Diary
Barcelona Marathon, 26th March 2006
Sat 25th, March, 2006
Itchy Feet, cant wait!!!
Sugar level 9 mmol/l when got up at 6.30am, this will be at least half a day of sitting around airports and on planes so decided to increase my breakfast short acting dose from about 7 units to 12 units,
Sugar level 4.9 mmol/l while sitting at Newcastle airport at 8.45am, spot on! will just need a snack in the next hour (15g or so to get me all the way to BARCELONA:)
6.2 mmol/l before evening meal so took 5 units of short acting, starter broad bean salad, main course penne, desert sounded like a bowl of fruit but ended up as a fruity soup which was sweet and will quickly raise sugar levels. Would usually have had extra short acting in with a sugar sweet but main meal was smaller than I expected so thought desert would make up the difference, working on the 'give and take' principle to balance levels.
Took night time basal dose, 7 units of Lantus (usually 12 units) to counter all the running will be doing tomorrow, i.e. exercise increases the effectiveness of insulin in my case by almost double,
Sun 26th, March, 2006
Will the Diabetic falter first, no chance!
7am
Sugar level 5.7 mmol/l, breakfast short acting 5 units, small bowl of cereal, omelet (plenty of protein needed), a bit of sliced ham and a slice of bread (bread making up for the smaller bowl of cereal)
8.30am
30 min's to kick-off...... sugar level 6.2 mmol/l before marathon start so had snack bar (basically 1 hour after breakfast so sugar level wont still be going up therefore snack is to ensure sugar levels not dropping at start)
9.45am
45 min's into race had a snack bar (this is the point that sugar level starts to fall significantly), tested at 1 hr 20 min's, reading 4.9 mmol/l. I know salt is important in a marathon especially when drinking a lot of fluid and I drank a lot! it was hot!! so had an energy gel, the best way of describing it is nitro's for diabetics and also had about 1/3 bottle of Powerade, I knew this would make my sugar levels jump, but the 2 hr mark is significant as this is where I usually experience low blood sugar, so taking a gel and Powerade (which I would usually try to avoid) was an acceptable solution i.e. replace salts and move sugar levels clear of hypos,
11am
2hrs into the race, sugar level 9.7 mmol/l, not too surprising, but then again will just mean I won't take on anymore glucose over the next hour making sure to take on water, would expect sugar levels to slowly move back down,
12pm
Final test, sugar level 6.8 mmol/l, so over the last hour sugar level had slowly dropped by 3.1mmol/l, spot on, will keep running and take on a snack bar in about 10 min's to maintain sugar level, feeling strong and enjoying it......
Finished with a time of 3hrs 47mins, slowed a bit towards finish as Mike's heart rate decided to go for a wander, apparently due to lack of water and glycogen debt, lol, result:) Mike hypo 'd first,
All in all an awesome start in an amazing city, unbelievable what 7 units of Lantus can do! will return night time dose to normal at about 8pm (12 units of Lantus) keep short acting as normal making sure to test before going to sleep!,
It sounds like a lot of calculating but to be honest its pretty automatic after a while,
1 down, 4 to go, more importantly I'm starving, time for some tapas......
