I ran in The Color Run here in Perth last Sunday – 17th of Feb and it was TOTALLY FRIGGIN AWESOME!

It was like some hippy rave – The happiest 5Klm Run!

Now if you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I have a love/hate relationship with running. Click here and here for an update. Running for me just seems like the ultimate fitness challenge and the perfect battlefield to match up against the Big D. Just doing it is a magnificent accomplishment in training Diabetes to live with me but to do it well , like totally smash it and keep the BG’s balanced feels like a total SMACKDOWN in the octagon of Diabetes UFC.

And on Sunday… I totally brought it. My blood sugars did not budge below 6.5m/mol or above 7.5m/mol the whole day.

That’s me on the left and my fellow runner on the right.

I ran at least 4klm out of the 5klm – running a few minutes and then walking a minute or so to catch my breath. I have run in the HBF Run for a Reason for the last 3 years but because of the stable blood glucose levels it didn’t feel as hard.

The big difference between this run and runs that I have done in the past is two things.

Nerves – I wasn’t nervous or anxious before the event because I knew what to expect – having done similar events before - and nerves and totally wreak havoc on the BG’s.

Hydration. Insulin will not absorb properly into the blood stream if you are not adequately hydrated and keeping blood sugar near normal will result in improved strength, speed, flexibility and endurance.  Extra sugar in the blood stream limits ours red blood cells ability to pick up oxygen in the lungs and transport it to our muscles. This can cause fatigue and limit cardiovascular capacity. (Resource – Think Like a Pancreas – Gary Scheiner. Click here for his website)

Exhausted and Filthy!

So here is what I did the day before the run and the morning of. Of course, you might be different so don’t treat this as gospel.

The day before: I drank 2L of water, 500ml of Coconut Water (click here for all the magnificent stuff that this does) and 500ml of Powerade Zero Sugar. I ate two bananas throughout the day – along with other normal meals and for dinner I had a low fat, low GI dinner of Free Range pork fillet (don’t get me started on the factory pork industry), steamed sweet potato and steamed green vegi’s. I went to bed early and had a good sleep.

On the day of the run: I ate a banana at 6am with normal basal insulin dose and drank 200ml of pure coconut water. At 7.30am I ate a slice of Soy and Linseed bread with organic peanut butter (only peanuts are listed in the ingredients - not salt, oil and sugar like the others) with a half dose of basal insulin and drank about 500ml of water. I reduced my insulin pump by 40% about 20 minutes before the run lasting 1.5 hours to cover about 30-40 minutes after I had finished running.

I checked my BG about 5 minutes out from running, after the third color zone (3klm), after finishing and then about every hour after that for a few hours.

And like I said… It was AWESOME!