how there was a time when I was really looking forward to it all. I guess that is what winter does to you.
Ash and I started running again (actually, she has been running, but I haven't... but I didn't want to sound too slack) and it is rather remarkable how out of shape I've gotten. I should be out running right now (6am) but Adia woke up and I don't want to leave Ash with a crying kid this early. But she has settled in and maybe I can slip out. Better try, I guess. Bye.

Snow daze

2009-03-03T20:00:00.009-05:00

Well, the last few weeks have been a blur. Perhaps it is getting used to a new baby, perhaps it is the general busy-ness of life now, or perhaps it was the flu. I'm going with the flu. 3 weeks back Zoe got sick. Started with some throwing up that I was able to catch most of in my fingers... she rapidly progressed to become very handy with the barf bowl. I was quite proud of her in a grateful sort of way. A few rough days after that and she eventually got better. Which was just in time for Adia to start up. I caught most of her vomit in towels.... we did lots of laundry that night... and 4 baths. She added some fatigue and diarrhea to the disease and stretched it out a few more days than Zoe. I assume she was trying to outdo her big sis. Luckily the disease just got worse as it claimed more victims. (I have no idea why this is underlined, it is not me) Its now a week and a half into it and Ash comes down with it. Won't go into details except to say that I then got it much worse... than anyone. It was a mild form of death... with all the pain and none of the peace. I described it to my sister like this: I was reminded of growing up Lutheran... I was either sitting or kneeling purging myself of sin. And the back and forth nature of it all really brought the past back (sit, kneel, sit, kneel, sit, kn...uh oh sit again!) Yeah, good times. Then there was the day of laying on the couch with my down jacket on and as many blankets as I could find.... Lutheranism came back each night for a few nights and the fatigue was pretty amazing, but it gradually left. Just in time for the snow:) All that praying did pay off, however - Ashley protected Esme and she never got it. Thank you, whoever you are.

But I should set the stage... because I was an idiot.. but it worked out really well for me. We had saturday school (which we have now if we miss any days) and Ash wanted to get to Greenville for a week to be with Maw Maw and Jan had just had knee replacement - AND there was some snow coming, so I might have a snow day. No problem. Well as Sunday went on, it looked like the snow was going to hit Greenville and not Boone. This made me freak out for no reason - I thought we might have school monday and that I'd better get back to Boone before the interstate got nasty and a 3 hr drive took 6 hrs. So off I went. At that time the prediction was 1-3 inches - which often meant nothing. As I got to Lenoir, the emergency system came on the radio to say the winter weather watch was now a warning for Boone. Expect 8-10 inches. (it turned out to be 12) Sheesh. Not only would there be no school, but it would be days. I made it home in nasty conditions and ate dinner and turned around and was going to head back to Greenville so Ash wasn't left with all the kids all week. I made it back to Blowing Rock and the roads were ok but there was a lot of snow down. I called Ash and she convinced me not to be stupid.. again. I was going to ignore it and continue anyway, but then she pulled a low blow - she said "why not just go snowboarding tomorrow" Ouch. I caved.
I made it back home and called Dave and we had an absolute epic day at Sugar Mountain. It turned into a great group - Dave, Russ, Todd, Corrie, and a couple of other climbing buddies of theirs. Most of them were freeheelers, but we won't hold that against them. (Russ, I need to get my Peanut Butter back.. or at least the spoon!:) First run Dave plows off the mountain down something awfully steep and I followed the best I could. It was the first time I ever made a turn and got a face full of snow. Glorious. So soft and cushy. I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day.... the most fun I've ever had snowboarding. And it was really great to hang out with Dave again as well. Cross training.

In other news, the snow caved in my poor chicken aviary, but the chickens seem to not mind. Now instead of one big space, they have rooms and passageways. I think the snow bent the steel T-bars. We'll see when it thaws out a bit.
Jon and I went to Damascus today and had a really good time planning out how to divert the graywater to the garden and where to orient the wood cookstove. Everything is coming together in a really exciting way. By putting the cookstove in the garage (playroom), it can hook easily into the water system (80 gal tank and 20 gal reservoir), still contribute a lot of heat to the house, heat the playroom, and at 700 lbs, be easy to install:) Exciting. But mostly is was great to just hang out again with Jon. If that guy doesn't write an autobiography, it will be humanity's loss. Summer approaches and the dream of Damascus gets closer.
Today, I got a text from my old roommate teammate Brian. It said "3:41 marathon. done!" The last time I saw him was right after Ironman - we stopped by for a night on our way back. He told me that I inspired him to do it. We were always ying and yang - he was fastest on the team and I was slowest (at least in any distance) - and like I've told everyone, "If I can do it.... anyone can" I believe that. But I am proud of him.
Iron Reid is in Arizona right now at Diabetes Training Camp. He is becoming a machine. I can't wait to hear what his experience of DTC was and whether it changed his life, too. OK, I've had 3 days off and need to do some grading:) Goodnight.

Cat is wiggling out of the bag

2009-02-08T09:26:00.008-05:00

Dave, me, Reid before we froze our butts off. The beard helped. Its gone now. Zoe is happy about that.

Esme already sticking her tongue out at the camera?

Trio of goobers

Trio of cuties

Jon - after the dino egg pinata - kind of stormtrooperish - this is an old pic from Zoe's birthday - we just found these on a camera. We realized that we never did anything with them because it was just after these were taken that the blood clot was diagnosed. That was 3 months ago.

Dino egg pinata - Zoe's 5th birthday. What craftsmanship on the egg!

Zoe's birthday, obviously

Nice cake Zoe! What kind of an artist could do that?

MawMaw, Zoe, Ash, Adia

Ashley's masterpiece - the sock horse. It is really amazing what Ash can do with almost nothing.

I just like this, no real reason. It makes me smile.

OK, I started this a week ago - and now I had to go back and redo it because it is now all old news. And I'm in a rush, so it won't be too detailed.... but last weekend, the 3 triabetics - Dave, Reid, and myself went for a ride on an unexpectedly glorious day. It ended up being about 40 miles and I was personally very happy blood sugar wise. I didn't prepare at all with insulin, so I had my normal lantus circulating. Then I forgot my gel stuff and didn't have any clif bars - so I stopped in at the convenience store and walked out with 5 candy bars and a honey bun! I ate 3 bars and the honeybun and kept my sugar between 110 and 80 the whole time (tested 4x). Now I didn't say it was healthy, but its nice knowing thyself. It was a wonderfully fun ride, we laughed like crazy especially when it started to get dark... and very cold!
In other news, a sickness descended on the Ahn house this weekend. Zoe started throwing up Friday night and is still not feeling right (monday) - she has a security bowl now instead of a blanket! But she has been a champ though this whole thing - I'm very proud of her. Adia and myself are fighting off something as well but its not as bad. Thankfully, Ash and Esme are doing great (fingers crossed). We were supposed to go to Rock Hill for granny margaret's birthday and to see the family on saturday, but it was foiled again.
Wow, I just figured out how to put in bullets - this will help because blogger doesn't like paragraphs:) Friday I got to do some unicycling with another student - Jordan - at the skatepark. It was pretty fun - out of the 20 or so people there, a third of them were students or former students. Street cred, ah yeah. It is wonderful to have a place like the skatepark 1) for the obvious reason that it keeps kids in shape and 2) because many of the kids who skate aren't into other forms of athletics and need a place. However, I did hear that they might tear it down. Nice. Why not remove the only thing these kids have?
I turned in my letter of intent the other day with a solid "unknown". We have been looking to simplify things for a long time and to consolidate the obvious. So with our dear friends, Jon and Carole, we have bought a house in Damascus, VA. It is right on the South Holsten River and the VA creeper trail 3 mi outside of Damascus and 8 mi from Abingdon (by trail). The creeper is a gravel bike trail (it was a railroad) and will make it so that I really can get by without a car. 2 miles by trail to the grocery store (one that sells a lot of local food). It will be so nice to ride in the dark and not be worried about being killed, you know? (at least not killed by a car!) But we want to grow more of our own food and eat more locally. That is my simple goal. And now it is becoming time to step out and attempt it. If we fail, then fine. But if we succeed, then I will look back at this time as being a pivotal time in my life. The community is pretty incredible there and Jon and Carole have already got involved in starting a co-op there and even been interviewed for a great article: Bristol Herald Article
I made mozzarella cheese and butter for the first time the other day. It was wonderful and simple and wonderfully simple. Like alchemy, it just magically happens before your eyes. Jon and I want to get a nice little Jersey cow... it would be terribly fun. And a lot of work, but fun work. The chickens are back to around a dozen a day. I am going to try to feed them the whey from the cheese to boost protein. We'll see.
My biology kids were out doing some microhabitat measurements the other day and we had found some bobcat scat on the trail behind the practice field when we were scouting for the microhabitat thing - but then we found a lot of bobcat scat ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD! They loved it when I picked through it with my fingers - but among the bones and hair I found a bird beak! Tres cool! Then I sent a kid (Jonathan) up the trail with a radio to his favorite straight tree (good story, but no time) and on the way back down, who should he run into, but the bobcat! To make the day even more amazing is that 2 other groups went up the trail at the end of class and jumped an 8 pt buck with a hanging antler! They chased it, of course and got some grainy photos on their phones. I told them all this was planned, of course.
Yesterday, Ash and I had the most amazing conversation. This really isn't for the reader to know the details its just to mark the day I was reminded of how amazing my wife is. Its so funny, when we both met we were so clueless - we are not much of a match (eharmony style) and if we really thought about when we were still in school, we probably wouldn't have gotten married - but it seems that the universe has paired us up because we are both seem to be exactly what the other needs... on a spiritual level. Tantalizing? That's all you get! Later.

Thank you, snow

2009-02-05T07:26:00.004-05:00

But I still haven't gotten any of the grading done I was supposed to do. Today. Yes, today I shall conquer the pile. But we are probably going to go skiing again:) A nice little snow hit the other day and this is now the 3rd snow day (I should be grading right now...of course, isn't assigning a grade a bit ridiculous? Is grading the best way to help someone learn? Did I learn to juggle a soccer ball, or keep bees, or even learn to love biology because of grading? I don't think so. In fact, grading is what drove me from biology in high school. I understand feedback and critique... but grading? I'd better shut up now:) As for this week. Esme is doing fantastic and has gotten another chin off of her liebfraumilch diet. Ash is doing well and is making the lovenox/coumadin transition to hopefully make this blood clot a memory only... and a bad one at that. Adia is pretty much at that all around amazing stage - so sweet with Esme, so coordinated, so bald, and can't talk yet but communicates like crazy. And Zoe switches back and forth between a kid that will push you over the edge of frustration over getting dressed and one that will simply melt your heart with love and pride. Yesterday we went to App Mtn to ski and I took my snowboard (because she didn't need my help anymore) - we do 3 slow runs and she's cold and tired so we go in. She says she wants to go home - doesn't really want to ski today. I, being super-diabetic, recognize this as a possible case of "not-enough-food"... Step aside, I say, I've seen this before... and in a flash I secure grape juice and seasoned fries. I "talked" her into going back out... one more run she says. We proceeded to close the place down. She suddenly became fast. We were playing follow the leader, racing down the hill. It was wonderful. And yes, that is a unicycle track in the snow.... I did get the "you are insane" from a neighbor down the road:)

Ah, running.

2009-01-31T09:17:00.002-05:00

Apparently, not running for a couple months DOES NOT do anything for performance. But it was nice all the same. I've had my reasons for not running recently - end of pregnancy, new baby, unicycles are more fun, running is painful, etc. But I got up and out to Valle Crucis for our ol beloved 7 mile Cub run. It was oh-so-cold and windy - but I was back in my tights, reflectors, and trusty fanny pack and off I went. I listened to some music this time because I figured that the sound of my wheezing would drown out nature anyway. Well.... it was noticably harder. But I was pretty pleased. As I came around a bend up on Baird's Creek the sun slammed into my face just as Bono blasted his first "ITS A BEAUTIFUL DAY!" - and it really was. And I wasn't totally out of it - at the end of the looong uphill to the steep ridge I was able to push it - I had the whole furrowed brow, focused eyes, "Rocky" theme playing in my mind. When I got to the top I stopped and tested. 45 Baby! So I sucked down some of the very last Hammer gel I had from training last year... and after waiting the requisite 15 seconds for it to (not) take effect - off I went because Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" came on... I really had no choice:) The last couple of miles were pretty pleasant except for the icy headwind on Broadstone - anything sweaty just froze. All in all a good morning. In Triabetes news, we got a great write up from Crystal - a pretty athletic (kayak master, biker, etc) person from Asheville who is oddly enough on the cusp of becoming a diabetic. She found Triabetes and then Michelle found her and told me. She is, as her doc says, 98% sure she's Type 1. But she seems to have beta cell function so its a really odd case. I feel for her because its hard enough just getting diabetes, its even harder just maybe getting it! And she is such an athlete that it makes answers hard to come by. I've talked to her a bit about the oddities of exercise and blood sugar control and sent her a great pdf from Dr. Matt (of the wonderful Diabetes Training Camp) that was a review article for athletic trainers. She found another amazing site, for you diabetic athletes - that gives a lot of great info - The Effect of Intensive Exercise on Type 1 Diabetes Control: A Case Study. Have a read - its really good (actually I just assume it is because I couldn't finish it! It had so many big words!). I couldn't help but laugh at the concept of me helping some diabetic on knowledge based stuff... it was only last year that I was the last person anyone would ask! I guess Dave was right - we are real diabetics now. Peace.

Finding my voice

2009-01-25T16:57:00.003-05:00

Today we went to church and Shelly Wilson really hit home in her sermon. It followed on the tide of the Obama inauguration and the Martin Luther King rememberance. In a nutshell, it was about finding your voice - both personally and communally. All the people throughout history who have seen a wrong and have spoken out to challenge it and push humanity forward spiritually... often at their own peril. And we all peer into the promised land on their shoulders. It has been the voices of the few that have done this and I have quietly gone along, content in watching the parade progress... slowly. Doing very little to help it along. When have I protested injustice? When have I really done anything that was difficult in the name of Truth? Well, I have been inspired to be better about that from here on out. I want to be an advocate for peace despite my fear. OK, there it is, lets hope it sticks. In other bits of gratitude - our family has been on the receiving end of a lot of good will... and food - on the birth of Esme. Thank you friends and family, thank you HCUCC, thank you science dept, thank you Towers, Calamais, Willards, Rowells, and Moores, and thank you to goodness knows who else. We are truly blessed. PS - the video below is nothing related to any of this stuff - as Ash said to me when I showed it to her, "you are such a goober!" But she loves me for it... how could she not?

Snow Day!

2009-01-21T17:37:00.004-05:00

Quick post. Took Zoe to the dentist and to go skiing today and she loved both of them! I thought the skiing would be a slow process but it basically went like this. Step 1: Get lift tickets (5 min) Step 2: Get Zoe's rentals (40 minutes...helpful hint: don't wait in long ski line before you figure out that you should get boots first) Step 3: Go get on bunny slope with Zoe and talk a bit about snowplowing - oh and put on the Edgie Wedgie.... very important. Step 4: Forget about the bunny slope and head for the lift. Step 5: simply be amazed at how fast kids can learn stuff.

All in all a wonderful, fun day. If you haven't figured out yet, I am quite taken with being able to put in video to the blog. A unicycle clip will come as soon as the snow clears...which sadly to say will be tomorrow as Dr. Marty has already called and announced that tomorrow the dream ends and we go back to school.. but on a 2 hour delay. Life begins.

Its good to be home...for more than 10 minutes

2009-01-20T19:37:00.009-05:00

This is not how you want to see your baby. So we were discharged from Asheville on Thursday - we went to Greenville to get the kids and stay a day. We ended up staying for a few days because Zoe ended up with a stomach bug. Lovely. We think it was the same thing Adia had a week or so back but don't know why it took so long. To make it worse, our aunt Kelli came from Rock Hill to watch the kids one day and ended up with the bug as well. A 1000 apologies Kelli! But it passed quickly and we were all set to go home on Sunday. Kathy was coming as well to stay for a week so we all caravaned to Boone around mid-day wary of an ice storm that slicked roads that morning. Around Blowing Rock, Ash notices that Esme looked a bit more yellow so she called our doctor in Boone. We didn't get a call back until 10 minutes after we got home. But in that time, Susan and Bobbi from our church (High Country United Church of Christ) came by and dropped off a wonderful dinner - not only do they have amazing daughters (due to incredible science teaching, no doubt), but they are incredibly thoughtful. (later, completely by chance, another member brought us a baby blanket - really wonderful community) So anyway, we had to turn around and head to Watauga Medical Center to get Esme's bilirubin checked. I brought our suitcase back to the car and off we went. We didn't quite realize that it would be 2 more days until we could enjoy the dinner. Her bilirubin was 18+ and so we had to put her under the lights and take her out only to feed. By the next morning it was down to the 16 range and 14 something by that night. The lights were turned off to see what it would rebound to the next morning and it stayed in the 14 range. So all was well and we were released midday. Had the wonderful drama of the Obama inauguration not been going on, all that hospital TV watching would have been difficult. Needless to say we were grateful to get home and have the prospect of finally sleeping... and in our own bed. We did get some good sledding in however (one video is of Zoe and Adia with Debbie in the background and the other is of Zoe... I mean a Triceratops plowing through a Cretaceous snowstorm) At least Esme's golden touch is still working - we just found out that there will be a snow day tomorrow too! Zoe and I are going to go skiing.

Esmé Ruth Ahn!!

2009-01-16T09:52:00.008-05:00

We are finally home. Well at least we aren't in the hospital. Ash got discharged last night and we headed to Greenville to meet up with Zoe and Adia who had been staying at MawMaw's. So I guess I should go back a few days and recap. Monday: I had gotten my stuff at school in order for a week and Ashley picked me up at school and we headed to Greenville to drop off the kids. Tuesday, early: Ash and I headed to Asheville for the induction. Ash was being induced due to the fact that she was diagnosed with a blood clot a few months ago and needed to time the blood thinners just right. But all has been well with the clot and up until Tuesday - life had pretty much returned to normal. We checked in and went up to our room - it was facing the mountains and was a pretty glorious sight - quite a plus for a hospital - we never closed the blinds. I realize now that had someone been looking up a few floors late that night they would have gotten quite a show of beauty and terror. We had a really good nurses - and the conversation as we went along through the night and day was pretty amazing - the first one just has a best friend whose child was just diagnosed with type 1 and so I told her about Triabetes and Insulindependence and whipped off my insulindependence.com bracelet and told her to give it to her friend. She promptly put it on her own wrist and off she went. Our midwife, Ann Brown, was absolutely incredible. She works with MAHEC (whatever that stands for) but she works out of the same office as the maternal-fetal specialists of western NC. So we had the best of both worlds. We thought that when the clot issue came up we knew we wanted more of a medical hand in the delivery and we thought that would rule out a midwife - but not in Asheville. But Ann - what a great person and midwife. Ann was there when we got there at 8am and then just slept at the hospital that night in case we needed her. Wow. Double wow. Oh, and she is a beekeeper and chicken-keeper (even just wrote an article for a home chicken magazine (that sounds funny - kind of like southern living for chickens...but its not)

We discussed some options and measured Ashley and decided that it might be best to wait to break her bag of waters and just do a light dose of pitocin to see if contractions could be coaxed into strength that way (Ash had been contracting off and on for days). That was at 10am. We went on through the day - Kathy came up until the afternoon - we contracted, we talked bees, we talked chickens, we talked all kinds of stuff...actually I should say that Ashley contracted while I talked bees and chickens and whatnot. At one point even I realized that I was taking my eye off the prize and I toned it down a bit. By 4pm the contraction had been relatively powerful and she had dilated a bit and thinned out some more and we decided to break the waters.

Game on. Not much came out during the first few contractions. But apparently the baby shifted at one point and Whoosh! out came the flood. That didn't happen with Zoe (trickle) or Adia (water had to be broken after she was born). From that point on - for the next 6+ hours, Ashley the Legend, was created. Apparently back labor hurt a whole lot. Ash stayed positive all day into the night and just worked hard while only fueling up on broth, jello, and water (and those wonderful ice chips). But sometime in the dark, the tide changed. The pain in her back went from hurting really bad to white hot fire with each contraction. Ann was amazing keeping her going - coming up with different coping mechanisms, positions, distractions, etc. But slowly I saw Ash getting closer to her limit. Then I saw her at her limit. Then she was past her limit. But Ann kept her going and by that time she was really close. I've never seen someone in that much pain and exhaustion before... even Ashley. By the end she was hanging over the bed and I was holding her up while the nurse worked on her back and Ann and Dr Sigmon (she is a great doctor - very holistic and a beekeeper to boot) worked on hip bones and cervix lips.

Finally it was time to push. But Ash was done. She had tried to push a few times but the pain was so bad and she was so tired that she blew through them. Then it happened. Like Rocky Balboa picking himself off the mat ... and his old coach says "one more round!" She roared through the pushing (and by roaring, I mean roaring...later she would say she felt bad about scaring all the poor laboring mothers on the hall:) And then it was over. Esmé Ruth Ahn entered the world at 10:05pm Tuesday January 13th, 2009. She was 7lbs 7oz and 19 inches long. She nursed right away and slept and slept. And at that moment, we had 3 wonderful kids. I remember thanking God and everyone - just grateful for the moment. And now I look forward to running a marathon this summer with Ashley. Amen.

For pictures - you can click on the scrolling pictures to the right or go to our Picassa album

3 days to go

2009-01-10T13:11:00.002-05:00

So when I bring these eggs in last night, Ash solemnly proclaims "I'm afraid I'll know how that chicken felt." Well, its 3 days to go and all is on track. We've had some wonderful help from William and Janet who have watched our kids on numerous days while we were in appointments in Asheville (really making things easier for us) - and from Jon and Carole who have also watched our kids, taken care of animals, secretly done our dishes when we were at appointments so we could come back to a peaceful place - and even the weather has helped. Many appointments have been snow days. But appointments are a thing of the past - thank goodness. Here we go.

Dave Shack in New York Times!

2009-01-08T05:20:00.004-05:00

Dave Shack is featured in the New York Times today! Go buy a copy. I love this guy.... almost as much as my unicycle. Its a wonderful article on beating back disease with fitness. We all knew Dave was star.... now the world knows it. This is exactly what I need.... some inspiration. We started a new semester this week and I haven't done anything. As an odd coincidence, my blood sugar was in the 300's before I went to bed (then I hit it with insulin) and nicely it was in the 300's when I woke up. Hmmm. Oh yeah - there is also a great video that Ray and Nella finished on the Ironkidz part of Triabetes - its a wonderful diabetic tearjerker.

New Year

2009-01-01T19:23:00.010-05:00

Short and sweet. We had a scare that Ash had a kidney stone - she drank tons of water and cranberry stuff and it hopefully passed or just went away. That would have been a bit much I think. As it is it dropped her to her knees a few times. The baby will be here in a week. Let me repeat that. The baby will be here in a week. Holy cow. Ash said to me the other day - "don't know if you realize it or not, but we are having a baby." If it wasn't so serious, it would be really funny. Thankfully, I have the MUnicycle to keep me sane. I absolutely love it. There are not enough hours in a day to unicycle. And if there were I would be way too sore to continue. (picture is a blood blister from uni) I can hop steps now and ride some mild trail stuff without too much sweat. I spoke to Peter tonight about a unicycle triabetes rep. There is a 500 mile race in Canada... PS - the chickens are laying around 15 eggs a day! And one other update: what do you get when you cross an Eastern Screech Owl and a bike? An Eastern Screech Owl stuck in your spokes. No kidding. I put my bike on my car in the early am monday and went to drop off my car at the shop and then I was going to ride into work from there. When I got to the top of the hill (Steve's Auto) I got out and saw something caught in my spokes...near the cogset. Thought it was just some trash. Upon further inspection, it was a screech owl - unconscious but hanging for its life upside down from my spokes. I carefully wrapped it up and put it in a bag. I raced back home and by that time it was moving around. I rigged up a dog crate with a perch and Ash took it to Genesis up on Beech mtn. I think its going to be ok. The pic is not my screech owl, but it probably had a similar expression just before impact...

Its a mixed up amazing life and a MUni to boot

2008-12-27T22:41:00.004-05:00

Wonderful, bizarre, heartbreaking, fulfilling, enlivening, beautiful, satisfying, disappointing, peaceful, stressful, unsure, secure, fun, happy... yeah, I think that pretty much sums up the holiday season for me. It all began with exams...those works of wonder conjured up by the state to give a uniform standard of measure no matter what the cost - emotionally, academically, or financially. And once again I got to watch students who know the subject well enough fail because they don't read/comprehend multiple choice questions real well. And by fail, I mean that they pass the class and the exam but they don't score quite high enough on the exam to be given credit. So they don't fail, but they do. The system is bizarre and hurtful. Oh, and did I mention that its kind of a ju-ju as to how the test is graded. Some questions don't count, but no one knows which ones those are. Its all a mystery wrapped in an enigma, balled up in a piece of toilet paper. Its frustrating. At the same token, there are plenty of students who don't know the subject well enough but are really good at multiple choice. They always do fine. After all, passing can be as low as the single digit percentile rank some years. OK, must move on. Christmas was really nice. Kathy came up a day early and just as she was getting here a quick rain sprinkled over the area turning the cold roads to ice. I picked her up at Valle Crucis and we crept back to the house. Christmas ended up being a bit excessive. And we really tried to tone it down. Grandparents don't help at all here. All I can say is that we got more than we deserve. We bought one big gift for each person and did the same for Heifer International. Ash got a sewing machine, the kids got a nice table and chairs, Zoe got a great handmade doll, Adia got a nice toy piano, and I got the gift of gifts.... the mountain Unicycle...MUni for the uninitiated. So I guess I win. I feel like Ralphie on "A Christmas Story"... "I want an orange Nimbus 24 inch MUnicycle with a leopard 3 inch tire and Kris Holm cranks" Ah, if it only had a compass in the stock. I fighting off the urge to go outside to look at it right now. Yes, I do have issues. Some unicycling is coming back to me, however... like weakness and pain - I forgot how unicycling brings out those feelings - but it will be a long time before I venture on a trail. It does fill a needed place in my life however. I'm not training for anything, I will soon have no time (after the baby is born) - so I needed something that could really work me over that I could do in my backyard or while walking with the kids... and the MUni has the added benefit of being dangerous... and wicked cool! Score. Now if I could only get over this soreness...

I tried to get out to Damascus the day after christmas with the kids, but had a break issue show up again after a hiatus - it must be dragging caliper or something. We let it cool off in Mountain City and played in a graveyard...well, near a graveyard. And then on the way back spent some fun time at the Old Mabel School. It was so warm, Zoe and Adia both got in the creek...briefly. I got a short bike ride in in the wonderful weather as well. Then today Kelli and Gray came up for a visit. They brought Teri's kids rabbit for us to keep. We promised we'd try not to kill this one. Although it is quite stout and I joked about frying or stewing. Kidding. I took Gray and Zoe to Grandfather mountain (dollar days!) and we got a bit muddy on the trails but had a really wonderful time. The picture up there is after we were catching in our mouths drops of water dripping of a cliff. I, in my infinite biological knowledge, took them to the bear enclosure and it never crossed my mind that it was winter and that bears tend to do a lot of sleeping in the winter. In my defense, it was pretty warm. Gray grabbed the electric wire fence to get a better look at the deer and got quite a zap. I really tried not to laugh.

We got to see my parents in Asheville early on and had a great visit. Adia pretty much ran dad ragged, but thats what she does to everyone. I'm trying to bridge some gaps with my family and the weather seems to be improving on that front as well. It sure has been a blessing to talk more with my new half-sister. She seems to be one of those truly wonderful people. I think she is going to try to come up after the baby is born. I can't wait to meet her. Speaking of which. The date for the induction with the midwives in Asheville is Jan 13. Amazing. A couple of weeks and we will have a new baby in the house. Little bald Adia will be a big sister. Wow. Ashley is doing really well even got back to walking - after the clot diagnosis, it kind of derailed exercise for her - which sucks because that is a major stress reliever for her. She's getting close to the end now - 37 weeks which means the baby is not even considered premature if it is born now. Thank God. But she's pretty uncomfortable. The last 2 weeks will be like the last 2 weeks of any pregnancy - a reason to go through labor. We are settling in on a name - the frontrunner is Esme Ruth. Esme means beloved and Ruth was the name of my grandmother. We'll see. Many of the women in the family think that it might be a boy. We'll see.

On a down note, I went to the visitation for the step father of a former student of mine (current friend). He was murdered in downtown Boone at the pawn shop. I don't really know any details except that there is a suspect at large and that the family is heartbroken. I wonder what the world would be like if we didn't kill each other. We can be very stupid apes. I did get the hug of a lifetime from my student in the visitation line, however. My heart aches for that kid and that whole family.

And for all the things that sit in my mind so wonderfully all the time. The many times a day that I witness my kids do something or say something amazing. Whether it is Adia climbing, dancing, playing that piano like crazy, pillowfighting, or just being difficult - or Zoe serving tea, sir, or replying so matter of factly to a woman on the trail who said that she was surely wearing the wrong shoes "well, I don't care" as she scrambles up some difficult rocks, or her questions, or her laughter... it is quite a wonderful life. OK, thats it. I need to get some sleep so I can MUni tomorrow.

O, Christmas Twig, O Chritmas Twig....

2008-12-06T21:33:00.011-05:00

Don't laugh (well, try not to) - we cut the branches from a 3 year old hanging dead black locust tree (perfect wood - still in perfect shape after all that time) - I did it with Adia on my back and Zoe helped me drag the branches back to the house... in snow flurries. We peeled the branches and then "assembled" the tree in the basement. Wrapped it in lights and voila - Christmas spirit jumped into the house without the guilt of buying a pesticide treated tree that is polluting our groundwater. Thank you Jed and Deby for the idea. Ornaments are not on yet... more pics to come. The standing joke now is "who's gonna water the tree?"

1 day later. We put on the ornaments and now the Christmas Twig is complete. Pictures included in various formats for your viewing pleasure:) Pappy, Mimi and Morgan came up today we had a really wonderful visit. It was so great to see them again and reconnect. Me, Zoe, and Morgan went up on Bobcat hill and plastered a few tracks and wandered along the ridgeline further than I had gone before - Some really nice areas are up there as long as you don't mind walking deer trails and avoiding briars. It was pretty breezy and cold, but coming back to the warm apple pie was especially nice.

....

5 minutes later - I was messing around and googled my name - I was checking out the other Steve Ahns - the Harvard chap, Dr. Ahn the business guy, then I came up on YOUTUBE!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1gNQ_fhYUI&feature=related It turns out it was an interview from a grant I got, but still - its a bit unnerving. Its been viewed 23 times....the question is "by who?"... or is that whom? I don't know...

24 Units

2008-12-04T20:39:00.003-05:00

Its been a great start to winter so far - as long as you like snow days and cold weather. I read today that this is the 3rd coldest November in the past 80 years here. Zoe, Adia and the dogs like it, though. We all went sledding the other day (on the same sled) and had a ball. Hardly anyone got hurt:) You can see Zoe and Riley in the pic with our newly-being-painted-except-for-this-cold-weather barn in the background. In triabetes news, Reid is into the Triabetes thing full bore and even got his triabetes blog up and running. http://trashmantoironman.blogspot.com/ He is trying to outdo Dave to see how far off the couch he can go - but he's got big shoes to fill. Rumor has it that Dave was interviewed for a story...about him...in the New York Times. I talked to him before the interview but I haven't talked to him since. I hear it will be out in early 2009. I'm pretty proud of those 2 jokers. Which reminds me - I am also proud of my chickens. Nice segway, I know. Of the Buff Orpington roosters, it turns out that one was a hen! Found 7 eggs in the henhouse. We thought she might be a hen and so we kept her and another rooster out of the freezer. Didn't think she'd lay until spring however - pretty exciting, in its own hickville sort of way. My first eggs. As Woody Allen said "Its all about the eggs"... wow - didn't know it was a literal thing! The other picture is of a bike I am commuting on now - I turned Ashley's cross bike into a singlespeed with a flat bar. I absolutely love it - however, my ride to work is 11 miles and its all uphill. Actually its not all uphill - it just feels that way - its a pretty large overall gain. And now on singlespeed, its a bit brutal. There are times my arms wear out because I am pulling on the bars so hard. I'm even slower than before but I love it more. On the flats and downhills, you are forced to coast and enjoy it. OK, now rewind a couple of days. With all the worry and doctor visits concerning Ashley's leg over the last few weeks, I just stopped doing any activity. I did go for a run the day after thanksgiving but that is about it. Well, a couple of days ago we went to Asheville to meet with a specialist and to figure out (1) how Ash is doing and (2) what the plan is to have this baby next month. (Ash is doing fine and we are going to have the birth in Asheville...which is difficult but doable...somehow) Anyway - a couple of hours before dinner I was 270, so I took 4 units. I ate nothing. At dinner I tested again to see how far it had come down. 285. I got a bit angry and rage bolused 10 units for dinner - and didn't eat a whole lot. Before bed I was feeling a bit high and tested again. 360! Furious, I took another 10 units and just expected to wake up stunningly low at some point in the night. Slept all through the night and woke up the next am at 75. Man. 24 units for one meal. I went an ran the cub the next morning. As I was coming down the last mile and a half or so, Russ drove by and I hopped in for a ride back to Valle Crucis. I wasn't just out of shape, I was low as well. Then I rode to work today and home in the rain. And the last 2 days have been in perfect control. Exercise and Blood sugar, Exercise and Blood sugar.... why can't I remember it?!? Wasn't that the lesson from Triabetes?

Where I have been lately

2008-12-02T05:36:00.006-05:00

All right. A lot has happened. And I am just going to give the condensed version or this would take waaay too long. First and foremost for us is that Ashley was diagnosed with a clot in her leg (saphenous from knee to junction with femoral). She worried she had a clot but had a devil of a time convincing doctors of that. After a few weeks of pain - it changed color and she once again called the doc and they said to go to the ER. After a very long time in the ER and very little sleep and an ultrasound, Ashley's worst nightmare had come true. Now I am not just joking about that. It really is her worst fear..and tornadoes. We would always joke about DVT (deep vein thrombosis) whenever anyone had a twinge of anything in their leg. Joke is on us, now. However, after numerous talks with doctors all over the place (we go to Asheville today for another) we have learned a few things. 1) don't joke about DVT - the universe has a sense of humor (2) DVT is not the guaranteed death we used to think it was (remember David Bloom?) its serious, but not as bad as we had it in our minds (3) Trust your instincts - doctors are very human and (4) the goal of clot treatment is not necessarily to remove it - just to stabilize it so the body can kind of make it a permanent fixture. Anyhow - Ashley has walked through her personal valley of shadow and is really emerging in great fashion. I am extremely proud of her. Now we just need to get that baby out. Which we don't have a name for yet. Other rather gigantic news is that I have a half sister that just learned about. She is a really amazing person and I hope to see her soon. She has the potential to be quite a healing force in my life and I am grateful to have her in my (and my family's) life. More to come on this later, however. A quick aside - just got the call about a snow day! And this makes the second day that I have made sub plans and not had to use them! I'm golden! And then our dear friend Janet called to see if she could keep the kids while we go to Asheville. Wow. People are great. I have more things to tell but now the clock is against me. I'll leave with a photo of Adia in a turkey box. I used to love being pulled around in a turkey box... circle of life thing, I guess:) Oh, I did learn one more thing triabetic wise: a complete lack of exercise for a few weeks wreaks havoc on blood sugar. Hmmm, you'd of thought I would know that already.

Halloween...ok its a bit past.

2008-11-11T20:01:00.004-05:00

Ohhh, back to the blog. I read Dave's tonight and it was so dramatic - bears and diabetic coma and all, that I realized that I have to get back into the swing of things again...at least blogstyle, that is. So I will pick something easy - Halloween. It was fun and simple. Zoe was a dinosaur (she insists it was a Iguanodon...I'll just have to agree - she's the expert) and Adia was a ladybug. I'll put more pictures on the picassa link. Since Ironman I have basically been reveling in and appreciating my family and have been so surprised that I don't seem to have any more time now than I did when I was training. Hmmm. A short list of things going on. Reid is now training for Triabetes 09 in Arizona and will travel out there soon to sign up. I have gotten to run some with him and have had fun reliving the beginning of the journey. I (with an amazing amount of help from Jon) am painting the house - and it looks rather great (or else it used to look rather bad). I turned Ash's cross bike to a singlespeed (and got rid of those craaaapy brakes) and will try to use that to climb Boone mountain to get to school... we'll see. It is a super sweet ride now, however. I feel myself getting drawn to the dark side of the chain. I'm running a 32-16 if you are interested. The roosters are in the freezer along with a couple of deer that a student shot for me (freezer is bursting) - we got better at dispatching and processing chickens...thank god. But it was a great experience. Still have a bunch of hens getting to lay a ton o eggs in the spring. Avery - arguably the best rabbit ever (he was found on the AT and was the gentlest rabbit) was killed by a couple of neighborhood dogs who ripped into his cage. Adia is getting more teeth and more mobility and into more things every day. Her personality is really coming out. She and I hiked to the Falls by the Valle Crucis Mission School today - and had a pretty nice time. She loves riding on my back - its the only time she stays still. We crunched a bunch of leaves. Zoe is taking ballet and still loving dinosaurs - last night she and I went to the top of Bobcat hill with the telescope and froze our butts off but had a really good time - Oh, we have been plastering tracks (deer mostly) which is as much fun for me as it is for her (yes - I am a nerd). Also Zoe is proving to be a good shot with her bow and arrow - I was painting today way up on a 24 ft ladder and I told her that I bet she couldn't hit me. Pop! right in the butt. She called it a buttseye. The new baby does not yet have a name - but we are looking for girl names (3 in a row, baby). Ashley is having a really tough pregnancy - for awhile it was 4+ migraines a week along with some pretty significant leg numbness and vein issues. But we just found out that our biggest fear (DVT - deep vein thrombosis) has turned out to be just a femoral hernia. Big sigh of relief. I'm sure that there is plenty I am missing but that is the most recent stuff. We are always tired at the end of the day but there is plenty to smile about. I miss the Triabetes people and the anexiety over the event - but I have to say that life is very good.

IRONMAN!

2008-09-10T17:35:00.008-04:00

3am. September 7, 2008. Breakfast. I was 170 and took 4 units and ate the old boiled eggs that I had made for Bill Carlson as well as some cold leftover maccaroni and cheese. Breakfast of champions. I had slept 7 hours at that point and was really doing well mentally. I decided awhile back to enjoy this experience because it would in all likelihood be the only time I ever do Ironman. I was not really nervous...well, at least I wasn't scared. I was even able to sleep another hour. 5am. Michelle and Stacy stop by and pick me up and take me to Ironman. I need to take a moment to thank Michelle for dreaming up this whole project in a coffeeshop and then making it happen - and for supporting me this entire year with advice and smack talk - and for giving up her spot in Ironman to make sure that the documentary gets done right - and for giving up her house to me and my family for a whole week. The lady is amazing. Ok, back to the story. I go to drop my special needs bags off and who do I run into but John Moore - the guy who got me into this whole endeavor. We drop our bags - a quick code red - then go get marked. We wandered into the Terrace and change into our wetsuits and before too long we are at the start by the water with most of the other Triabeters. My blood sugar had risen to 210 then to 250 and that was perfect as far as I was concerned because I did not want to be low in the water. It was amazing to be thinking of this moment for a year and to have it be minutes away. We say a few words that I can't remember and then we all give hugs and get into the water. I look at Dave and we both say "amazing" - our one goal for this entire last year was about to start. We get into the deep green water and swim out to the start. Right away you lose everyone - its just a mass of identical people in red and blue caps and goggles. I swim over to the ski jump that was in the middle of the crowd and wait. Incredibly, a few minutes later I hear "Steve?" and its Dave - he happened to swim to the exact same spot as me out of the 2400 people there in the water. What a great thing to start with him - a Boonie. I remember being amazed that it was about to start - that the year was about to end. Then "BOOM!" and the water became chaos. I tried to prepare my mind for the start. I tried to visualize it. I failed. I didn't think it would be hard to breathe. I knew it usually takes me a few minutes to settle in swimming, and so I went with the chaos. I swam to survive. After awhile I was enjoying it and swimming smooth. The turns were a bit crowded and crazy but OK. And when I came around the first lap and looked at my watch and saw that only 30-something minutes had gone by, I knew I was going to make it and I think I actually smiled. I came out of the water a bit dizzy and went to Michelle's table and tested and had gone from 250 to 87 in 1:18. I ate a gel and got my wetsuit ripped off of me and ran up the helix to the transition. I took 4 units of Lantus (instead of the normal 12 in the morning - I did take my 12 Lantus the night before as usual), got dressed, forgot my sunglasses, and ran to the bike. On the bike I breathed a sigh of relief and ate a clif bar thinking that my usual habit of dropping while I rode was already kicking in. It wasn't. I checked a little while later and was 136. Then 235. Then 360. Crap. Overshot. I was worried about dehydrating and cramping and so I drank a lot. Then I peed a lot due to overhydrating and being high. But a few hours in and the blood sugar had come down and I was able to eat pretty continually (maybe 4 clif bars, bannanas, and a gel). The last 4 hours of the ride my blood sugar alternated between 80-130. I was happy to see that my plan and the training I had done (diabetes wise) was working. I was riding my nighttime lantus so I could eat fair amount on the bike and was hoping that it (the lantus) would be done by the time I was running. The ride was glorious - the crowds were huge - and the one hill was nothing compared to what we ride around here. I saw Russ and Reid and Benjamin who had driven up from Boone friday night after Russ ran the Cub (which was our favorite training run). Those guys drove through the night and got to Madison in somewhere around 12 hours. Amazing. I was so touched and amazed that they came to see it. Just another case of Triabetes Magic, I suppose - but Reid is wanting to do Triabetes 09 and so the Boone Diabetic Ironman saga will hopefully continue. Back to the race - there was some wind that pretty much sucked on the first 15 miles of the second lap but as the course turned it wasn't an issue and by the end it was blowing us in. And part way through the windy section I see Ashley and Zoe in the crowd. That was all I needed. Pain disappeared. Came back in just under 7 hours but was fighting a headache and nausea. However I was still peeing like crazy - so I was worried that my body was dumping water and I would begin the race-ending cramp session soon. Off I went on the run a bit nervous - I saw Maureen and asked her about it and she said to keep drinking and taking in salt/electrolytes. I followed that advice and was fine in the end. Only a few miles into the run I see Maureen's better half -John Moore - on a loop not far behind me and so I slowed down and waited for him to catch me. We met up in the Stadium and I asked him how it was going because I heard that he had a really bad swim. He said he got way low and started falling asleep in the water! Then threw up! He was worried that it was going to be over for him, but he ate some gel and swam it out..slowly. He apparently then rocked the bike. And now he was looking strong. I congradulated him and wished him good luck and thanked him for giving me the hat that convinced me to do Ironman (what can I say?, I am a pushover) He said, "nope. I got you into this - we are finishing together." I almost cried right there. Suddenly it was old times. Me and my buddy, John - off on a run joking and laughing and hurting. I hadn't seen him in a few months because he moved back to Colorado and so this was really the perfect reunion. It was brotherhood. And I knew that in 20 miles, this great journey would come to an end and I would not know when I would see this joker again. So I treasured it. My feet hurt and I felt like puking some, but I hardly remember that - what I remember is hanging out with my friend. We ran and walked through the next 13 miles or so and saw that Peter was doing great. Brian was fast, Steve Chop was doing well, Bill Carlson wasn't - couldn't keep anything down, but was plowing on, Joe caught up to us then moved on ahead, and Anne was doing fine. I kept asking about Dave. No word. Then about half way through John and I finally saw him and Steve Parker. He was having ITBand issues in his knee and couldn't run -but was powerwalking the entire thing. He laughed when he said "it hurts so bad!" and off he went - and over his shoulder he said "I'm finishing." I realized that no matter how bad things got, nothing would stop Dave...and at that moment it hit me that we were both going to finish this thing. After a year of training and doubt and "what ifs", it became only a matter of time. I was so grateful and thankful at that moment. I didn't, however, realize the price his feet would pay. I saw him and his feet the other day and saw his blisters. They encompassed the balls of his feet, his entire heel...and beyond up towards his ankle, all in between his toes... I'd say that greater than 50% of the skin of his feet was blister. The guy is amazing. (shudder) and back to the race. From that point on the finish was in the air and we seemed to get stronger. With 7 miles to go, John looks at his watch and says "we can finish by 9". I look at him and say "no I can't". And off we went. If we could keep a sub-12 minute pace for the last 7 miles, we would barely make it. The jokes kind of died down, I started cursing him for getting me into this and then crushing me at the end, he just laughed and kept running. Every mile he would look at his watch and say that we could do it. Every mile I would say that we couldn't. My feet really hurt and I assumed that I had some nasty blisters but I escaped without bad ones. I stopped eating. I only drank a glass of water, a cup of broth, and 3 pretzels at each aid station. My blood sugar hung around 170 - which is nice because after each aid station I would burp-gag, spit out a chunk or two, and continue on. I remember seeing the 20 mile sign and the 24 mile sign...and the 25. At that time we were flying... or at least it seemed that way. You could hear the crowd and music from 3 blocks away. And then we were there. I saw our Ironkids (diabetic kids who supported us and went on a 3 day canoe adventure just before Ironman) and they ran out to us - and I looked like crazy for Zoe. Nothing. I stopped and looked around to make sure and then assumed that she couldn't handle the noise and craziness - and off we went to the finish. Then out of the crowd I hear Ash yell my name - I turn and Zoe comes streaking out from the holding pen and grabs my hand with a great big smile. That was my moment. That was the instant of grace. The next 30 seconds are blazed into my memory forever. The 5 of us - Andrew (John's Ironkid), Jeremy, John, Zoe, and I ran down the hill to the finish of 14 months of Triabetes. John and I raised our hands together - I said "thank you" to John and whatever higher power gave me this experience - and we crossed the line....in just under 14 hours like John said. And like I thought, we were whisked away through the crowd and I never saw John again. There is so much about this project and this event that was life changing that I shudder to even think of chronicling it all. I think that I will continue this blog for awhile to write down and remember the great things. But I think that I will be done for awhile right now. Thank you Michelle, Peter, and Nate for being the reason Triabetes exists, all the Triabetics, Anne for listening to my whining, Ray and Nella for what I assume will be a fantastic film, all my training friends - like Russ and Wayne and David and Reid (soon), Dr. Matt and the incredible Diabetes Training Camp coaches Rick and Josh, the TONS of Boonies that bought T-shirts or just gave money to the cause which helped Triabetes survive until the sponsors came in, the local diabetic students and parents who reminded me that this is a project worth doing, my parents for helping me when the money just wasn't there to register, John for being a brother and teaching me what it means to Return with Honor, Dave for being a brother and for being the perfect person to run with, swim with, bike with, and laugh with - all for hours and hours and hours, and most importantly my wife Ashley for being there for every moment - the good and the bad - for picking up my slack this last year and for setting my mind right when I would spiral downward. Thank you all. My final stats were: 13:57:34 Total which was 267 out of 349 in my age group and 1449 out of 2206 finishers - my heartrate average on the bike was 140 (77%) and on the run was 139 (76%) which was perfect for me - 1:20:33 on the swim, 6:49:16 on the bike, 5:22:45 on the run, and Infinity on the experience.

Below is the Twitter account of the day from all the triabetes supporters:

Sat, 11:57:19 a.m. see everyone at the Welcome Reception - Grey’s Tied House, 3 p.m.! Sat, 09:13:45 p.m. Hello world! What a great day - and thanks for being spotters for these athletes! cya manana…. Sat, 11:52:37 p.m. man, why am I still up when I have to be up at 4:30 a.m.? Sigh….. Sun, 06:19:09 a.m. at HQ, getting ready! the BIG DAY Sun, 06:21:00 a.m. For those following us out on the course, send msgs to number 40404, and in the message body, type ‘@triabetes I saw so and so on here!’ Sun, 06:32:55 a.m. the sun is coming up. gorgeous! Sun, 06:33:54 a.m. 25 minutes until start…. clear sky’s; fingers crossed that it holds Sun, 06:38:05 a.m. the excitement is running hi! TONS of people at start… I can see them from the window! Jam packed. Sun, 06:38:26 a.m. http://twitpic.com/alkr Sun, 06:38:42 a.m. heading down in minutes…. photos on the way Sun, 06:51:25 a.m. Pros are off!!!! Sun, 06:53:19 a.m. Triathletes are getting into the water. 9 min until start. Many are in the water already Sun, 06:55:03 a.m. Wish sending photos was working. *Perfect* Start… Sun is up, mostly clear, high 50’s, a little breeze… Great! Sun, 06:57:38 a.m. Most of the athletes are in the water. Just heard a roar from then in the water Sun, 06:58:12 a.m. 2200 athletes in the water Sun, 07:00:05 a.m. Holding the line… Boats getting out of the way… BANG…. Crowd goes crazy!!! They are off! Sun, 07:00:29 a.m. It is like white water! WOW Sun, 07:01:17 a.m. That is impressive Sun, 07:04:53 a.m. http://twitpic.com/almc Sun, 07:07:34 a.m. http://twitpic.com/almg Sun, 07:12:33 a.m. Swimmers are spreading out now Sun, 07:14:32 a.m. Pros are coming around for their second lap Sun, 07:22:39 a.m. http://twitpic.com/alo0 Sun, 07:23:11 a.m. Mandatory bike-lust picture (sorry!) Sun, 07:24:38 a.m. Crowds spreading out over a half mile ok the lake.. Some very colorful shirts, some with slogans not appropriate for a family news feed Sun, 07:26:47 a.m. http://twitpic.com/aloa Sun, 07:27:43 a.m. http://twitpic.com/aloe Sun, 07:29:15 a.m. Hot air balloon coming over the lake where the swimmers are Sun, 07:29:36 a.m. Here come the pros…. Sun, 07:31:57 a.m. http://twitpic.com/alon Sun, 07:33:22 a.m. Lots of coffee being consumed by this crowd Sun, 07:34:59 a.m. Ah, coffee, crowds, little kids all over the place doing what the do best (being cute)… And the smashing pumpkins blaring from speakers Sun, 07:45:55 a.m. those on the course who have cameras? call Adam (or come to HQ) and we’ll get them up on the web! Sun, 07:51:08 a.m. unscrewing safety locks on 8 story windows so we can get our banner out on the side of the building so people can see it… life is good Sun, 07:54:07 a.m. who is writing about triabetes today? send the links in! Sun, 08:00:04 a.m. getting prepared for bill carlson (bib # 1574) for coming out of the swim Sun, 08:04:50 a.m. bills IN! SMOKING time Sun, 08:05:22 a.m. He just ran by the triabetes supply table at the transition area Sun, 08:08:30 a.m. @SEAGER Still in the water…. bill just came out Sun, 08:12:34 a.m. I don’t know bill’s swim time exactly, but it was somewhere between 60-65 minutes…. for 2.4 miles? (swoon) Sun, 08:16:49 a.m. Bill swam in 1:03 Sun, 08:17:01 a.m. athlete updates live at: http://tinyurl.com/68osuu Sun, 08:18:02 a.m. you need these bib numbers to track people: Ann (2079), Steve Ahn(778) Dave (501), Steve Chop (1148), Bill Carlson(1574)…. Sun, 08:18:50 a.m. Brian (740), joe (1767), Aaron (204), Peter (426), John (543), Larry (1836), Steve Parker (1149) Sun, 08:20:18 a.m. you can hear the crowds 5 blocks away on the 8th fl of a building…the transition is happening! Sun, 08:20:59 a.m. message @triabetes if you would like specific updates on an athlete Sun, 08:22:08 a.m. Peter is in!!!!! That surprised us here as no one knew he was *that* fast Sun, 08:23:12 a.m. 1:61:52 for peter. Peter, you are a GOD. Smoke the bike buddy! Sun, 08:25:01 a.m. Steve Ahn is just in… right behind peter… Sun, 08:26:06 a.m. ok, so this is a group of gods…. sharks really Sun, 08:34:27 a.m. the adrenaline is pumping at HQ…. Sun, 08:34:37 a.m. bunch of athletes just came in, in a row Sun, 08:34:54 a.m. Steve parker: 1:30 (go steve!) Sun, 08:35:30 a.m. joe: 1:25 (nice joe!) Sun, 08:38:14 a.m. steve chop: 1:31… Sun, 08:38:56 a.m. lots of IronFans (triabetes supporters) on the ramp between swim and bike Sun, 08:39:23 a.m. they exit the lake and have to run up a helix car ramp up 4 stories to the top of a parking garage…. it is just lined with spectators! Sun, 08:39:43 a.m. The noise is unbelievable! we can hear it blocks away, and those who are there say it is wild Sun, 08:40:31 a.m. Dave’s out! 1:32…. great time dave Sun, 08:44:28 a.m. haha… just received a note saying dave’s alive. you bet he is!!! Sun, 08:45:00 a.m. Perry’s out. 1:40. All right perry! Sun, 08:45:29 a.m. for many, the swim is the toughest leg; while it is the first, so you are fresh, it can just take a lot out of ya… Sun, 08:45:49 a.m. the word is that they are looking QUITE good Sun, 08:46:16 a.m. Larry Smith is out! Sun, 08:46:32 a.m. brian is out! Sun, 08:48:37 a.m. oh oh… we are getting word that brian came out with peter…but the tracker doesn’t show him having come out of the water. We’ll find him Sun, 08:53:00 a.m. everyone is out Sun, 08:53:36 a.m. anne is out at 1:46 Sun, 08:54:00 a.m. larry was out in 1:41 Sun, 08:54:14 a.m. and John came out with Ann at 1:46 Sun, 08:54:48 a.m. the triabetes table at the transition area says that brian did indeed come out quite early…. but the tracker isn’t showing that. Sun, 08:54:59 a.m. shoot! I hope his chip is working! Sun, 08:57:49 a.m. so all athletes are on the bike course… time to go grab some coffee! brb Sun, 09:09:22 a.m. word from @ClaudiaLaycock is that anne picked up bike and is through the transition area Sun, 09:09:44 a.m. she was on Aaron’s heel Sun, 09:19:22 a.m. a bunch of family and volunteers have been stopping by; getting directions, extra tee-shirts, and saying hello. Feel free to do the s a.m.e! Sun, 09:22:35 a.m. dave dropped some kit (not sure what…) in the transition area…and asked michelle to look around…so that is what they are doing Sun, 09:43:06 a.m. families are popping up out of the woodwork at triabetes HQ; nice folks Sun, 09:43:42 a.m. the triabetes folks at the transition area are back; they are completely jazzed. Everyone was looking fantastic Sun, 09:51:09 a.m. to put bill’s swim time of 1:03 in perspective, the pro’s were finishing it in 55 minutes; bill was only 8 minutes behind them. hot Sun, 09:58:37 a.m. NOTICE: Brian Foster’s chip is NOT working. if you see him, let him know. Sun, 10:01:45 a.m. the weather is changing… it was getting quite warm but now it is getting a hazy and overcast…. fingers crossed that it is not a storm Sun, 10:03:16 a.m. people have asked about blood-sugars. Only one athlete was a little low…everyone else was just about *perfect*. Sun, 10:04:51 a.m. bill and Brian just passed Mt. Horeb Sun, 10:09:01 a.m. NOTICE: brian foster knows his chip is not working… he needs to tell an official or transition person (someone in green) Sun, 10:22:12 a.m. Hello to Dr. Matt from the Triabetes HQ crew! Sun, 10:27:42 a.m. JR from insulindependence is on his way to HQ! Sun, 10:28:19 a.m. The finish line is getting setup (though we have some time!) Sun, 10:32:18 a.m. http://twitpic.com/am9b Sun, 10:33:11 a.m. Ah, some pre-race jitters on the sidewalk; no photo needed Sun, 10:35:20 a.m. http://twitpic.com/am9h Sun, 10:36:44 a.m. http://twitpic.com/am9s Sun, 10:41:46 a.m. http://twitpic.com/amat Sun, 10:42:15 a.m. Bill is headed back into Verona on Midtown Rd. Yeah Bill!!! Sun, 10:42:34 a.m. Folks relaxing at the starbucks right at the finish line; they are doing mucho business Sun, 10:53:52 a.m. They are putting a new chip on brian’s shoe Sun, 11:08:03 a.m. Peter and Brian are headed into Verona. Way to go guys!!! Sun, 11:09:02 a.m. Estimating bill hitting the next transition between 1:10 and 1:20 Sun, 11:13:50 a.m. estimating that P is going to finish the bike in 5:45. just tested in the 400s. run estimate=3:45 Sun, 11:14:38 a.m. race photos on the triabetes facebook page! Sun, 11:16:28 a.m. Steve Ahn on Old Sauk Pass- yeah Steve!!! Sun, 11:17:16 a.m. Multiple bill sightings throughout Verona. Keep the updates flowing! Sun, 11:18:04 a.m. @ClaudiaLaycock thanks for the update. Sun, 11:18:10 a.m. Bill is almost halfway- you’re a rockstar. Sun, 11:21:06 a.m. What a town. There are runners and bikers all over the place. Sun, 11:21:56 a.m. Streams of spectators on bikes heading to Verona. I’m not one of them; on a bus instead Sun, 11:22:58 a.m. Aaron just left Mt. Horeb Sun, 11:30:45 a.m. Triabetes pics: http://tinyurl.com/69rmu3 Sun, 11:31:25 a.m. @tricia with some updates (thanks!). Brian and pete still neck and neck, passing the half way mark Sun, 11:32:14 a.m. John Moore just went thru stagecoach Sun, 11:32:26 a.m. Chris letting us know from the bike course that there is some grade A partying going on. People are having a great time Sun, 11:33:31 a.m. Chop, Ahn, and Brady at Midtown. Sun, 11:35:07 a.m. The weather is cooling off a bit, with just a slight breeze. Mid to high 60’s Sun, 11:35:27 a.m. NOTICE: Does anyone know if Bill is near Verona? Sun, 11:36:31 a.m. John Moore on Timber now. Sun, 11:37:03 a.m. Parker is on Old Sauk Pass Sun, 11:39:19 a.m. Anne is on Old Sauk- way to go Anne!!!!! Sun, 11:43:30 a.m. It is a festival out here on the bike course! Thousands of spectators tailgating… Sun, 11:45:45 a.m. Bill just got on 92 Sun, 11:45:49 a.m. 16 yr olds on security detail… You don’t see that everyday Sun, 11:47:32 a.m. Steve anne just went by Verona HS Sun, 11:48:20 a.m. Steve Parker, Anne Findlay, John Moore on Timber Lane- keep it up guys!!! Sun, 11:52:41 a.m. An athlete is about 6 min behind steve ahn…. Missed who it was Sun, 11:54:49 a.m. Ahn and chop passed half way mark Sun, 11:55:18 a.m. Bill passed 92 about 5 min ago Sun, 11:55:55 a.m. Hang in there P!!! Sun, 11:58:36 a.m. P is on Hwy G Sun, 11:59:04 a.m. People have a lot of energy on the bike here… They are universally jazzed Sun, 12:02:51 p.m. Miles, you’re the man. Rock on. Sun, 12:03:33 p.m. John just passed Verona HS. Looking fantastic, and giving a good wave Sun, 12:10:31 p.m. John Moore passed Verona hs about 8min ago Sun, 12:12:17 p.m. Bill just cleared Mt. Horeb Sun, 12:18:04 p.m. Steve 3.0 just went by Verona hs Sun, 12:19:04 p.m. Larry is through old sauk pass! good work! Sun, 12:19:21 p.m. Steve just passed Verona Sun, 12:24:49 p.m. 501 passed Verona hs Sun, 12:31:57 p.m. Anne passed Verona, looking top notch Sun, 12:34:29 p.m. Dave passed verona hs 9 minutes ago Sun, 12:38:22 p.m. http://twitpic.com/amv1 Sun, 12:38:44 p.m. Hockey on the course; anytime anywhere Sun, 12:42:50 p.m. Larry and Aaron at Midtown. Sun, 12:43:36 p.m. Wind picking up on the course Sun, 12:43:45 p.m. Peter and Brian passed J and Garfoot Sun, 12:44:21 p.m. The speedy ones are going through Verona now Sun, 12:45:35 p.m. The water stop is awesome… They are doing running handoffs Sun, 12:48:17 p.m. Some are coming off the hill towards the aid station and they are flying Sun, 12:50:20 p.m. The volunteers on the course are awesome. Sun, 12:51:11 p.m. When they make a successful handoff, there is pleasantries passed and they are excited Sun, 12:57:45 p.m. Aaron just went through Verona aid station. Cruising! Sun, 01:03:52 p.m. Bill Carlson passed S on Timber Ln. Bill is on fire!!!! Sun, 01:05:53 p.m. Blair is staked out on Mile 66 Sun, 01:08:47 p.m. NOTICE: Blair has insulin at 102 mark Sun, 01:10:23 p.m. Blair you’re a rockstar. Sun, 01:17:36 p.m. HELLO WORLD: Bill Carlson has 21 left to go on the bike and requests a chili dog. Sun, 01:18:53 p.m. Steve Ahn headed to cross plains. Sun, 01:23:24 p.m. P is on Old Sauk Rd. Keep it up Nero!!! Sun, 01:25:36 p.m. Brian Foster is thru Old Sauk Rd. You’re the man, Big B. Sun, 01:25:55 p.m. Bill passed Verona aid station: at 102 Sun, 01:26:03 p.m. We can hear cheering here at HQ! Sun, 01:26:57 p.m. Brady is on Garfoot to Cross Plains. Yeah Joe!!!!!!!!!! Sun, 01:27:54 p.m. Anne is headed into Mt. Horeb. Sun, 01:28:42 p.m. John Moore on Garfoot headed to Cross Plains. Sun, 01:41:50 p.m. Peter and Brian just finished Midtown Rd. Sun, 01:51:33 p.m. Peter FLEW through vernona Sun, 01:52:01 p.m. Brian was one min behind looking awesome Sun, 01:59:24 p.m. Aaron is out Sun, 02:00:02 p.m. chop is at midtown Sun, 02:00:31 p.m. Dave passed Mt. horeb about 10 min ago Sun, 02:01:18 p.m. SHOOT: Aaron dropped Sun, 02:05:11 p.m. Ahn thru Old Sauk Sun, 02:06:06 p.m. Leaving Verona with a full bus of spectators. There is an unbelievable amount of energy considering Sun, 02:07:32 p.m. Next to cyclists on bus; they are smoothly passing us Sun, 02:09:13 p.m. Oh man! Cyclist crashed at intersection. She got up but her bike looks trashed. Oh that sucks Sun, 02:11:35 p.m. I missed the fried milk curds at Verona. I guess I haven’t lived yet Sun, 02:23:36 p.m. Update about Aaron coming Sun, 02:29:47 p.m. Adam, yer da bomb :-p Sun, 02:38:34 p.m. Bill exited T2!!! Sun, 02:40:01 p.m. Brady over the big hill and heading towards verona Sun, 02:41:32 p.m. Joe had a low bg (38!) that he had to deal with; slowed him up bit I’m glad he can still go! Sun, 02:45:29 p.m. john moore cruised through verona and blair reports he is looking gooooood Sun, 02:46:02 p.m. for those following and concerned about Peter, we have placed extra insulin (needles and vials, plus 2 extra omni-pods) at T2 Sun, 02:46:58 p.m. we are sending people to the start and end of the T2 transition to sync up with him… Sun, 02:47:26 p.m. SO, things are looking good Sun, 02:48:07 p.m. UPDATE: that was quick… it has been confirmed directly that Peter is *OK* Sun, 02:50:09 p.m. we are a bit behind on some updates…. Sun, 02:51:16 p.m. BILL: did the bike at 6:07 and is out on the running course Sun, 02:52:08 p.m. Peter: 6:10 bike… yikes! he is also out on the run Sun, 02:52:38 p.m. the times we are getting are about 10-15 min delayed Sun, 02:52:38 p.m. the times we are getting are about 10-15 min delayed Sun, 02:53:36 p.m. oh shoot… the word on Brian’s chip was that it was accidently left on his shoe :(. So we’ll have times for him soon.. Sun, 02:54:00 p.m. but when I saw him on Verona at 102 mile mark, he was about 1:30 min behind peter…and he was all smiles! Sun, 02:55:39 p.m. We cannot get information about aaron while he is in medical… they won’t allow that… We’re trying to get info from them…. Sun, 02:55:49 p.m. but he is with medical; so he is with the pros Sun, 02:57:56 p.m. anne is at midtown Sun, 03:00:02 p.m. Peter and brian are together on the run… arm and arm! on the course together Sun, 03:00:15 p.m. parker at midtown! Sun, 03:02:33 p.m. dave should be just behind parker Sun, 03:03:39 p.m. so for you number folks… peter jumped up his ranking by 250 spots Sun, 03:09:44 p.m. blair got some good photos of John from the bus back to downtown from verona Sun, 03:10:09 p.m. oh oh…. getting hungry at HQ… feeling grouchy! but what do we have to complain about Sun, 03:15:22 p.m. ok, fingers crossed here…. larry is going to be close to the cutoff time for the bike (5:30). Sun, 03:15:41 p.m. CHOP is on the run! woa, wasn’t expecting that… he made some great cycling time Sun, 03:17:20 p.m. steve chop made some fantastic time on the bike: 6:25. well done steve! Sun, 03:17:50 p.m. reports are flying furiously right now… we have our agents sneaking around (but with dead cell phones) Sun, 03:19:58 p.m. Miles is down at the medical working on getting information about Aaron Sun, 03:20:27 p.m. and miles sure can talk…because he got the race officials to clone brian’s bike/run time off of peter’s… they normally would NEVER do that Sun, 03:21:30 p.m. miles; what is your secret? Sun, 03:23:46 p.m. I’m taking my transition lessons from Chop; he FLEW through T2… obviously itching for more pain on the run. go steve! Sun, 03:27:49 p.m. word from our secret sources is anne is looking MOST excellent, and smiling. what is WRONG with these people? I’m in pain and happy? Sun, 03:29:11 p.m. the stands are starting to fill for the pro’s crossing Sun, 03:29:55 p.m. the movie crew is moving onto the running course (well, most of them anyway). and saw that sexy brian just run by! Sun, 03:30:52 p.m. bill wants a chili dog… well bill, it is on the house! Sun, 03:31:18 p.m. the HQ is starting to fill up; time to refuel a bit before heading back on the course (and plenty of bathroom stops for the little ones) Sun, 03:31:49 p.m. the little guys are troopers! This is a long day with bus rides, weird eating schedules, little sleep… and they are hopping Sun, 03:32:22 p.m. they want to know as much about their athletes as possible; I wish I had something more specific! Sun, 03:32:31 p.m. We’ll send them back out again and let them scream to their hearts content Sun, 03:33:00 p.m. ahn is in t2 Sun, 03:33:21 p.m. the crowd is going NUTZ outside Sun, 03:35:32 p.m. the pro’s must be close…the crowds outside are really going crazy; 5-8 deep on the sidewalks around here Sun, 03:36:05 p.m. the weather is holding out for us! slightly breezy, high 60’s, a bit hazy… we really lucked out so far (knock on wood!) Sun, 03:37:08 p.m. joe is in transition… but he is tightening up. Aleve to the rescue. Joe, you are doing very very well Sun, 03:38:00 p.m. Still working on finding about Aaron…. miles talked with the med folks and he isn’t with them (right now) and he isn’t in any hospital Sun, 03:38:39 p.m. We are wondering if he stopped at a medical tent but did NOT drop out after all…. We’ll keep you posted Sun, 03:38:56 p.m. drama, suspense, rumors… we bring it all! Sun, 03:40:43 p.m. Joe…. well done. HQ is very excited about your Transition. So is your wife Sun, 03:41:40 p.m. Larry is on Timber… he is just before the big hill… we are estimating 60-75 min until finish. SMOKE it larry! Sun, 03:42:18 p.m. Ray stopped in HQ… looking a bit sweaty but full of stories from the road. and swapping drives for the camera. Sun, 03:42:55 p.m. from ray… hard to shoot today…. shades coming in and out… messing up with the shots. Sun, 03:43:27 p.m. I’m getting in the way… asking ray too many questions…. oh, ray is telling me stories that I can’t really share. sorry! Sun, 03:44:13 p.m. I wonder if Ray got some of these stories on tape…. heh Sun, 03:44:39 p.m. john moore just came through transition Sun, 03:46:33 p.m. sighting of john moore from the 8th story. Sun, 03:47:36 p.m. ray got shots of everyone… and chatted them up Sun, 03:48:19 p.m. Steve Chop said all he wants to do is finish up and see his kids. Sun, 03:48:33 p.m. And pete wants a pizza…hahaha. Sun, 03:50:44 p.m. joe’s run just started…. I hope you are feeling a bit better joe! Sun, 03:51:01 p.m. ray almost got arrested! They didn’t have the proper credentials for the bike; they were threatened… but RAY…ray took it too them Sun, 03:52:06 p.m. john said he feels great and is not that tired… fast run to you john Sun, 03:52:57 p.m. ahn is fighting a headache…but clear pee. thanks steve (he lost his pricker, but is teating a lot now, went a bit high…but is clearing) Sun, 03:53:45 p.m. teating? I can’t spell! He is treating his high and is doing well. On the run and his numbers are coming back down Sun, 03:56:33 p.m. Bill said he was having a great day…. but that was after he lost it on the curb during transition… so I guess that is a good thing? Sun, 03:56:51 p.m. he is getting prepped for chili dogs Sun, 03:58:21 p.m. John is running very well… great transition time and he just jumped into the run… watch out Sun, 04:00:52 p.m. ohhhh… I’m looking at some of the footage from the course. Folks, you are in for a treat. the start footage is stunning Sun, 04:04:02 p.m. ray is very excited about the footage Sun, 04:05:02 p.m. the finish was spectacular… Sun, 04:05:12 p.m. (not that I saw it…but that is the word!) Sun, 04:09:53 p.m. brian is at picnic point Sun, 04:10:13 p.m. that is half way through the first loop… so pretty much at a 10k Sun, 04:12:19 p.m. Larry just went through verona… and going at a pretty good click Sun, 04:13:42 p.m. about 30-40 minutes to go until larry hits the transition. Go Larry!!! Sun, 04:21:04 p.m. bill is at the stadium; enjoying the screaming college students I’m sure… the roar in and around the stadium is supposed to be unreal Sun, 04:22:35 p.m. that puts bill about 3/4 through his first loop (of two) Sun, 04:26:35 p.m. oh! Ann is on the run! Sun, 04:26:51 p.m. wicked fast T2 time to boot Sun, 04:26:55 p.m. Nice bike ann; she made up some good time; jumping up in the rankings Sun, 04:29:42 p.m. michelle just came back…with some good stories Sun, 04:29:53 p.m. joe said “I got this thing” Sun, 04:32:14 p.m. aaron cramped terribly…. oh man, that just stinks (and that is saying it politely) Sun, 04:35:00 p.m. I missed out on the walking tacos…. frittos with chili. They are raving about it at HQ Sun, 04:39:36 p.m. brian is a crazy man out there today. Screaming for his cheerleaders Sun, 04:45:36 p.m. oh! brian just finished the half marathon. 8:05 mile. wowzers Sun, 04:45:52 p.m. oh! Dave just rolled into T2…and in VERY high spirits. Sun, 04:50:20 p.m. parker is in the transition! Sun, 04:51:10 p.m. Peter is now in the 2nd part of the marathon…. Sun, 04:51:15 p.m. his split is looking good Sun, 04:55:45 p.m. anne passed through spring and randall on the run Sun, 04:55:55 p.m. right near the stadium Sun, 04:58:36 p.m. ah, the damage of kids left unsupervised in the HQ… little rascals! Sun, 05:00:47 p.m. dave is though the transition! I’m calling to get the scoop from the inside source (his wife!) Sun, 05:01:47 p.m. and steve parker just under the building about 4:50 Sun, 05:03:34 p.m. brian is high on adrenaline right now… running across the street to give *anyone* in a blue shirt a hi-five. brian is an animal. Sun, 05:05:51 p.m. ok folks, cheer larry into T2!!!! Sun, 05:14:52 p.m. peter and brian are well on their way on the 2nd loop… it sounds like they are approaching or through the stadium Sun, 05:15:24 p.m. bill is approaching his first loop. Cheering for ya bill!!!! Sun, 05:26:41 p.m. NICE!!!!!!!!! Larry is in T2. go larry go! Sun, 05:27:21 p.m. all athletes on the course are now off the bike Sun, 05:28:08 p.m. @seager thank you for the updates! Sun, 05:29:53 p.m. it sounds like bill is finished with his first lap; he has been spotted on the course! Sun, 05:34:23 p.m. larry is out on the course and looking great Sun, 05:35:16 p.m. that is fantastic…. talking about gutz… he was close enough to the cutoff that they would have asked him if he wanted to stop the race Sun, 05:35:54 p.m. the fact that he is out on the course speaks volumes. Larry, hats off to you. Those watching; cheer him on like crazy Sun, 05:37:23 p.m. and larry had a great transition time; he focused and hustled out to the course Sun, 05:43:21 p.m. Sorry folks; trying to upload more photos but no luck. The view from hq is awesome Sun, 05:54:55 p.m. Ahn and Moore are on their way from the stadium. Sun, 05:56:29 p.m. Larry @ Spring and Randall 1st lap Sun, 05:57:08 p.m. Ahn, Brady, John back from Stadium Sun, 06:05:53 p.m. About 1k from the finish line, spotting for the crew. Lots of gritted teeth and determination Sun, 06:07:21 p.m. Heard that bill is still sick on the run, but he is utterly determine to finish…. And still cracking jokes Sun, 06:09:25 p.m. Sun is going behind the buildings. The temp is a bit chilly in the shade, which is probably just perfect. Sun, 06:09:36 p.m. Joe is c Sun, 06:10:20 p.m. Joe is coming in for his first loop… Looking tough and determined Sun, 06:15:03 p.m. The Boone boys (ahn and Moore) are running together, coming in for their first lap Sun, 06:19:19 p.m. Joe on his way back out for his last loop Sun, 06:23:55 p.m. Moore and ahn passed again, running together and cracking jokes between the two of them. Awesome Sun, 06:39:42 p.m. Peter is about to cross!!!!’ Sun, 06:40:25 p.m. He is looking determined but with a VERY relaxed smooth gate Sun, 06:41:36 p.m. Just saw Anne! Coming through for completing her first lap. She looked focused. Go Anne! Sun, 06:46:54 p.m. Dave is cramping badly, and is going to finish but was planing on visiting an aid station to stretch it out and maybe pick something up Sun, 06:47:31 p.m. Pete crossed and it was perfect Sun, 06:50:47 p.m. Brian seriously cramped but the man is back on the course and within a few miles of crossing. Guts! Sun, 07:06:22 p.m. It is now 12hrs into this most grueling of races, and most everyone still says thank you when you cheer them on Sun, 07:09:01 p.m. As they once said ( but for something totally different) nuts! Sun, 07:10:07 p.m. Brian is getting very close and is looking STRONG. Cheer him in Sun, 07:26:21 p.m. Brian is meeting up with his buddy Sun, 07:26:52 p.m. As he said, it was hairy there for a bit, but he made it Sun, 07:27:33 p.m. And yes he did!!! With a smile Sun, 07:32:29 p.m. Parker is looking very solid. He wants a faster pair of legs, but he likes the rest of himself. Sun, 07:39:24 p.m. Dave is now on his second lap. He is hurting quite a bit but everything is showing a massive dose of grit. Let’s bring him home Sun, 07:40:08 p.m. Parker came back around to start his second lap with a good pick-me-up Sun, 07:43:02 p.m. There goes dave for his second lap, with a power fist in the air Sun, 07:44:24 p.m. These people are crazy Sun, 07:44:48 p.m. Stating the obvious of course!! Sun, 07:46:13 p.m. No updates on joe except that he started his 2nd lap about 100 min ago Sun, 07:52:12 p.m. “wet water. Come get your wet water. The best water in Wisconsin” Sun, 07:54:25 p.m. There are 9 on the course. Bring them home! Sun, 07:57:52 p.m. It is dark out here! Fall is here Sun, 08:02:29 p.m. Larry is coming around for his first lap, and he is looking like he has only run a half marathon. It was *great* to see him Sun, 08:02:54 p.m. Bill is passing mile 23 Sun, 08:03:15 p.m. Go bill! The dude defines tough Sun, 08:05:55 p.m. Larry might have had a rough bike, but nothing is going to stop him now Sun, 08:06:42 p.m. He’s going to be testing soon, but all his kit is in working order Sun, 08:20:58 p.m. Steve chop is coming in with a singular focus. The man is finishing right now. Wow is he determined. Sun, 08:22:56 p.m. He saw me, kicked it up, and we were barely ready for him. He pulled that out of his suitcase of courage Sun, 08:28:56 p.m. The costumes are out! I’m sharing the street with batman and a roman…. Something Sun, 08:31:41 p.m. A guy I met on the plane, a stranger, is finishing!!! It is awesome what we are seeing out here Sun, 08:36:44 p.m. Chop gave it all at the finish line. He is ok and finished with …. Well, I’m at a loss to describe it Sun, 08:39:56 p.m. Chop had to visit the wiZards with IV’s and salt, and came out on top Sun, 08:42:51 p.m. Joe Brady is coming in…. With understated courage Sun, 08:43:35 p.m. Joe, our hats are off to you. Folks, give him a big cheer Sun, 08:44:56 p.m. Chop just wants to see his kids Sun, 08:56:09 p.m. Bill is coming in! He hit it hard and really pushed, but the last bit was rough. Yet he refocused and brought it home Sun, 08:56:51 p.m. Ahn and moore are on his tail! They might finish together!!!! Sun, 08:57:58 p.m. Trifecta! Steve and john ran it together, and looked so strong at the end Sun, 08:59:32 p.m. Bill, it wasn’t the race you wanted, but it was a thrill to see you push it. Kudos Sun, 09:04:37 p.m. Even batman is inspired Sun, 09:06:01 p.m. Here comes the rain! Well, sprinkles really Sun, 09:06:30 p.m. Ok.. Rain it is Sun, 09:21:55 p.m. This is awesome!!! In the rain comes Anne! With one focus… A lady with a mission. Bring it home Anne! Sun, 09:25:06 p.m. The rain is letting up Sun, 09:27:54 p.m. We hear that dave is working the miles off, with buckets of courage Sun, 09:29:26 p.m. The crazies are out!!! Sun, 09:39:42 p.m. The cheese heads are spotted! Now I feel like I’ve been in the cheese state! Sun, 09:41:38 p.m. 3 to go! They’re coming home Sun, 09:46:52 p.m. It is getting quieter on the streets, except for the finish line, which we can here blocks away Sun, 09:47:24 p.m. Stop light are blinking Sun, 09:53:17 p.m. These people are in such amazing shape, but it has been a mental game for hrs now. Sun, 10:31:05 p.m. Parker is coming in! He kept asking where he was going to meet his iron kid; nothing else mattered. The crowd is going to roar him across Sun, 10:34:19 p.m. The crowd at the finish line is loud! Sun, 10:56:33 p.m. Larry is here! He was running with his son and just looking so solid. Larry, happy 60th! Sun, 10:57:08 p.m. So solid, and going at a good smooth clip to boot Sun, 11:17:54 p.m. And there it is! DAVE finished Sun, 11:18:48 p.m. And what a finish it was! He couldn’t have smiled any bigger. PARTY Sun, 11:57:22 p.m. and then my batteries died after that last msg Sun, 11:57:34 p.m. Seeing dave cross was the icing. Sun, 11:58:19 p.m. The athletes are bed; we are cleaning up hq…and tomorrow the stories start Sun, 11:58:37 p.m. they’re yelling in the last of the athletes as there are less than 2 minutes until they close the course! Mon, 12:00:08 a.m. and there they go! The red flashing lights bring up a group of athletes…and they are going nuts crossing the finishing line Mon, 12:00:53 a.m. there it is!!! The end of Ironman Wisconsin 2008. 12 athletes with Type1. Hats off guys and gal. Mon, 12:01:00 a.m. night Mon, 03:03:45 p.m. Triabetes thanks everyone for twittering on race day! We’re glad you enjoyed the excitement and thank Sharendipity for headquarter use!

Update of the Update

2008-09-07T03:36:00.003-04:00

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:)

Update

2008-09-06T20:03:00.003-04:00

We had a great reception this afternoon but I really must get to bed. I am in good spirits and not too nervous. Got my alarm set for 3am to have a breakfast - and then from then on it should all go well.

As for tracking athletes - you can go to www.ironman.com and go to "track an athlete" from there - you can type in my bib number or name (my bib is 778). Michelle has set up a twitter account and it should have updates as they come in from Triabetes spotters - the problem is that you need to somehow log in on your phone or something. It is way past my understanding - but you can see her contribution at her blog http://triabetesdocumentary.blogspot.com/ and you can email her at curejesse@gmail.com if you want directions on how to do this. Sorry I am not more help on this - she explained it to me, but it was too much.

I will update everything after the race - just been kind of hectic - however, Russ and Reid (talking into Triabetes 09) and Benjamin got here today after driving 12 hours straight through the night. Amazing. More on them later.

Just think, at this time tomorrow this will all be over... for those people who are fast...I will still have probably 5 hours to go!

Banzai!

Legs shaved, bags packed

2008-09-02T21:51:00.002-04:00

OK, so I finally caved and shaved my legs. The car is packed and ready to go. I just have to remember to put mine and Dave's bike on before we take off tomorrow after school. It seems like a festival like atmosphere this whole week of Ironman - so it should be fun. Its almost sad to be coming to the end because the journey has been so worthwhile.... never thought I'd say that. Thanks to those of you who have supported me and the Triabetes effort - I might finish on Sunday (hopefully before midnight) but the cause that is Triabetes is continual and permanent. I think that we already have a Boonie signing up for Triabetes 09 in Arizona.... I will leak his name as soon as I am sure he is in. I shall try to keep my nerves at bay and to put the whole thing into the proper perspective and just enjoy the marrow out of this experience. Michelle was telling me about a 14 year old kid (snowboarder) who died recently from a diabetic/asthmatic attack and it really reminded me that I have nothing to fear or even worry about. I have been given this chance fully experience simultaneously both the fragility and tenacity of being human and I intend to revel in it. Bring on the joy and the suffering - its showtime. I will try to post again before Ironman to let you know team member's bib numbers in case you want to follow our progress that day.

IronFAN t-shirts!

2008-08-22T20:36:00.003-04:00

Want to join the millions of people in their crazed frenzy over the Triabetes project?? OK - it may not be millions....yet! Michelle is printing up these T-shirts for friends and family and fans - $10 each and you can get them from her blog - http://www.triabetesdocumentary.blogspot.com/. If that doesn't work, just let me know (hikeahn@gmail.com) and I'll get one to you. Also - if anyone wants to follow any Triabetic's race on Sept 7, you can go to http://www.ironmanlive.com/ and type in your athlete's bib number to see how the day is going for them. We won't have our bib numbers until just before the race - but I will update the blog when we get them. If you follow me, just be prepared to stay up late!

Mercy me, I see the taper

2008-08-18T12:16:00.004-04:00

A friend once told me the difference between Grace and Mercy. Mercy is when you don't get what you do deserve and Grace is when you do get what you don't deserve. Well, I was the full recipient of ironman grace this weekend. Dave and I had planned on a 7 hour ride-run on sunday and it turned out that Jon and Carole were going to their house in Damascus. So we arranged to ride to Damascus and do a run on the creeper trail - which was flat and soft. I had told myself that this would be my last long day in prep for the race...that after this, it would be all downhill. Well I had some concerns - mainly with my knee. Its been hurting whenever I try to run even though I have hardly been trying to run for quite awhile now. In fact on Thursday I had an issue (not so much pain as just something there) after just jogging slow (and having my HR go crazy) with the stroller for 3 miles. Well, I figured that I would do this last long thing and suffer. But after an absolutely glorious Sunday morning ride in which the first 40 miles we probably saw 10 cars - the run was like old times. Painless and my heartrate was controllable...even though it was hot. So after this perfect day, I decided to start the taper. My mind is in a great place and with just a few weeks to go, I am as good as I'm going to get. I hope to continue looking forward to Ironman and to continue to keep doubt and fear away. I never thought I'd feel this way...but thankfully, here I am. On other random notes - Dave's CGM kept telling him he was in the 90's but he started feeling tight and nauseous so we stopped at 40 miles in Warrensville. He was 500. He tested 3 times with 2 different meters and 2 different bottles of strips because he didn't believe it. But it was 500. His CGM had been in a little too long apparently. So we debated what bolus to do and he shot up wondering what the other 40 miles would be like. We filled our water bottles behind a restaurant and then I helped a trucker move his rear wheels forward to balance the load (which was cool) and off we went. It wasn't long before I noticed that Dave was zooming up the hills faster than I thought a person at 500 should be able to do. And a little over an hour later, he tested and was in the 130's. Amazing. The dude really is a machine. The drop into Damascus was a blast after that. In other news - I was biking to work yesterday and out of the fog on a lonely road was a horse in the middle of the road just looking at me. I talked to it as I went by. It seemed to appreciate that.

Thirties

2008-08-06T06:39:00.003-04:00

Well its 32 days until Ironman. I am 35 years old. My blood sugar at lunch was 39 yesterday. I swam 32 laps at lunch to make a mile yesterday. When I got out of the pool my blood sugar was 39 again. Holy cow, everything is happening fast. Last week I did the Making a Difference camp at the High School and had a good time at that but realized that I was now on work schedule and summer was officially over. This week school starts and all the stress that goes with that. Dave and I did a swim brick this weekend out in Hampton, TN. We swam for an hour and rode for 3. The wind was decent and we got to feel what roughish conditions were like. All went well, though and it was good to not be in a pool. We just hugged the shoreline because there were a lot of boats out. Monday I had to get in a 4 hour ride (I only did 3.5) - I rode for 2 hours on the trainer from 4:30 to 6:30am (which really isn't much fun) and then I hit the road when it got light and went to our first school workday. I showered at school and went over to the church were we always have our first meeting - and on cue, was breakfast waiting. Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, and tons of bacon...ahhh. Well, at then end of the meeting we were told that the fire alarm was not working and that we weren't allowed in school..which really stinks because these are the days where I really need to get stuff together. So I tried to find Ash in town - I rode by the pool, Chic fil a, etc but never found her so I rode home in my cargo shorts and t-shirt. Yesterday at lunch when I was swimming (if you want to call it that - although I did the mile in less than 35 min which is comforting - and I was way low) there was a guy flying up and down the lanes and he had the USTriathlon assn sticker on his water bottle... and that always makes me feel a bit out of place - you know, when I'm around a real triathlete... it makes it worse when you are talking to the guy in the locker room and you mention that you are doing Madison IM in 33 days and he looks at you like "no, seriously" - he said he hadn't even done a half IM. Sheez. Although, I realized that I've been training for this thing for over a year and I have diabetes and I have a young family. Sure I am slow. But I am going to do it...and in that process I have learned that as I rise to meet this challenge, it loses its power. In the end, its just going to be a long day. Just like diabetes - the challenge loses its power as you meet it...and consequently kick its ass. It just takes a committment and perhaps a bit of inspiration to start you down the track. Thank you Triabetes.

A good excuse or a sign?

2008-07-27T20:05:00.003-04:00

I found a relatively flat course to ride - I mean its a loop and its got plenty of elevation change - but for around here it is really flat and nice. I was able to ride the 55 mi at an avg of 16.2mph - that is nice and gives me some wiggle room on the run if I can keep it up. Right now I am a bit out of commission due to my IT band problem in my knee. I tried to run a 7 mile trail the other day and really had some more issues. So no running for awhile. That is a hard thing to do because I really start to freak out about not being able to do the run. I emailed John to talk me down a bit and he did so like it was nothing. It will be good to see that guy in a little over a month. So anyway I've been biking more and coming up with excuses not to swim...which is getting to be a problem. Well, yesterday morning I was going to do the 55 mile route again early - I woke up at 3 to eat breakfast so I could take a full bolus - but then Zoe woke up right away with me (cosleeping). I thought she was just dreaming and so I walked out of the room. I turn on the light to the bathroom and then I hear Ash call - I jump back in the room just in time to see Zoester gagging and so I scooped her up and got her to the toilet where she promptly threw up a few times. She was still out of it a bit and I let down my gurard - she turns and walks out of the bathroom and I hop out into the hall to get her and bring her back and she turns, puts her hands to her mouth and throws up. Well, her fingers did a good job of vaporizing the vomit and pressurizing the larger pieces into a shotgun spray pattern. Direct hit...mostly in my face. Needless to say, I did not reset my alarm to go ride that morning. It turns out that we went to a birthday party that day of a couple of kids of dear friends of ours - Zoe's piece of cake had a monstrous bright red flower (or something) icing on it - the tell tale signs of red were all over me. She was fine the next morning, however and asked if it was a dream. If only....

Shootin for 17 hours

2008-07-21T06:24:00.002-04:00

I am continually amazed at how much work it is taking to barely finish this Ironman. I have 2:20 for the swim (I can do that), 8 hours for the bike (its going to be tight), and then 6.5 hours for the marathon (also tight). However, any time I save on any part goes to the next part - the times I gave are for the cutoffs. Yesterday I went and rode 100 miles - I did 2 loops of the Blood, Sweat, and Gears 50 (and had to add on a couple of miles because the BSG is more like 48 miles) - its a pretty mountainous route from the center of the universe (Valle Crucis School - Dave's school, my old school) up to the gate to Grandfather Mountain and back around. I did it in 7:00 (minus a 15 min stop half way in to call Ash and redo water, etc) - which makes for 14.3 mph average. To make the cutoff, I have to keep 14mph. On the plus side - I kept my average heartrate to 128 (69%max) - Rick said to shoot for 70% - and I felt absolutely great. I kept the water/salt intake good and I was able to eat (at least in the second half - was strangely high for the first 50). When I hopped off my bike I jogged around a bit to see how I felt and I could have easily gone for a run...normally the run after the bike really stinks. And so I've got to have faith that the mountains are going to be good for me and that everything is going to work out... because I want to have plenty of time to hobble the run. Of course, I've got to attribute some of the comfort to the sweet schwag that Peter sent to us last week - Specialized gave us a super pair of cycling shoes (my feet have never not gone to sleep on the bike until now - I hate to admit it, but there is a real difference between the expensive shoes and the ones I usually buy:), a great helmet (also very comfortable - helmets have come a long way in the 6 years since I bought my last one:), and a nice pair of sunglasses (seeing as Adia just broke mine...serendipity)

Brick

2008-07-19T08:37:00.003-04:00

The term "Brick" has had a lot of influence on my life. Billy used to call me that. My car was named the brick-mobile (thanks again Bill). My dad (and I in the summers) worked for a Brick plant. Now it means "a way to be uncomfortable for long periods of time". I took a day off after the marathon and then did a 50 mile ride with Dave. My knee still bothered me some, so I took 2 days off and then did the long brick with dave. Supposedly in the athletic world lingo, "brick" means "bike-run"? We did the 5 hour bike followed by the 2 hour run. I got up at 3am and ate breakfast then went back to sleep. Got up at 5:00 and was out at Moses Cone Park (on the Blue Ridge parkway) by 6 and we were off. We did loops up to Grandfather mountain and back, stopping each time to weigh ourselves (yes, we brought a scale) to try to figure out sweat rates. It was cool that day so it was easy to stay hydrated... but it still took more than I would have thought. The whole time we were concentrating on keeping heartrate low and salt, water, and blood sugar good...which justifies why we were slow! My blood sugar was between 70 and 130 the whole time and I was able to eat much more than usual because I took a regular lantus (12u) the night before. I have been the king of blood sugar lately. When we started running I thought my knee wasn't going to last - but after 3 miles or so, everything started to loosen up. There was still pain, but it didn't overshadow the pain of fatigue too much. We did 9.5 miles in just under 2 hours - by the end I was in some odd zone - just looking down at the ground and not saying much. I wasn't feeling much - good or bad. Dave was in a zone, too - but it was a good zone. At the end of 7 hours he was cracking jokes. The dude is becoming a machine. He is riding 100 miles right now to Asheville where his wife will pick him up on their way to the beach. Tomorrow I am going to follow suit and do a century... I'll swim today, I guess. 50 days to go.

1st Marathon...done

2008-07-13T08:29:00.009-04:00

Here's the lowdown on my Grandfather Mountain Marathon. I cut my lantus down to 8 units the night before and didn't take anything in the morning. I woke up and ate breakfast at 3am so I could take a full bolus. My blood sugars that day were between 140 and 100 the whole day until the night when they rose a bit. So success on the glucose front. I then woke up at 5:30 and headed over to the marathon. It was a bit unnerving as everyone I talked to seemed to be pretty experienced and when I mentioned that this was my first one, the comment was always a variation of "well, you sure picked a hard one to start with" or "well, this is the hardest road marathon in North America"... I mean, come on - that is a little discouraging. So we go down through town and pass the mall - and there is Dave. I didn't know whether he would be there but suddenly there was company. So we went along and headed uphill. Somewhere in the first 5 miles, Dave says (in typical Dave fashion) "I'm just going to run the whole thing" Well he had his fist bottle of perpeteum and he woke up late and didn't eat breakfast... why not? On we go. I see a couple of former students who were manning an aid station at mile 7 and another former student and her mom a few times further down cheering us on. So, all was going well - I was drinking 3-4 cups at each stop and taking my endurolytes and had no cramping issues. About half way in a biker went past and said "is that Steve?" Turns out I had my Diabetes Training Camp shirt on and Chuck (the guy from ASU that is analyzing all the data I have been slack about putting in) was out on the route cheering people on. So we had a Triabetes 3 even without John - and with a breath of serendipity. Speaking of John - the guy who tricked me into Triabetes with just a hat (he later has given me just an absolute crapload of diabetes/training stuff) - I wore the hat as kind of a reminder of the whole year journey to this point. At one point late in the run, I was musing about the whole thing and a car came by with the license plate RWH something - well "RWH" was taped inside my hat at one point because that is John's mantra - "Return with Honor". You can get to his blog (not that he ever updates it) for a complete rundown of RWH... the link is on the side of my page. So I notice a twinge in my I.T. band in my knee just past half way. Hmmm. Thats odd. Never had any IT issues. It only hurt when I walked and then started up again. Hmmm. Well, it progressively got worse. I could run fine, but no walking hills....ahh, thats what I get - an injury with a sense of irony. Dave fell back with what we later think was simply dehydration... another lesson to learn. His blood sugar was holding steady at almost 200 and he still had some perpeteum as well as a gel he found on the road! So I wasn't too worried about at that point. When I saw Chuck again I sent him back with a pack of Clif Blocks for Dave - but he didn't need them. I never hit a wall or felt bad (of course, I wasn't killing it time wise) and I was happy about that. The last 2 miles Ashley drove up beside me and cheered me on - on the back of the minivan was the message that you see from Zoe... It was perfect - I was laughing and moving faster than I had much of the run. I love that little dinosaur. (in case you don't know - Nigel Marvin is like the crocodile hunter that goes back in time - its a BBC production - we play this all the time...seriously) The finish is on the gravel track at the Highland games with bagpipes playing and tons of people cheering - very nice. 4 hours and 36 minutes. 10 and a half minute pace. I was hoping for a little better but I was so glad to make it to the highland games before the cutoff (5 hours). So off I limp (by this time it is really painful to walk - had to straightleg it) back to the road to meet Ash and Zoe and Adia. Very sweet. And today my leg seems much better - I've got some worries, but I think I will be fine.

Grandfather Marathon saturday and ... steak

2008-07-10T22:59:00.004-04:00

First off, Rick Crawford (DTC super coach...seriously) has sent us a training plan that really seems to be painful... but necessary, I guess. It carries us through the last 2 months. I am currently getting nervous about the Grandfather Mountain marathon in 2 days. I guess its because I have never done one and this one is uphill and has a time limit... oh and a few people have said its the hardest road marathon in the US. But on my side, I did have a big steak tonight and finally might have given my body something it needed (protein and fat in huge amounts) - I have been hungry for a good solid month now (I haven't been able to have the butter out and not continually snack on it) but I haven't had a steak in a good long time. I cleaned everyone's plates in bliss and I am sure I ate chunks of meat that my wife and daughter had already spit out... it didn't phase me a bit. Aside from the salt issue and cramping - I have never noticed my body needing some kind of food... it was a rather amazing experience...I guess you have picked up on that as I am going on and on about dinner. Well today was rainy but I took Zoe to Valle Crucis and we put the canoe in on Clarks Creek and wound down an 8 ft creek a ways to the Watauga River and then went down that a spell - we saw a baby deer and a bunch of waterfowl... the baby deer was funny because Zoe had specifically said on the 5 minute drive to Valle Crucis that if we found a baby deer she wanted to raise it.... then we ate a steak for dinner and all memory blanks out after that... I'll let you know how the marathon goes - I might have talked Dave into pacing me for awhile. Apologies to vegetarians and those Chick-fil-a cows.... no disrespect to either intended... especially the cow.

Lesson learned hopefully

2008-07-01T13:11:00.002-04:00

OK, so I was freaked out after saturday's cramp fest. I learned from Rick Crawford that I should get in 1g salts (electrolytes)/L of water every hour. OK, so I was not near that on saturday. Today Dave and I went and ran part of the Grandfather marathon course - we planted water and food - I woke up early (3am) to eat breakfast and take a normal bolus (as Anne suggested) - then I went back to sleep until the run - I carried Endurolytes - and all went perfectly. Every 5 miles I drank around 500-700 ml and took 3 endurolytes (it was cool) - my blood sugar was between 100 and 160 the whole time - I maintained a comfortable pace and HR - I felt great (aside from pounding the road) and I went 20 miles. That is my longest ever and I felt like it would be no real problem (aside from the pounding) to run the other 6 and just do a marathon today - but I have the Grandfather marathon in 11 days - so I'll just hold off :) I am just ecstatic that my legs feel good... in fact the only soreness is some leftover from Saturday, I think! Did I mention that I ran 20 miles?

A lesson in nutrition

2008-06-30T06:59:00.004-04:00

Things were going well. I felt like I was coming along at a pace that would get me through ironman in a few months. Over the last few weeks I've done a 2 hour swim in a lake - and the wetsuit made it sooo wonderful. I hate the pool now. Just like Dave said. We've done some longer bike rides and runs and bricks and its all been pretty comfortable. Then Saturday Dave and I did Blood Sweat and Gears (the 50 - it was donated to us as a training ride because of Triabetes and the fact that it takes off from Valle Crucis School) - after that I planned on running 14 (a double cub). Well I rode well (for me) and was done with the rather hilly ride in 2:52 but was beginning to cramp up at the end. Well the run was miserable... I mean M I S E R A B L E. I was cramping all over and it was hot...for us. A 7 mile run that usually take me 1 hour (mostly uphill) took me an hour and a half. I found out later that 1) I need to drink more and 2) I need a whole lot more electrolytes. Gatorade/Vitalyte stuff alone won't cut it. I was totally planning on having a nice training day and I got a big lesson in not being stupid. Which totally freaks me out for the Grandfather mountain marathon in a few weeks. Tomorrow Dave and I are going to do 10 up and 10 back on the course (20 total) to get a feel for it. I will drink and suck down electrolytes. My sugar levels have been pretty good, however. We had a diabetic cookout yesterday for many of the type 1 students and parents up here and I got to meet a woman named Bianca who is going to create a Diabetes lifestyle family retreat up here. There are some exciting things going on - I will update more on that later. Oh and Matt showed us the pictures from his Utah canoe trip with Peter and insulindependence....very sweet. Well, I'm off to the doctor to find out how much worse my A1C is than Dave's. He tagged a 5.8 - who can compete with that? If I get in under 7 this time, I'll be happy.

OK - I'm back - 6.2 A1C....yes!

Late night update

2008-06-18T22:49:00.003-04:00

Its almost 11 and I just wolfed down a burrito and chips and some of Ashley's birthday cake...yum. I just wanted to update everyone on Dave (and me). Saturday we went on a 65 mile ride, monday we ran 14, tonight we rode 28 and then ran 10.8 ....and yesterday dave did a triathlon (and I think he did something sunday, too). We were running tonight and were amazed at how we felt - we were keeping a pretty consistent 8:30 mile for the entire time and it felt great. For the first time this thing is feeling doable. I'm sure that experienced people and triathletes will scoff as our amazement, but in the dark we went back and talked about where we started this thing. Dave has gotten so much faster. It was really ridiculous to jump into an ironman like we did, but dang it if we aren't heading toward dave's 1st phrase at the sign up - "I'm a type 1 diabetic and I'm doing the ironman". This project has given us so much and changed our perspectives so radically that it has gone beyond a project or a goal and has become a life changing event. Oh, on our run/bike last thursday - a severe thunderstorm was going through and we ran anyway (I did change out of my see through white shorts and ran in my bike shorts - hello chafing) - lightning was all around and we kind of joked our way through it - we figured that some higher power really wants us to do the ironman (because it is opening doors and changing lives left and right) and so we were safe - thank goodness because a bolt hit really close and was crackling the power lines around us...

North Myrtle Beach, Baby

2008-06-09T15:16:00.004-04:00

Ok, so I finished school on Thursday - used 2 snow days that I had that I never had to use and we went to the beach on Saturday for a week. It was a really great opportunity - a friend of Kathy's just called her up and said that someone had cancelled from renting her place at the beach and would we all want to go? Well, yea! We took our cousin Morgan and she and Zoe had a blast. We did a lot of wave riding, coquina clam catching, mole crab hunting, sand castle building, did some kayaking to the pristine Waties Island, did some crabbing, eating, sleeping, etc. All good vacation stuff. I didn't take my bike and I was freaked out about swimming in the estuary (hello bull shark...or perhaps sand tiger) after Peter's close call - so that left running. The first day I ran 8 in the middle of the day. After that close call with death, I ran earlier or later. I did a few 12's and some shorter runs - all in all it was good. Except for the 7 miles I ran one night. I didn't prepare in terms of insulin or food - I was 128 when I left so I popped 3 cookies and away I went. Big mistake. By 1.7 miles...oddly enough, right next to a McDonalds...I tested. 47. Nice. I haul my pale, sweating face into Mickey D's and pull out my emergency $2 bill and get a small drink. The person at the counter took one look at me and handed me the cup and my money back. I filled it up a few times with something like Hawaiian punch and downed a pure fit bar. I figured I would be good to go. So off down the road I go. I end up running on Hwy 17 in a stretch that might as well be purgatory. There is nothing there. Its a 2 mile stretch between Hooters and the Mall. Tons of cars and a tiny path that can barely be seen. Then it hits. Aside from having a full stomach of Punch and chocolate bar - my intestines decide to revolt. Make it to the Mall, I thought. After what seemed like forever, I get to the front doors of the mall just as the security guard is locking up. So I test. 56. Nice. I ate a couple packs of gummy somethings... legos, I think....and my stomach is as full to the brim. Off I go. Low and really suffering intestinally. After another eternity...with some brief stops to do my Lamaze breathing... I make it back to the Mickey D's...which can't be good in terms of karma - they were so nice to me and I was so bad to them...So I test again. 57. Sweet. I've been running low the entire time, why stop now? So off I go the last 2 miles without eating anything. Did I mention that it was super humid and hot, too? All in all a really pleasant time. I woke up the next morning over 300. That's triabetes for you....Diabetes with a sense of madness.

Dang it Michelle

2008-06-02T07:36:00.003-04:00

OK - I'm at the beach and the air is thick with oxygen - but it is also full of water and a remarkable amount of heat. I went for an 8 mile run yesterday at 1pm.... without eating. I was 200 and figured it would be a good time to sweat it out. Wow. Miserable. 200 didn't last long (my Lantus peaks midday - I know that, what was I thinking?) and coupled with 90 degree 90% humidity... I kind of missed the low until I was Dave. So I just ate and suffered, ate and suffered. Oh, and walked. Sheesh. So this morning my legs still felt yuck and I was going to put off the run. Then Michelle sends an email saying that she went for 75mi ride yesterday and that Anne texted her after her 18 mile run. Who invited these women? So now I am guilted into doing 10 this morning when I really don't want to. Thanks, Michelle.

Fast forward a few hours - ended up going 12 miles - no shot - started at 200 - went to 224 - then 140 (eating) then 100 (eating) then 72 (eating - running the last mile low was fun). Thanks, Michelle.

Bittersweet Symphony

2008-05-30T23:03:00.008-04:00

So, its been awhile. And its 11:11 - so I'll make a wish. I wish (hope) I don't get too wordy and end up staying up until midnight. I haven't blogged much and I haven't entered much data recently (sorry Nate and Peter - but I do have all the data ready to go thanks to those snazzy Polar watches)... But school is DONE! and I am ready to get back on the train. So here's the update. On May 10, Adia had her 1st Birthday party. We had a little get together at Valle Crucis Park... you know - the best little park...in the world...even though its not as good as Jimmy Smith Park (for those of you not from Boone... you'll just have to youtube it) A lot of family came up from Greenville and Rock Hill and dang it if I didn't get everyone together for a picture. It was great to see Mallory (who drove!), Lee, Alex, Brendon, Gray, Kelli, Steve, Jan, and Morgan as well as the local crew. Ashley made some mean cakes and all I had to do was decorate them, eat tons of icing in the process (hello hyperglycemia) and take credit for it all. Nice deal. Adia seemed to enjoy the cake.... and the day. What an incredible kid.

The last few weeks then have been quite busy - I was a grading fiend the last few weeks of school and really neglected sleeping. On most days I would wake up at 4:30 and either go run 7 with Dave, Russ, and John or I'd wake up at 4:30 and grade. But its all good because it is DONE! We got some good running in as well as some longish run/bike combos. Swimming was totally neglected for the last month and when Dave and I went for a run/swim the other morning - we paid for it. No more neglecting swimming! Of course we go to the beach tomorrow and I can just swim a ton there... but then Peter had to tell his "I should have been eaten by a shark story" just to freak me out... so we'll see.

And then it got all sad. John and Maureen got everything packed up and drove off to Denver. The guy who got me to do an off-the-couch Ironman by giving me a hat... has gone. We went for a run that last morning and left it with "I'll see you in September". Its like Dave and I have to now become grown ups and finish this thing and stop depending on John. Crap. I will miss those guys (as well as the dogs - Seamus and Bailey... well, for sure Bailey) John has pretty much changed my life and added years to it...unless of course I drown in the pool, which seemed likely the other day. The pictures taken were at a little going away party the day before they left. Goodbye guys. You have left me with very little outlet now for inappropriate jokes.

So that brings us to tonight and graduation. I'm not going to say much - but watching kids graduate that I taught in 7th and 8th grade was pretty powerful and bittersweet. I wish them godspeed but in watching them fly away I realize that I am a part of their past. Goodbye guys.

Well, its 100 days until Ironman and I better stop blubbering. This summer will be intense, I think.

Wow. What a weekend - a lot of pain but worth it

2008-05-04T21:18:00.002-04:00

Holy cow - look at that bald spot! Ok, the weekend began bad enough - I went for a run friday morning... 3 miles flat and I thought I was going to die. I was low, so that might have had something to do with it... So the next morning, Russ comes to pick me up and we head to Valle Crucis School to run the Valle Crucis 25K. It pretty much goes uphill for a very long way and just when your legs are jelly, it comes back on a very nice descent - only you are too far gone to appreciate it. Or you would be too far gone if your blood sugar was rounding up to 300 the entire uphill part which totally chokes off the muscles. Thankfully it plummeted the entire way down and I ended up testing 6 times and eating 3 packages of clif bloks... understand each package is like 2 gels. So my legs got worked by the diabetes. But it was a fun run and I got to hang out with some good friends like Wayne and Russ. Russ and I ran the entire thing together... he even waited while I tested all those times - and got passed by the same people over and over - we'd work to pass and then I'd stop - then we'd get passed - then we'd work.... you get the picture. It was enduring to ruin his race like that. However, he did get to float up the last hill which I was glad about - I finished in 2:16 - Russ was a minute or two faster. So then the great idea I had about bringing my bike and riding afterwards comes into play. I'm toast. I get on the bike and then have to ride about A MILLION miles uphill... that little muscle above the knee on the inside just cramped every time I pushed on the pedals. Ah joy. Dave and I and Jake went on a bike ride the next morning - about 30 miles - but it really brought my legs back... to where I could walk again - Dave has gotten loads better just in the last week - the guy is amazing. And he learned to drink from the water bottle while on the bike! Ash and the kids get home with the new dog Riley (after Radar O'riley - MASH) and he really is a super cool dog - but I didn't have time to hang with him because there was ANOTHER swarm in the little apple tree. It was another really amazing site. I called Amy who had lost a couple of packages recently (I had nothing to put them in) and she came over and we tried our best to get them in her hive. I really thought we got them in but I must have missed the queen. They made their way back to the tree and then swarmed off. We followed them way up the hill but they wouldn't land. So they are now off to replace the wild bee population that was decimated recently. So Ash and the kids and I and the dogs (plural now) then went to Valle Crucis park and Zoe swam in the river with her goggles on - chasing fish. Little bit of perfection there. We all migrated over the "Bridge to Terebithia" back to Valle Crucis school and let the dogs run and we all played on the playground equipment with no one else in sight. Very nice end to an eventful weekend. If only I had worked on some school stuff... oh well - there is always 5am - cause tomorrow is a rest day!

Valle Crucis 25K tomorrow

2008-05-02T20:27:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow morning Russ is going to pick me up at 6:45 for the Valle Crucis 25K. So that's my old school - Russ teaches there - Dave teaches there - it seems fitting. Its only a couple of miles from my house. It should be good to run it with Russ... however I have this worry about him smoking me up the hill... or worse, making me stay with him up the hill. But all in all it should be fun. This last week of training was sketchy at best. I had a good last weekend - but was pretty tired the rest of the week. Feeling better now... except for some weird catch in my rib right in front of my heart... thankfully, it only hurts when I breathe... and sneeze. I'm trying to be a typical masochist triguy tomorrow by taking my bike to the race and going for a ride afterward. Like that will make up for last week. Michelle has her giant JDRF Gala in Wisconsin today or tomorrow and John and Maureen and some of the triabetes gang will be there. John finished school on wednesday and is planning on trying sleep again. I'm happy for him to be done... however, now that means that they are going to move back to Colorado. Best not to think about that right now. In family news - the girls are doing great - Adia is walking like crazy... and dancing... and really getting into stuff now. Its so wild to watch personality unfold. She demands a lot and really likes having her way. So that makes 3 women in this house like that. hmmm. Zoe is still huge on playing dinosaur and unicorn - but is now making others rather than just me and Ash do that - she's getting much better at going up to people and interacting (which means acting out something like dinosaur). Its fun to watch from outside the game. Ash and the kids are in Greenville this weekend to rescue a Cardigan Welsh Corgi (yes, its a sickness - but that's what makes us who we are, I guess) which is a low-rider border collie - its a herding dog and its a male, so I just need to be happy about that. A couple of days ago my hive swarmed....again. It landed on the same post. Jon was over again. It was a bit uncanny. We hived it and it seems to be doing well. It was a really neat experience. One hive has become 3. Oh, and I took off my first super of honey. I could hardly hold it. It was a magical feeling - harvesting something. And the chicks are doing great. 27 little guys -its so fun to watch them... not as much fun to clean out the water every day. Notice the bike on the trainer - I figured it was a nice touch - kind of like a diabetic triathlete farmer.... I like it. I should change the name to Triabubba - etes. There is probably something more clever out there. Sorry. The rabbits keep getting into their food.... which really is funny sometimes - they can get anywhere. Anyway - things are well and I really enjoy this spring - the running, and biking, and swimming are getting old, but the animals are fun ... our apple tree might have escaped the frost, too, in case you were as concerned as we were:) Peace

2008-04-20T21:00:00.004-04:00

Ok, it has been awhile. But trying to train for three sports and have a family (and a job) make blogging a few notches down on the post. However - I had to today. I went for a nice run this morning with Neve (our dog) out at Moses Cone - I ended up going almost 15 miles and felt really good - not much different from any other run. I kept my blood sugar in line the entire time. I get home around lunchtime and call Jon to come over and set up his top-bar beehive (I have bees - Jon is going to set up a different kind of hive next to mine) and plan out the garden and chickens (chicks should be here this week!) Once his hive is in place we can order the bees. Well, he's had this thing for a year and today we walk up behind my house to set it up and lo and behold - there is a swarm of bees (my bees swarmed) sitting on a post. Amazing. We got a nuc and set out to catch the swarm. Bees are amazingly non-stingy when they swarm, so Jon held the nuc and I scraped them into it with my hands (I did have on gloves, but didn't need them). Thousands of bees. The picture on the post is AFTER we had hived the swarm...they are just the leftovers. When I sunk my hands into the swarm it was really warm...won't be forgetting that feeling. I was wearing shorts and they were up my shorts - no stings - Jon didn't have on any headwear and they were all over him - no stings. Ultra cool. We quickly set up his hive and then took the nuc over and shook them out in there. Set up a feeder and let em go. This should be a great experience...if I didn't kill the queen in the process. We'll see. However all this pales in comparison with the fact that Adia is walking. Yes, walking. Life is good. Busy, but good. I think I am keeping my priorities in line (family, home, ironman, job) so the stress is no so bad. I am feeling good and am progressing slowly - which is nice because September is still months away. Going to sleep now. Usually I am in bed by 9 and up at 4:30 or 5 to run and swim before school. Tomorrow I have to get some grading done so I will do something in the evening. Peace.

NSTA, mornings, and Basketball

2008-04-05T06:31:00.007-04:00

Ok, it has been awhile - but I simply think that is how its going to be until the summer and then September (Ironman). I came home from Diabetes Training Camp (see previous blog for address and "you gotta go" info) after missing a week of school just in time for spring break to start. It was a difficult transition but somehow I pulled through:) However it was only for a few days because I had to go to Boston to the National Science Teachers Association national conference to pick up a grant I had won from Vernier Technologies - this sounds very cool and all but on a worthiness scale, I'm not sure mine cut it. So I flew out of Greenville and dropped the family off at Ashley's mom's. I got to Boston and got to my hotel kind of late and just went out to get a bite and crashed. The next morning I was going to go for a run and it was raining and cold. So I pulled on my shorts and the rest of the clothes in my suitcase and headed out. It was very Boston - I went out across Copley Square and then to Boston Common for a lap and then out to the Charles River where there was this really cool trail that went along the river forever. It was hardly raining and was almost nice. So I run and just keep going and then when I decide to turn around it decides to blow and rain...the kind of rain with snowflakes in it. I was pretty much frozen by the time I got back. But I warmed up back at the hotel and went out to Harvard museum of Natural History to wander through time...I really wished Zoe was with me at that time. She is such a dinosaur fanatic... in fact I only went there for her - I had to bring back a good book and an iguanodon, of course. We are planning on doing a road trip to Colorado this summer so Zoe can see some real dinosaur stuff. Then I went over to the NSTA national conference and was blown away. It was in a conference center about the size of the known universe and it was filled. I wandered about and saw a bunch of really cool, new stuff - it was interesting. That night I got all dressed up and went back to the award ceremony...which was totally overblown but nice. The food was great, I was completely out of my element in terms of hanging around in a coat and tie and uncomfortable shoes with rich people - but like I said - it was very well done. (the people in the photo are David and Christine Vernier of Vernier Technologies - absolutely wonderful people - and the other guy is John Whitsett - president of NSTA....I know - oooohhhh) The next morning I did laps around Boston Common for a few hours and then went home. I was late to the airport and right when I got on the plane the worker switched my ticket and gave me first class. Ahhhh. That is the life. I almost wished I had on a coat and tie. Almost. Well, not really. It was so good to get home and be with the family again - I had fun, but it was a lonely, quiet time. Then this week I rode my bike some and started getting a run and swim in early and that has worked rather well. Thank you ASU. But the crowning event of the week was Friday - where I went to Valle Crucis (my old school and Dave's current school) and did some stream sampling stuff with the 4th grade (man, do I miss that energy and enthusiasm) - we got wet and dirty and then their teachers (thank you Steven and Debbie) cleaned them up. Oh, and while I was there the student-faculty basketball game happened and it was a blast again. I appear to have made myself fragile. All this running, swimming, and biking have made me fit but I've lost my contact sport edge. I am so sore this morning - not in the legs, but in places like my back, neck, shoulder, etc. But it was sooo fun - great to see my old students and friends (got to see many at the science fair this week, too - I was mucho proud of them) - Thank you Mary Jo. This weekend I am going to try to get the railing on the deck (as Adia fell off of it and landed on a rock - its a low deck) and work on the garden, and get my diabetic 24 hour runners group in order. In other news - Dave had a difficult marathon due to injury, Nate did well, I reconnected with an old friend, Neve is doing well, and I'm going for a grandfather mountain hike with my biology kids on monday. Oh, and holy cow - Adia took her FIRST STEPS this week! What fun!

Diabetes Training Camp

2008-03-24T10:10:00.001-04:00

OK - Last week was DIABETES TRAINING CAMP in Santa Barbara, CA. I know! just saying it makes it seem so freaking cool! If there are diabetics out there who are not going to read anything else - simply take this advice: Go to DTC. http://www.diabetestrainingcamp.com/ Its a camp that believes that exercise is a crucial part to diabetes management. And its not just for athletes - its for people looking to begin exercising to crazies training for an Ironman and everyone in between. It is expensive but it is absolutely worth it - in fact it is a great deal. I learned more about being a diabetic and living with the disease in that week than in the previous 25 years I've had the disease. Dr. Matt Corcoran is not just a great endocrinologist - he's a true doctor - he is following his passion to improve the lives of diabetics. Add to all this the fact that the coaching was beyond top notch. 2 of the coaches changed my life: Josh Gold (www.pushhard.com) was one of the swim coaches and once my southern upbringing got past his harsh Brooklyn ways - I saw a truly great person. He totally ruined my swim right now - but that's ok - it was terrible anyway - I have the feeling that soon it will be much, much better. Beyond that he really is concerned about helping me out long beyond the camp and he is quite the little babysitter (held Adia for hours during some of the camp). The other person was Rick Crawford - I'm pretty sure he saved ironman for me. I was in a funk and heading downhill - in one lecture he swung it around 180 degrees - I'm looking forward to training, enjoying it, and have a path to September. Oh, and he has coached a few notables: Armstrong, Leipheimer, Team Type 1... sheesh.... but he was such a cool, down to earth dude and was totally interested in coaching us. I brought my whole family and alternated between camp and family so I missed some good stuff at camp but got it back a million-fold by exploring tide pools with my kids. Traveling was a bit challenging - but I swear that Zoe and Adia did much better with the sleep deprivation than Ash or I (Ash had a 3 day migraine and my blood sugar was nuts for a few days). It was really great to be out there with them. Zoe had a blast playing with Ray and Nella's daughter - Elisa. They pretty much did everything together and swimming was a huge part of that. Pictures from the trip, by the way are scrolling through on the right of the screen - you can click on them to see the album. Lets see - better wrap this up because kids are waking up... turns out Dave is somewhat of a monster - his VO2 max was second behind Bill Carlson (see photo of Bill, Anne, and Peter - all triabetics) who was the first diabetic to do ironman back in 83...and he basically typifies what I imagine an ironman to be. Dave also did a monster climb on the bike.... on his first ride ever. But you'll have to see his blog to find out the truly funny story about the bike - it goes something like: what happens when the bike meets the overpass? It was great to meet Anne - I felt I knew her from her blog - but to finally meet someone is cool. She is super fit and strong. Steve Chop (not pictured - he left a day early) was there and great to hang around again - he was there with Dave, John, and I in Madison when we registered. He also fits the super strong ironman persona... in fact, its pretty much me and Dave who don't - and Dave is well on his way.... crud. And Peter - what a cool guy. The visionary who founded insulindependence and made so much of this possible. I really can't thank him enough. However, I have found that his greatest accomplishment is getting Nate on board. Thank you for everything, Nate. Oh, and it looks like we might have our title sponsor, too, but I'll wait to talk about that one. Well done guys. Oh, one last thing - I wore a constant glucose monitor for the week and it pretty much changed my life - its time to get the insurance companies to cover it. The future is here.

Tough to blog?

2008-03-06T07:14:00.003-05:00

Its funny how things get busy and the time for very simple things is lost. Like blogging. A lot has happened in the last 11 days or so and I kept thinking that "ooh, I need to write this down"... well, now I am just going to summarize. When we last met the dynamic uno - he was struggling back from a sickness that ripped through his family and had just gotten back into the swing of things. The next week went fine - still trying to figure out schedules, but its coming along. Ash and the kids went to Greenville to MawMaw's for a long weekend and it gave me time to work on a fence and get some hours in training. I missed those guys sooo bad. It was ultra quiet and terrible. Thankfully, John and Maureen and Jon fed me all that time. Dave and I went to ASU on thursday and ran (I was late and did 4 miles - Dave ran for an hour) and then hopped in the pool and swam 1.5 miles (in 200's) It was good day. Dave is becoming a machine. He just emailed me about running 18 miles on Sunday. I am trying to figure a way out of that one. On Saturday, John and I were told about a group ride that meets in Boone and heads down the mountain to Lenoir to ride. The temperatures were incredible - it was chilly in Boone and perfect down there. We rode on gorgeous roads for awhile and were expecting to go around 35-40 miles. Well, at 32 miles we realized that we made a wrong turn and it would be a long ride back. The ride ended up being 54 miles and I was beat. It was good to be out again. My blood sugar started at 290 and didn't fall (I took a couple of units) for a long time. But towards the end, John and I were battling lows at the back of the pack. The next few days I worked on a fence around the house for the dog and it really is looking sharp. We are getting ready to go to Santa Barbara for Diabetes Training Camp and I checked Delta and found out that the bike would be $100 each way. So I emailed some bike shops and a diabetes research facility and the Santa Barbara Bike Coalition and explained that I was a poor, pitiful, diabetic teacher and was there anyone out there who would be willing to loan me a bike for the week? Well the SB Bike Coalition is filled with super cool people. I am now turning away offers.... of bikes a lot better than the one I ride. It really fills one with a sense of a renewal of humanity when people offer precious things to complete strangers. I was blown away. BTW - I will be riding a sweet Ibis while in sunny CA. Thank you Robert! Then yesterday, a friend at work who I kept seeing at the pool - revealed that he has done triathons (up to 70.3) and worked with the swim team for years. He gave me a bunch of pointers yesterday and while it currently feels like I can't swim - I am finally on the path. Thank you Jonathan! Oh, I got my wheels - Neuvation - great price, ceramic bearings, etc - and got my wetsuit, pedals, and bike shoes... thank you Trisports!

OK, now I'm back, or what's left of me

2008-02-23T14:43:00.005-05:00

Zoe made this for me. Will just melt a scrooges' heart.
The Man-a-gon... or Man-wagon.... or Mini-man - yeah, that fits.
Ol' Nev - what a sweetheart
I need to say nothing about this picture.

.
So, I think I am back - and thank goodness, because cameraman Ray is here. I still cough, but now its without the dry-heaving. I went for a run friday night and did fine. We went for a run at Bass lake this morning - maybe around 6 miles. Then we went to ASU and did a mile. It was a sweeeet place. I'd never seen a swimsuit centrifuge before - but country came to town today. There was a scale there. I thought I was at 165. I am at 157.6 lbs. That would be somewhere around the middle of high school. With winds the way they are up here, I might really blow away. I have been snacking on butter, eating straight cream cheese - nothing works. However, it might translate into some fast biking - and in the pool today I was faster than I'd been... though that was probably the camera

The family might be getting out of Sickville - still plenty of snugy noses and coughs, but much better. Nev (the dog) is doing well. Russ is conquering the Black Mountain Marathon today and is officially leaving his title of OCM (off the couch monster) in Asheville. Someone will pick it up - Russ has gotten years out of it, but now he's just "M".

I'm back?

2008-02-20T06:44:00.002-05:00

Well, I have been sick for 4 days and felt like death. My blood sugars have been through the roof. I finally was feeling ok again and rode the trainer in the morning. Then last night I bundled up Adia and went for a moonlight run on the greenway. My legs felt incredibly good and my lungs were ok - kind of painful - I had to spit a ton. I thought things were great, though. Then at mile 3, I just started walking - I wasn't out of breath, wasn't really tired. I just proceeded to dry-heave like crazy. I'm surprized that I didn't throw up - lots of mucusy foam did manage to be spat ....nice. I continued to then cough and dry-heave my way back to the car. Then I coughed all night.

Ch Ch Ch Change

2008-02-16T06:39:00.001-05:00

Ok, its Saturday morning and a lot has happened. Last week, we parted with the beloved CRV (which Zoe always called Tommy) with all its stickers and roof rack and traded it for a Toyota Sienna (which Zoe has named Restaurant.... what can I say?)... yes, it is one step below a vasectomy as I am now in the minivan clan... that clan being Dave and Emily's fault. It was a couple of years older than our CRV but was well taken care of and had the exact same miles and we got a 2 year warranty and a little money back, so it was rather painless. However, the roof rack will be up shortly and stickers will begin to accumulate. You know, pimp my ride, G. As for training, I began riding in the morning and swimming on my planning period - that saved tons of time because I wasn't getting a whole lot done on my planning period anyway. Now that I know that works, I have to convince the powers that be that I'm not spending any less time on school, just being a better manager of time. The rabbit that Ashley rescued was indeed pregnant and first gave birth to 2 babies, but never made a nest and they died. But the next day she had made a nest and she had given birth to two more babies and they are doing fine. They are actually all fuzzy now and moving around but still don't have their eyes open. Very cute. Goes well with my minivan. Yesterday, I woke up feeling like craaaaapp. Mild flu like stuff. Kind of chilly, achy, head hurting, lungs full of junk, overall miserable. I went to school thinking I could just take my kids outside and not infect them. But it was cold and windy and after a period of that, I went home. I feel a whole lot better this morning... head is full of mucus but thats it. Maybe it will be short lived (although Ash had this a few weeks ago and she's still dealing with the mucus). Haven't felt that bad in a long time. I should have never gone to school. A little irresponsible on my part. Its odd, though - my blood sugars have been really good. On other diabetes news, I've got my team in order for the 24 Hour Blue Planet Run (http://blueplanetrun.org/bpr24/blackmountain) and its all diabetic, baby. There are 4 adults (me, dave, john, ried) and 5 students (chris, cory, jakob, patrick, and matt). Its not too far away (Lake Eden - Black Mountain) and all proceeds go to fund clean water initiatives in Africa. One of the kids, patrick, was just diagnosed a few weeks ago. We are all going to have a big dinner next weekend to support patrick and to plan out the details of the race - and Cameraman Ray will have flown in that weekend - so the whole thing should make for some great documentary fodder. I'm really excited about this. The triabetes fundraiser in the schools went much slower than I thought, but I would think we could get some people behind these kids and diabetes. So we'll see. And now we are at today. Ash has been searching for a husky (like our old dog, Sera) to rescue. Basically we have been looking for dogs to replace our first two great ones for the last many years. We have, embarassingly, gone through a decent number of dogs. All from the humane society or pound. All with some pretty odd problems. This guy is coming up from Johnson City to kind of "interview" us with the dog. We'll see how that goes. I'm happy that this guy cares that much. Oh, and we did our taxes late one night last week and it appears we are going to survive another year. So things are going pretty OK.

And so it begins...in Carharts

2008-02-12T06:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I learned some things. I took Adia in the jogging stroller on Saturday to Moses Cone Park (gravel carriage trails) and bundled her up and was able to run for 2 hours while she slept. It was pretty nice - no guilt about leaving the kids with Ash, plenty of space for water and food. That might be a lifesaver. Yesterday, the training officially started. 30 weeks and counting. Now we have to keep track of blood sugars, exercise, and food - Dr. Chuck at ASU is beginning the study. On monday, I woke up early and rode for 45 minutes on the trainer - BS was 190 in the morning. I ate a couple of eggs and toast after that and went to school. I was 107 at lunch and ate rice and tempe. I was low by the end of school and had a pop tart. Met Ash in town for a 4 mile run and realized I forgot my shorts. No worries, though - I had my Carharts on (I always have my carharts on) and off I went - half way through I was 51. I ate pasta last night and figured I'd go high, but woke up this morning at 95. Oh, and my alarm was set for 4:30 and I didn't wake up until 6. Not to happy about that. I really need to ride before I leave in the mornings. Day 2 is starting with a fizzle.

Ironman Dream

2008-02-08T03:19:00.000-05:00

Don't be fooled by the title... its not some inspirational piece - this was an actual dream I just had (its like 3:15 am)... and actually it was a nightmare. I'm still sweating. I remember us all being on some beach... we were swimming in the waves and then it turned into the competition. The waves were amazing and relentless.... no one could get through them... we all kept getting washed back to shore. Dave said something about going deep and we both dived and held our breaths for a looong time.... I have images of huge waves barrelling overhead. When we surfaced, we were on the other side of the breakers...but the water was now like some huge reservoir and we were near a giant concrete wall.... but miracle of miracles... it was shallow right up near the edge! We ran in waist deep water! Which was very helpful... seeing as we were pulling what seemed to be a comforter through the water.... I haven't figured that one out either. Well, it was no time and we were across - I remember a sign with a little drawing of the water and the numbers 2.4 and a "you are here" written where the 2.4 was.... I felt great relief at that sign for some odd reason... Transition time - this started funny because Dave and I were the 1st out of the water. But then I couldn't figure anything out. Do I put my shoes on? What shirt do I wear? Wait a minute, I only brought the old bag that I keep my mountain bike stuff in! I rummaged through for a really long time. People came... people left. Dave was apparently having the same issues. It got busy in transition... then to our horror, it got quiet... everyone had come and gone. Just before getting on the bike, I realized I should test - someone in transition had a meter and I borrowed it... but then missed the results of the test and had to show her how to find it... I was getting desperate.... my blood sugar was 26. Oh no, I thought, I will have to eat! I didn't bring anything!! There was some food at transition for some reason and I ate yogurt raisins and finally got on the bike. Of course, for some reason it started in a mall. I was riding on that short carpeting and having to make a ton of turns - none of which were marked and the people who were supposed to be there to tell me to turn weren't paying attention - I'd go past and they'd yell "come back! Turn here!" I finally made it to some roads... in Mexico, of course... I've never been to Mexico, but there I was. The bike was not comfortable at all and I realized that it was because the bike child seat was on the back! Nice touch. Oh, and I was wearing jeans. I made it to some town (I think I called it Mexico City) and would occasionally see random people I knew and then I saw my dad and I stopped and took off the child seat and gave it to him.... I whined about not preparing for this at all (not athletically, just in bringing stuff) I don't remember what shirt I had on, but dad gave me this orange and yellow safety vest... by safety vest, I mean it was an actual life preserver! Dave went by and slowed down... which was really good of him... and off we went.... the last thing I remember was the realization that Michelle was going to beat me in the bike (we have this ongoing smack talk about the bike part) ... and up I woke.... sweating. OK - if you are a psychoanalyst, I really don't want to hear from you. And I have no idea where John was. To try to explain - after school today, Dave and I picked out the bike he is going to get.... more on that later.... but that had to be some subconscious fodder. Oh, and I'll end on a good note. This evening I ran 4 miles at a 7:45 pace (which is huge for me) and then ran another mile or so to Chic-fil-a. It felt great.... well, the Chic-fil-a part did.

"PECE" Y'all

2008-02-07T06:32:00.000-05:00

Wow. A lot has happened in the last week. After the last post, the whole family got sick. Nothing too major - snot much of a problem... It hit Ash worst, me next, the kids were just a bit drippy...oh, and Adia really hasn't been sleeping that great. But all in all, nothing really to complain about. The picture here is of a surprize that Zoe made for me today - she called me at school to tell me about it... to tell me that she was making a surprize. Ash then said that she was writing this word over and over - "PECE" - Ash asked what she was writing, Zoe says "Peace, you know, its in the bedroom" We have a peace flag in there and she remembered it by the letters on her own. She wasn't going back and forth. Pretty freaking cool... odd, the wisdom of children sometimes. On other fronts - the rabbit (that was an old breeder that Ash rescued from the pet store (they just gave it to her)) had 2 babies the other day (they warned her that the rabbit might be pregnant). She made no nest and Ash found them on the cold floor. They died. Rather difficult to grasp. But then the next day we found that she had made a nest... and in the nest were 2 warm babies. That was a good thing. We got a cool new renter in the apartment - has a dog of course, but it seems cool..with a bit of hound. On the Triabetes front, we (and Dave and Em) made the decision (with massive amounts of help from Nate) to go to Diabetes Training Camp next month... in Santa Barbara. It should be a tremendous learning opportunity, bonding experience, and good time. I think we figured out a way to get Dave a bike - he's going to come over today and we'll figure it all out and order the sucker. And I booked a flight to Boston this morning to go to the NSTA conf to pick up the Vernier grant. It has been nuts but the future seems filled with promise...not too bad. I didn't run much the last few days due to being sick, but I ran yesterday morning - 36 minutes for my route - its not that major - 4.5 mile route - but I've used it as a measure of my fitness. It wasn't that long ago that 45 minutes was the best I could do.

Breaking new ground?

2008-02-03T07:27:00.000-05:00

I've been a bit swamped with school the last few days but here are a few updates. I began training my sleeping habits - I got up at 4 am 4 days this week (one of them was at 3...but that was my daughter's fault). I wasn't training any harder - but if I start doubling the time I need to spend on training, I know I can't count on evenings... I don't want to cut into drawing dinosaurs (Zoe) time, playing unicorn time (Zoe), changing poopie diapers (Adia) time...actually, I would rather enjoy cutting into that last time. It worked OK... as long as I don't complain about it. I did some swimming with a small thought about workout. I used to just swim a mile. Now I am doing 200's and trying to keep the time under 4 minutes. It hurts me, but it's ok. We had an ice storm friday and got the day off which was nice...seeing as I had some tests to grade which I didn't have graded...still don't have graded. We ate dinner with Jon and Carole and Jim and Diana friday night and really had a good time. It was good to (re)connect and talk about hopes for the future - like gardens, chickens, etc. But we got home a bit late and I didn't call Russ (like I said I would) to go for a run...so I sent an email saying I would be up at 6:30 if anyone wanted to go. I didn't expect any calls -but I was up and reading the book about Team Hoyt when a spooky pale hand waved through the kitchen window in the dark - it was John - "lets go for a run"...ug. We went fast for me - about 8 miles - but it was especially good because we got to catch up and connect and vent. I felt much better mentally after the run...I said mentally. On the way back, we tested and were 80... together - he was 50 and I was 30... and that was after no insulin that morning. In another Triabetes news, I talked to Peter (which I hadn't) and we really connected - he is doing what I consider the truest form of education - experiential - and he does it for diabetics. How freaking cool. Great adventures. I have real hopes for being a part of his dream in the future. We'll see. Ironman first. I am going to take Zoe to Boston to get the NSTA grant I got - we'll hit the aquarium and Harvard's museum of Natural History... that could be really cool. I sent out 400 fundraising letters last week and have started getting some back - I have about 300 to go - I'll get those out this week... try to help keep the project afloat. The film crew will be in Boone on the weekend of the 23rd! All is going well - but we are coming down with some minor illness - stuffed up - sorry for the jumbled report. Later

New Loop - good times

2008-01-28T22:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I met Dave and Wayne (Russ has been out of commission due to crazy back muscle/nerve issues) for a Sunday morning run yesterday. We took off from the swim center and Dave wanted to show us his neck of the woods. Well, it wasn't but 2 minutes into the run and Dave veers off the gravel and into the woods. Its barely light and we are running on some squirrley trail in the ice and snow - tripping over stumps and cursing - and off Dave goes just loving it. Well we went to the end of the Greenway and just kept going - past the humane society, down a gravel road to 421 - across the river and back down Bamboo for many a very pretty mile. We hit Deerfield and traffic and wound back to the start. It was in the 10 mile range, I would say and quite a beauty of a run. We did our share of laughing - Dave's blood sugar was perfect the whole time. I however stopped in at the quickie mart and had to buy 3 candy bars (for a dollar each! Rip off!). I checked mid way through just because Dave was - I was 45. Mmmm snickers really does satisfy. Almost as good as McDonalds. It was a great run. This week I am sending out 400 fundraising letters to the schools - so we'll see if we can catch up to Johnnyvail in the fundraising thing.

A Triabetic Birthday

2008-01-25T05:45:00.000-05:00

Well, the day was not without interesting things happening. I woke up at 56, ate, went for a run. Not even to the McDonalds, I was 38, ate, felt terrible and walked a bit. Jogged the rest of the way in, I was 43. Was low by 2nd period and ate a bit. Lunch - 125, 4pm - 38 again. After dinner (and cake) - 41, so more cake. 4am this morning - 263, yay? Last night was fun, regardless of the low day. We had wanted to get Dave's family (specifically, Em who is heavy with child) a dinner that they didn't have to cook. But we turned it into a combo - Triabetes get together (John and Maureen came over), birthday, and Em dinner. It was really great. Zoe and Ashley made some incredible cards...I really can't get over how well Zoe (just turned 4) is drawing and writing...she's further along than I was when I was 27. Ashley spent the entire day making the cake from scratch, baking bread, making the dinner, cleaning the house, oh yeah - and taking care of the kids. I absolutely don't know how she does it. And the cake was like heaven - yellow, with this chocolate buttercream frosting....I've got to be the luckiest person on the planet. At school we had an early release due to snow showers - I, of course, had my class outside and away from the school at an environmental site - someone had to run down and yell "they just made the announcement - class is switching in 5 minutes!" Well, it was a 10 minute walk back. But as a student said "its all good". Yes, indeed, if any statement could sum up my birthday - that would be it.

Front Page!

2008-01-23T06:43:00.001-05:00

Well, if you haven't checked out the really fantastic journalistic and photographic work of Marie Freeman, then pick up the Jan 22 edition of the Watauga Democrat (or go to http://www.wataugademocrat.com/2008/0121/0123runningdown.php) Marie really did a good job for us and the timing is nice because now that the Triabetes project summary is done, the workhorses of the team (Nate, Peter, Michelle, and John) are really tracking down sponsors. The photo is kind of funny - see we had just finished an easy 17 miles... Kidding! We showed up at the swim center, changed in our cars, and ran exactly 40 yards. Dave and John and Ashley then went on a run and I went in for a swim with my daughter. In other news, Zoe has been having some stomach pains the last few nights - we took her to the doc to make sure there's nothing major to worry about - and there isn't - she had a good night. But I did what most parents do, I wished I could take her pain...you know, "just give it to me, God, instead" - well it seemed to work. I was absolutely miserable last night. "Take it back! Take it back!" But all is well now....I hope. Besides it might have just been from a falafel dinner gone wrong. Also, I got a call the other night from someone at NSTA (national science teachers assoc) about a Vernier grant I wrote. At the time I was miffed - it was the start of the school year and our principal wanted the new teachers to go for this grant - well, I didn't have the time,etc,etc,whine,moan,etc - but I did it anyway - and now I get to go to Boston. Nice...especially as there might be a personal monetary award that might help me get a bike for the triathlon! Cool.

Low-Riders

2008-01-21T08:34:00.000-05:00

Well - John is just dying to go for a run...it has something to do with the fact that he is insane. It's 9 degrees out...in the sun. He wants to do 10 and then go for a swim. So we meet at school and head out. About 4 miles in, under the shadow of the Mickey-D's arches....the Bermuda triangle for blood sugar...I say I need to test - I feel slow and I'm sweating under my eyes. He does too. "Holy Crap!" he says "I'm 31(?)... I've never been this low in my life!" Welcome to the dark side, I say. I'll see if I can top that one. Then the screen displays "LO". HA! says I (thinking that LO is less than 30) "Gotcha". We laugh. We eat a bit and try to figure out how the $1.37 I have in my bag will enable us to survive. Orange Juice? Coke? If only Dave were here (he was called and emailed but left us hanging) - Dave would know what to do - He'd find some little bit of edible mulch with 0.1 grams of sugar in it. So a few minutes pass - John tests again - "Holy &*!%.... I'm 23!" At this moment I begin to worry a bit...Not about him, of course - but about the fact that we are both using One Touch Mini meters...if his reads 23, then mine should read 23, which means that "LO" is somewhere less than that....Hmmm. I test. 27. At least it was on the way up. If you added our sugars together it would only be 50! That struck us as hilarious, so we walked to the light and ran back to the school. There we used my other meter and I was 83 and he was 57, which means the readings seem to be accurate. Wow. I put another dollar in my bag...just to be safe.

Swing LO, sweet golden arches

2008-01-19T19:03:00.000-05:00

Ok, we go to lunch (Chic Fil-a) and I load up on fries and sweet tea and 3 units because I was 188 - and off I go. My plan was to meet Ashley at the library in an hour and a half. It was snowing and the tunes were playing and I spent some time running the lonely greenway trail...very nice. After about 70 minutes, I was really feeling good...I always said I never get runner's high - but here it was... I was cruising and could go forever. That doesn't happen to me so I stopped to test.

LO - that's all it said.

I've been low 30's and it registered. Its really kind of funny - Dr. Matt had just this week written up my eval and he was concerned that I was getting low too much. He thought being low too much would dull my body's ability to recognize the symptoms... yeah, I know - what a quack! Anyway...I thought my current situation might need some divine intervention, I thought. And there it was ... like the sign that Constantine saw in the sky from God ... "In this sign, you will conquer"

The Golden Arches.

So I jogged in, got a hot caramel sundae for $1.07 and off I went. That, my friends is the way to do a run. I have rerouted my runs to go past Mickey-D's at strategic intervals... Tomorrow, I might go longer which would mean "sprinkle on the nuts, too!"

Triabetes connection and the snowplow

2008-01-19T06:30:00.000-05:00

Well, its Saturday and I have a few moments at the start of the day to catch up a little. We had a snow day on Thursday and some good sledding - then rain glazed over it. I hoped for a snow day yesterday but it was only a 2 hr delay. I went for a run yesterday morning and really did pretty well - there was snow and ice everywhere but the sidewalks were cleared so off I went. Just as I was finishing and heading up to the high school I looked up and there was a snowplow barrelling toward me cleaning out all that ice and muck in the gutter...I looked to my left...guardrail. A little panic set in and moved to a spot where the ice was thinnest and I just got ready to huddle over and take the ice cube wave that was about 6 feet high. At the last second, the snowplow operator lifted the blade. I sprinted in so sorry for cursing those guys for keeping the roads cleared enough to let us have school.

Zoe and I did some sledding down the driveway at the farm and we built a "Snow Zoe" and I'll have to go get a pic. I'll edit this if I do. Overall, it was a good day. We made a good pizza and had Jon and Carole over to discuss some things.

As for the Triabetes connection - I have this student, Matt. Well, he really isn't my student but he checks in with me from time to time. He's a diabetic as well and a runner. Well, he went to some diabetic convention perhaps in Florida and he saw that one of the people there was a marathoner so he went to meet him. Well lo and behold, the person was wearing a Triabetes T-shirt! The kid was so excited and told him about me. The person was Brian Foster, fellow Triabetic! They talked for a bit and Matt came back from Christmas break super excited. On kind of a related note, we are going to arrange to put a local team of diabetics into the 24 Run for Africa...and I've already got 2-3 students committed - Matt being one of them.

We took some photos for an article in the paper yesterday about the Triabetes project. I have secretly arranged for Marie to photoshop some muscles in on me. Sorry, John and Dave. That article should be out soon and Dave and I are drafting a letter to send out to the entire district to raise money for Triabetes.

If anyone wants a T-shirt you can buy them online now! Only $20 and that includes shipping! The ginsu knives never offered a better offer! Seriously - they are great shirts and it really helps us out. http://www.triabetes.org/support.html

Long time, no blog

2008-01-14T05:24:00.000-05:00

After a long break and a great talk with an old friend, Marie (who is working on getting a Triabetes article published) - I was convinced (told) to get off my butt and blog. Thankfully, I just discovered that we are on a 2 hour delay this morning and everyone is still asleep...rare.

OK, I guess you are always in danger when you think you are in the clear...at least that's the lesson that all horror films teach. We made it through the holidays in fine fashion, except for a little sickness...however, that kept us from traveling which was almost a gift. But we did decide to make it to Greenville to visit family. It was a whirlwind tour - we left friday after a workday and zoomed down before rush hour. Teri and Mallory, Lee, Alex, and Gray came down the next day and we all went ice skating and in general had a wonderful time. It was so great to see Zoe just swept up with those kids and take off. Zoe had only been skating one time before and I just had her in my arms the whole time. This time started the same but then we got this PVC contaption that she could hold on to. Well, it didn't take long and she had her "skating legs" - we were zooming around. Then Mallory took her and the smile never left Zoe's face for the next hour. I put my belt around the thing as a tow rope and off they went. Lee and Alex would later take turns pulling and they would go really fast and Zoe (with Mallory holding on behind) just soaked it up...it was really special to see. I thought to myself "sometimes parents aren't designed to let a child really grow..they are too concerned with safety"

That night Zoe and I went to Greenwood to see my parents - she was asleep before we left the driveway. We had a good visit and then got home a bit late and tired. The next day we spent a few hours with Steve and Jan and Morgan and Zoe was in heaven again...so much so that on the 5 minute drive back to maw maw's she lost it.

Well, I started the next semester the next day (and had a lot of work to do) and Ashley thought that she and the kids would just stay a week or a half week - it would give me time to get a lot done and she could just kind of enjoy the warm weather and family. So I went back - had trouble sleeping....the house was just so quiet. It was no better monday night - tuesday I had a diabetes workshop (wore the Triabetes T) and was going to tell everyone about the Triabetes project at a point in the workshop - then I get a call from Ash - she had gone to the doctor to figure out what she was feeling in her abdomen - they said that it might be an aortic aneurism and that she'd have to have a CT scan in the morning.

Holy cow.

5 Minutes later I was on the road. Got to Greenville - everyone (her parents, me, her) were pretty stressed....although Ashley was still cracking some pretty impressive jokes...rather dark, but funny. To make a long story short it turned out that it is her aorta that she feels, but no aneurism or tumors.

Aaaahhhh.

5 minutes later we were on the road. Actually that's not true - we went for runs and it was simply wonderful - I went about 7 miles, it was hot (no shirt, mucho sweat) and everything was beautiful - the trees, the sun, the road....amazing what a health scare avoided can do for you. Ashley's dad called later and said the same thing hit him - he just never felt so good - he said he could run the 20 miles home without a thought.

We got home and slept. I missed 2 of the first 5 days of school, but by friday all was kind of in order. I was back to being really nauseated in the pool and behind on my grading.

In other Triabetes news - I totally wussed out on Russ and Wayne Satruday - they were going to do an 18 mile trail run. After the week we had, I really thought it better to be around the family and not take half a day. However, it cannot be avoided - I wussed out. I get out on the parkway saturday and man did the bike hurt (and that was 18 miles on the bike! can't imagine running it). Of course it was uphill and cold, but it still hurt. I rode the trainer last night for an hour while I talked to Marie about Triabetes and life in general. I got my strips but there's no way they will last 3 months - Michelle has taken care of us however and sent some to bridge the gap. And right now I am trying to figure out a way to get out of running this morning.

Ah, the Holidays

2008-01-02T06:24:00.000-05:00

Well, Christmas and the New Year has come and gone in fine fashion. Its been a great break to just be with my family and do the occasional run. I've been running a 7 mile loop around my old school (Dave's school) and last week we (John, Dave, and Nate - Dave's bro) decided to do 2 laps...14 miles. That being farther than anyone but John had ever done...his high is somewhere around 80 miles, so he does not count. But it went really well - it took awhile but was comfortable (even for Dave once he bought the lip balm...huge joke here that will remain under wraps). John even somehow got me to do the last few miles pretty fast (for me) with the mantra..."its gotta hurt, you know".... Well, I may know but I am not ready to accept that one. But all went well. As for blood sugar - I ate 2 snickers bars, a pepsi (reverting to Old School Diabetes care) and 4 clif shots...oh and some of John's super gatorade (imagine a small bottle filled 3/4 way with gatorade mix and then a dash of water to soften it).

Speaking of Blood Sugar - Today is the day (hopefully) when I can finally refill my test strips again at the pharmacy and can stop living off of others (Heather) and test again. Dave's out, too. Testing often seems to help or be a result of better diabetes care (best control I have ever had in 25 years) - it sure is interesting that insurance companies don't cover the number of strips needed.... its almost like they are only concerned with the bottom line...hmmm. What a great entity to have control over my family's health! comma.

I hope all out there had joyous solstice holidays... I wish peace (and energy gels) to all

6.5 and a great friends

2007-12-22T17:13:00.000-05:00

Well, we finished exams on Thursday....ahhh. I went to Dr. Morgan on Friday morning and got a nice little Christmas bonus: a hemoglobin A1C of 6.5. My lowest ever. I mean that is not even flagged as high....for normal people! (Granted - it is right on the edge...) It even made the fact that a landslide had closed my route back to Boone and I had to take a hour and a half detour back to town....not so bad. Then I got a gift from two incredible friends of ours - William and Janet - who could possibly be the most giving people I've ever known....and I have known some incredibly generous people. It just popped into their heads that I could really use a treadmill while I train for this event so they arranged for their super plush treadmill to live at our house. This really comes just at the right time - its been harder and harder to run and have Ashley run and spend time with the family now that daylight and temps have dropped. I just need one of those endless pools and we can have triathlons in my basement... Understand these are the people who came over on a whim to spend a day to help me build a deck and when we mentioned about putting in a wood stove (furnace) in our house - they said "just use the one at our rental house - its never used"...just like that.

However, this whole process has really thrown in my face the fact that I am surrounded by an incredible, caring community - from Heather who is funneling me strips (test strips, guys) now that I have run out and my insurance company is the diabetic devil - to the guys (Russ, Dave, John, Wayne) I run with who are true friends and not just partners in spandex - to Jon and Carole who begged me to call them in the middle of the night (last night) in case Ashley's stomach bug got worse - to all my neighbors (many of the previous are in that group) - and on and on. I really do feel like for some reason I have been given this perfect life.... I haven't even mentioned my family....

Thanks. I guess its time to get serious.

Paris Mountian 20K

2007-12-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

Well, my first organized run...ever. I went back to where I've spent much of my life (Greenville, SC) for the Paris Mountian 20K. My wife has run this many times before and it was just something I was always certain I would NEVER do. So it was very appropriate that this was my first Triabetes run. I had on my Triabetes shirt and the tri hat John gave me (would have carried voodoo dolls if I thought it would help). I got there at 6:45 for an 8am start - even bought my breakfast with me because I was most worried about how my blood sugar would do. I checked in and got my cool t-shirt (almost went home after that) then I went back to the car to stretch and eat. At about 7:20 I ate breakfast and took 2 units (blood sugar 137). Earlier I had backed off the Lantus just a bit - because I figured that I would only be a few hours and wouldn't affect the rest of the day that much. I pinned my number on (number 4....felt like an elite runner - but they just did this by alphabetical order) and went to the start line at 7:45.

There was like, 4 people there. I walked around the building and didn't find anyone else and walked to the finish line where a few were getting some things ready - found out that the start was really at 8:30 and that the website was wrong and that someone should have told me when I signed in. So I sat around inside for 30 minutes.

As I walked out to the start line my blood sugar was 284. Thank you very much.

So in the crowd, I walked around just a bit - looking for some old students that used to run this race usually - when someone says "Steve?"

Turns out it was a dear long time friend of ours that we had lost touch with. He and his wife had gotten us into hiking and backpacking and dogs back in the day. I recognized his face but it was attached to a body that was 70 pounds lighter than I remembered. To make a long story short - he and his wife simply decided to make a change and now they are uber-athletes. Running races all over. Absolutely wonderful.

Anyway - he left me in the dust. As the pack was making it out of Furman a woman came up beside me and said "are you a diabetic? Type 1?" Turns out she is a type 1er and a diabetes educator. But here is the kicker. She says where are you from? Boone, I say. "I am from Boone" she says. Turns out she went to the middle school where Dave teaches and went to the high school I teach at. Small world - I'm going to hit her up for Greenville donations...

Anyway the race went well - I was low by the top of the mountain (4 miles) I was 89 half way through and 93 at the end. 5 clif shots. Pretty surprised by that. I didn't expect to have to eat so much. Much of the course went right around where Ashley and I used to live when we first moved in together in college - it was a basement apartment of the nicest older couple. So it was really nostalgic to run down old roads and say "I used to catch fence lizards on this old split rail here"... ok, maybe its only nostaligic for nature geeks.

I finished at 1:49:27 and was happy with that. An hour later I was 334....ah, Diabetes. I was fighting high blood sugar the rest of the day. How ironic that the only stable blood sugar I had all day was while I was running...

Its a (nother) miracle!

2007-12-14T06:19:00.000-05:00

Not really a Triabetes log here today - I thought nothing could top the test strip miracle, but then our dear, sweet 6 month old Adia...slept through the night. Realize that Ashley has not slept well since she was 6 months pregnant. So that's 9 months of poor sleep (and 6 months for me). The irony in the whole thing is that Adia just doesn't sleep well with us. We have always had a family bed and have always slept great - but its just not for Adia. She slept her first night in the pack and play (our version of a crib)...which is a little sad....until you realize that we slept!

Hooray!

Paris Mountain 20K tomorrow. I'm now stoked to run my heart out...which is good - because it is supposed to be cold rain.

If you haven't read Dave's brother's comments on his blog (http://triabeticdave.blogspot.com/) about Wide Open - please do.

Thank you American Diabetes Wholesale

2007-12-12T09:07:00.000-05:00

So, when this project started I knew that 1) I would have to test more (while I run, bike, swim) and 2) my insurance would be difficult about it. I am a teacher in NC so I have Blue Cross / Blue Shield - they say that my plan only allows for 150 tests (strips) per month - (450/90 days). Well that works out to around 5 tests per day. Now that I am exercising I find that I can blow through 5 in a single long run. I'm low a lot and there are many times when I'll be exercising and I'll ask myself "am I just getting tired or am I crashing?". Well now I test to find out. The problem is that BY TAKING BETTER CARE OF MYSELF, I HAVE GONE OVER WHAT MY INSURANCE ALLOWS. Oh, by the way - my doctor wants me to test more and has written a prescription for more....which my insurance won't accept.

So I was on the phone for 45 minutes with the insurance company 2 nights ago trying to figure out how to get my prescription filled. I have been talking with my benefits coordinator. And I have been planning on how to make it the next 3 weeks on 25 strips. It was rather discouraging. While talking to the insurance company - I got the video camera set up to document the nightmare - (but couldn't find the power cable - its all set up for the next round of talks, however).

Well, this morning I get an email from Nate saying that he has found someone to donate all our test strips for the whole project (until next September!). It was just out of the blue like that. The Universe, or God, or whatever you want to refer to it as, apparently thinks that the TRIABETES project is a decent endeavor. However my guess is that when I call on it again during the Ironman (like at mile 130) - I will simply get the reply "suck it up, chump! and test your blood sugar!"

Thank you Mr. Chris Stocker at American Diabetes Wholesale (http:// www.americandiabeteswholesale.com/) I will get all my diabetes stuff through you as long as you are in business. He has a belief that socioeconomic factors shouldn't prohibit access to the medical supplies they need. Amen. Perhaps this guy should work on National Health Care....

2 hours

2007-12-08T12:20:00.000-05:00

Dave, Wayne (Dave's principal and my old principal), and I went for a run this morning and just kind of wandered for a couple of hours. It was soo good to just keep going and to realize that "yeah, I can do this thing...slowly". I've signed up for a half marathon in Greenville, SC next weekend - one my wife always used to do. I'm hoping to simply be close to her time. This is my very first "race" ever... how hilarious. I wonder what it will be like to be at the starting line...