FELICITY RUNNING ON INSULIN: running a half marathon for type 1 diabetes

I've been a type one diabetic since the beginning of year 13. If you don't know much about type one diabetes, my body no longer makes its own insulin and I have to inject it by myself to keep my blood sugar within range. If I have too much insulin then I need to have more carbohydrates/sugar, and if my blood sugar gets too high, I have to have more insulin to bring it down. Its a never-ending battle!!

I have always enjoyed social sport, but I've always found that running in particular drops my blood sugar really quickly and is really difficult to manage over about 3km's.

1 year ago I qualified for funding for an insulin pump - and have also found myself in a fortunate position (now that I'm no longer at Uni) to be able to afford the Freestyle Libre Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (no more fingerpricking for me!) These two modern technologies have given me far more freedom and flexibility in managing my blood sugar than I ever had before, so I thought it was about time to challenge myself.

I've been training and testing my blood sugar like never before, and I'm adamant I will cross that half marathon finish line at the Hawkes Bay Marathon on May 18th with a good blood sugar level! It's going to be a lot of effort but I want to prove that diabetics can do this too!