42 DI ABETIC LI VING / FALL 2 019
M
y middle school P.E. teachers
made us run a timed mile
every few weeks in the fall
and spring, as P.E. teachers
do. Th e “Fun Run” was supposed to be a
surprise, so kids couldn’t cut class to avoid
it. But because I had type 1 diabetes, one
teacher would always come fi nd me those
mornings, interrupting my second-period
class to whisper “Fun Run” so I knew to eat
an extra snack before P.E.
Th e Fun Run was the only thing I was
ever good at in P.E., and being good at it
made me feel tougher than my classmates.
Th e teachers were clearly impressed that
I could run without making diabetes-
related excuses or passing out from low
blood sugar which they were so worried
about that they always handed me a can of
Coca-Cola at the fi nish line. At the end of
eighth grade, when my best mile time was
6:41, they encouraged me to join the high
school cross-country team, where I was
quickly put on the varsity squad.
Being a varsity athlete was a big deal to
me. Running became the fi rst and last thing
I thought of every day, more important and
nerve-wracking than any science test or En-
glish paper or adolescent relationship. It was
the hardest thing I had ever done, and also
the thing that made me most proud. It was
how I defi ned myself for the next four years.
Running was hard because it sent my
blood sugars on wild roller coasters, with
prerace highs and midnight lows. (Th ank
you, Mom, for all the times you saved me
with orange juice and crackers at 2 a.m.) I
could never focus during my sixth-period
classes, because I was always frett ing about
my blood sugar an hour ahead of team
practice. Sometimes I did four or fi ve fi n-
ger pricks during that hour, trying to fi gure
out where my blood sugar was headed, try-
ing to get it in the right place for a 5-mileTh e other members of Triabetes taught
me that you don’t have to experience roller-
coaster blood sugars to participate in en-
durance sports that if you do it right, the
sport can actually make your blood sugars
bett er. It was so diff erent from my att itude in
high school when I thought that bounc-
ing between crazy highs and severe lows was
just the price I had to pay for running.
An off shoot of the Triabetes club or-
ganized wilderness backpacking trips;
another focused on training for half-mar-
athons and marathons. I became active
in both, which led to backpacking trips
in Yosemite and Montana, my first half-
marathon in 2010, and my fi rst marathon
in 2012. Backpacking wasn’t hard or scary
because I was doing it with, and for, my
friends with diabetes; running was still
hard, but I had my friends with diabetes
to talk to about my training and somehow
that made it easier. I was running for them
as much as for myself.
When some co-workers invited me
to run an ultramarathon in Wyoming in
2018, I thought of my Triabetes friends
who ran ultramarathons and I knew I
could run one too. Th is race, a 32-mile slog
on muddy trails, was the most fun experi-
ence I’ve had yet as a runner.
I wouldn’t have become a runner with-
out those timed miles in middle school P.E.
class, where the teachers gave me extra en-
couragement because of my diabetes. And
I wouldn’t have stayed a runner without
fi nding a community of endurance athletes
united by diabetes. Now I know I’ll always
be a runner who is motivated by diabetes,
and this makes every step along the way feel
like a litt le victory.MovingForwardBeing an athlete with
diabetes doesn’t have
to mean sacrifi cing
health for performance.BY SVATI KIRSTEN NARULAInspire
REAL LIFE
run or 45 minutes of sprints on the track.
My A1C during these years was em-
barrassing, because of all the times I let my
blood sugars fl oat too high before running,
always afraid of hypoglycemia slowing me
down. I fi gured that the only way to con-
trol my blood sugars would be to quit the
sport. In the spring of 2009, I did, opting
out of my last high school track season. I
was tired.
But that summer I met a series of other
people with type 1 who got me moving
again. First there was Sébastien Sasseville,who had summited Mount Everest in 2008
and was gett ing ready for his fi rst Ironman
triathlon. He would be racing alongside 10
other people with diabetes, all members
of a new triathlon club for PWDs called
Triabetes. I started thinking I could do a
triathlon, too. It sounded special to do it
as part of the Triabetes club, exchanging
updates with other members during my
training and wearing a Triabetes singlet
during my race. Indeed, as I trained for my
fi rst short-distance tri, it felt special.
Th is was a new challenge where I fo-
cused more on having good blood sugars
during my race than on racing fast. In high
school, I had raced despite diabetes; now
I was racing because of diabetes moti-
vated by belonging to the Triabetes club
and sharing an experience with other
PWDs across the country.“Diabetes makes every step along
the way feel like a little victory.”Narula with fellow
Triabetes runner
Peter Nerothin after
a half-marathon.