There's Something About Ed

I need to tell you about one of my athletes. His name is Ed. He is the author of "Ring The Bolus" which is his blog. Ed is an amazing athlete. A college football player. At age 27 he was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. Type I Diabetes... not Type II. Type I.... insulin dependant diabetes. Yes, it is rare for someone to be diagnosed as an adult.

My brother is a Type I Diabetic. He was diagnosed at age 7. As a Pediatric Nurse I encounter many children who are diagnosed.

I met Ed on the out and back of Ironman Lake Placid 2007. He was with some friends, volunteering. He handed me water. I knew his friend but I did not know him. I saw him again at mile 21.

The next morning we met in line at sign up. Both in our camping chairs, me sore and dead from the Ironman. Ed... eyes wide open as he was dying to take this challenge on.

We spoke on the phone that week and I am honored that he hired me to be his coach. I coach another Type I diabetic and she's phenomenal. She's had diabetes since childhood and she manages it better than anyone in the world.

Coaching an athlete through an Ironman is one thing.... coaching a Type I Diabetic is a whole other ball of marbles. Blood sugars are our friend and at the same time our enemy. Ed was so proactive, hooking himself up with the experts in the field. There are a small number of Type I Diabetics who have completed the Ironman.... and within that same group a good number of endurance athletes.

Essentially for Ed it's been trial and error. Balancing blood sugars, blood testing, and insulin while balancing training and building volume. Seems that each week we had some sort of an issue related to something, but we got through it. Ed figured so many things out and I only hop I have been enough support for him.

This weekend was the first time he met the rest of the team. My instruction to my team was that they were to wait for no one unless it was Ed..... they knew Ed's story and they took him in. He roomed with Bill and Adam. Bill is a talented and brainy ICU nurse who also understands the workings of this disease. So he was able to help Ed with some things.

As the onlooker the three acted like a couple of brothers to be honest.

Saturday night Ed sat in my room and we recounted the debacle of the blood sugar that had begun on Friday. While he didn't get the entire 112 in he got a damn good chunk in on a dangerously low blood sugar.

I swear to god Ed could be at zero with blood pouring out of his eyes and he would still finish this.

We talked about how we are going to structure taper for Mooseman and IMLP and how we will need to plan blood sugar testing around that. You see, planning for a big workout requires three days of preparation. Now when we are tapering that can throw things off as we suddenly drop volume and try to aim for a pre race start blood sugar of over 200.

In true Ed fashion he nailed his blood sugar on Sunday morning for the long run. He even swam in Mirror Lake at 50 degrees. And on Monday he stayed behind and ride the 2 loops AGAIN. Successfully. And ALONE.

There's something about this character named Ed. Embracing the lifestyle of triathlon, the mentality of the Ironman, dropping that bag of shit and figuring things out. I have seen athletes just refuse to figure things out.... they could take a lesson from Ed.

Want a definition of HTFU? It's Ed.

So here's to you Ed...... may we balance the blood sugars perfectly at Mooseman and Ironman lake Placid. May you achieve your dream of being one of the very few people in the world with Type I diabetes to complete the Ironman..... and for the record I absolutely dread you going to Graduate School and moving to Virginia. You're part of us man!