Blood Sugar Insights from NYC Marathon

Nearly two weeks ago I completed the NYC Marathon for my second time. I crushed my time goal setting a 7.5 minute personal record, but fell short on my blood sugar goal to keep my numbers in range (70-180) for the entire 26.2 miles.

Pre-Race Nerves and Strategy Adjustments

As I approached the start line, I was feeling very optimistic for my blood sugar goal and not so optimistic about being able to run the race in less than 4 hours. My blood sugar was 153 and trending slightly down, and with a unit of insulin on board I was feeling nervous that I would be crashing down rapidly within the first 5 miles. With this in mind I decided to suspend the insulin from my omnipod pump. This was a mistake! The pre-race energy, nerves, and excitement had spiked me up to 233 and still rising at the 5k mark of the race.

I was a bit bummed about this, but nothing to keep me stressing out too much. I had to readjust my strategy and plans, as we so often need to living with type 1 diabetes. I turned my insulin pump back on, put on activity mode, and gave myself half a unit of insulin.

Through Brooklyn: Miles 5-15

The next 10 miles of the race flew by and were a total breeze and high of emotions running through the electric Brooklyn crowds. My blood sugars remained between 230-190 at this point. I knew that I would need some glucose for fuel, so over this hour I took a total of 1.1 units of insulin and had around 38 carbs worth of fruit snacks along with maybe 10-12 carbs worth of gatorade from the aid stations.

Manhattan and the Final Push

As I crossed into Manhattan into the roaring crowd awaiting all of the runners on First Ave, my blood sugars were finally coming back down and in range. At this point I was feeling better in terms of blood sugars as my legs began to feel a bit heavy with each of my steps. I came up with a good fuel station strategy during the race of rotating 1 gatorade 2 waters and then 2 gatorades 1 water - this helped me both in terms of fueling my run and keeping my blood sugars from varying too much. This got me into the Bronx as I crossed into the last 10k. Now the blood sugars were great around 150s - but I was starting to doubt how long I could keep running at the pace I had held previously.

With each step I was feeling very uncomfortable, and that if I stretched my leg in a certain way my calves may fall off. Despite this, I dug in, trying to keep my thoughts positive and wanting to be an inspiration to myself and everyone else living with diabetes that nothing will be able to stop us from achieving our goals - and also motivated by my brother's previous NYC Marathon time of 3:56 - I really wanted to have my bragging rights over him!

The Finish Line

As I crossed out of Central Park onto the final stretch of the race, I knew my blood sugars would hold on for the last few minutes of the race. I let my stress go and dug in even deeper, passing most of the runners as I approached the finish line, even another runner with type 1 who I yelled some words of encouragement to! I crossed the finish line at 3:52:58 - 7 and a half minutes faster than my previous time and 7 minutes faster than my goal time!

My blood sugar was 133 as I crossed the finish line, completing an amazing race. I am very proud of what I achieved.

How CorrelateWell Made the Difference

Using CorrelateWell in all of my training going into NYC really helped me feel more confident in managing my blood sugars on race day. Knowing that as I pushed into the final miles of the race I would need to be fighting blood sugar drops over 2 mg/dL each minute helped me create a fueling plan that worked for me. The last time I ran the NYC marathon, I went low during the final miles of the race as I was unaware of how fast my blood sugar would be dropping after 3 hours of activity. When I ran Berlin this past September, I was afraid to take any insulin during the race so I was high for 75%+ of the race which led to me falling short on my time goal.

Beta invites for CorrelateWell are rolling out now, I am looking forward to hearing what others think of what I am building and getting closer to my goal of helping every person with diabetes feel more confident with their exercise goals!