An example of being a diabetic runner

I don’t spent enough time talking about what it is to be a runner who is a diabetic.  Truth be told, this is because it doesn’t affect me nearly as much you’d think.  I wake up, take a pill, eat breakfast and go about my life the same way you go about yours. 

Well today I was acutely reminded of my status as a diabetic.  You see, I’ve decided to drop a few pounds; and of course, I’ve gone a little overboard in the past 2 days (having lost over 2 pounds).  So naturally, when I got halfway through my 10k run today, I had no energy left.  Joy.  Here’s what happened.

When I started my run at 12:30pm, it was 17c and cloudy.  Unbeknownst to me, the calorie deficit that I created had left my muscles with precious little glycogen in reserve.  The only significant amount of glycogen in my body had come from the 500ml of Gatorade that I drank before my run.  When I started my run (in Sutherland, a neighborhood in Saskatoon), I felt like it was probably going to be an off day, but that happens, doesn’t it?

I didn’t bring my headphones with me because I think that music is distracting me from paying attention to work I’m doing when I’m out running.  Yes, I said work.  I don’t like the distraction a phone and headphones makes.  Did you see Meb fiddling with Runtastic during the Boston Marathon?  Even better, does Meb ever drop his phone during a race?  No… because he probably doesn’t bring it with him. (*yes, believe it or not, I’ve dropped my phone twice during races).

Saskatchewan has such unbelievably flat terrain, you could probably see for hundreds of kilometers were it not for tractors, barns, and the occasional Tim Horton’s obscuring the horizon.  There’s a 500 meter bike path that runs along Circle Drive in Sutherland, with one end near 108^th Street East.  I do a few out and backs here and quickly realize that I have no speed today.  Yes, the 10lbs of ankle weight I ran with yesterday have made today’s run a bit harder since some of my muscles are still a tad bit sore.

The bridge over Circle Drive is half bridge and half overpass, but my first word to describe it is bridge.  Interesting.  Once over the bridge, I proceed to run along 108^th for a bit and then enter the University of Saskatchewan campus and run along Research Drive.  Right as I reach the 4k mark, I begin to feel my energy rapidly diminishing.  Suddenly my muscles have mutinied and are actively betraying me, and my body comes to a halt at the 4.4k mark.   I have two loonies and a quarter with me, which isn’t enough to buy much on a college campus, so I forgo the campus’s Tim Hortons in favor of running a direct route back to the apartment, which is (of course) 5k away.  Naturally no one, no matter how messed up they are, is going to end a run at 9.4k unless they absolutely have to. 

It is then that I realize that I’m carrying the glucose tablets.  I chew the first, and nothing happens.  I try to run, but don’t get far before my body grinds to inaction. I then take the remaining three tablets, and within a minute I am in possession of genuine energy.  I’m also in a precarious position.  My blood sugar is certainly very low, and if I don’t get my blood sugar up, I am in big trouble.  My options: walk home and hope I arrive quickly enough.  Run home and burn more energy, but arrive sooner.

Ultimately, I decide to run home at a 10:30/mile pace.  Fast enough that I’ll get home twice at quick as walking, slow enough that I’m not burning crazy amounts of energy. And so I set off, soaked in sweat, and ran along Research Drive towards 108^th Street East.  When I walk into the apartment I’m seeing stars, the middle of my vision is almost black.  I immediately start drinking Gatorade and make a bowl of oatmeal with whey protein.  Crisis averted.  But seriously.

As dismaying as it is to come back from a run with hypoglycemia, I got some insight into what it’s like to actually run out of energy on a run… you know, what it is to hit the wall.  And rest assured that it sucks.  It sucks badly, in fact.  But a few glucose tablets gave me the energy to run for another 30-something minutes.   In a strange way, I look forward to hitting the actual marathon wall at the Queen City Marathon in September.  It’ll be an experience.