New Month, New Outlook … okay, so maybe just New Month
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
We’re three days into March and we had snow again yesterday and last night. Luckily, the storm wasn’t big enough and it wasn’t cold enough for the snow to pile up, but it seems that in NC in March we should have some leaves starting to come out on the trees by now. The weather forecast for this weekend is looking good, though, so that will get me through the week.
I just finished a course of antibiotics yesterday. I had that horrible cold for almost the entire month of February. I still managed to run (a lot actually). The whole time I was sick, I kept debating the sanity of running anyway. Now that I’m feeling better, though, I’m feeling really strong running. Funny how much easier running is when you can actually breathe. I ran a long run on Monday of this week (I usually run long early, early on Wednesdays) because of the winter storm predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday. I felt like I could have run all day - literally!
I’m happily entrenched in dissertation work, too. I think the best piece of advice for someone trying to settle on a doctoral research project is to pick something that you find very interesting and that you really, really WANT to understand. It takes a heck of a lot of self motivation and if you don’t absolutely love working on it (to the point that you would actually try to sneak in some extra time to look something up or read something new or just plain think about it), you’ll have a difficult time pulling it off.
My friend Andrew summed it up perfectly a couple weeks ago: he said that an intern asked him why he was sitting in the office late at night, after working all day, going over dissertation materials; he said he replied that this is the work, THIS is THE work, THIS is what I can’t wait to do every day.
Yeah, same here. I meant to go to bed early last night and at 9:00pm, I still couldn’t turn my computer off because, as I told my husband, I was on a roll. I can go days in a row getting so wrapped up in my work that I just change from one set of running clothes to another because I end up going straight to my office after running to get to work on something I wrote down while running (I carry paper and pen in a baggie stuffed into my sports bra when I run in the mornings). So, for anyone who might possibly think that I’m interesting, I’m not. I’m pretty much geeky. I am a “people-person” and love hanging out with friends and laughing and goofing around, too. But, I’m a closet geek.
Okay, back to where I planned to start - it’s March already. This is usually a good month for people like me who are fond of warm weather and sun and longer days. Back when I was running crazy on the road racing circuit, this would also be the month that an insane amount of travel would start. And, hard-core training would start. I don’t miss track workouts at all. Although I may do some workouts every now and then, I don’t get on the track anymore. And, I don’t do much road racing anymore unless it’s something local.
I’m really fond of ultras now. Not that I do a lot of them; my shcedule just doesn’t let me run as many as I would like. The Umstead Endurance Run is at the end of this month. Last year, I was a pacer for the lead guy, Dave James, who ran a terrific race and set a course record of 15 hours and a little change. Pacing is actually a LOT of work, but it can be fun - well, sort of.
Hmmm. I thought I had something of more substance to ramble on about this morning, but I guess I don’t. So, I’ll stop here.
Missy
I’m done with February!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
I’m tired of winter. I’m tired of snow. I’m tired of having this head/chest cold that won’t go away. I’m tired of being too busy to avoid getting behind on everything. I’m so done with February.
Last night, just as we were trying to get to bed early, I was having another coughing attack and ended up with my nose bleeding at the same time that I coughed up blood. It sounds far, far worse than it is/was - I have something called Von Willebrand’s which means that my clotting factors are kind of slow. It’s not the same thing as hemophilia because it’s not even close to that level of seriousness and because I actually do clot but there is a problem in the second phase of clotting. So, basically the main thing is that I can’t take aspirin or ibuprofen or any of those NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). That sucks for a runner - obviously. But, it definitely keeps me from overdoing things when something hurts! So, anyway, even though I know that it was just a matter of having this cold for a while, it’s a little bit un-nerving when you think about going to sleep after your nose was just bleeding everywhere and you coughed up blood. Ah, but fatigue got the better of me, I grabbed a towel (a brown one), slapped said towel on the pillow, and off to la-la land I went. Woke up this morning no worse for wear, so to say, and so I ran my long run (interspersed with coughing attacks), and then proceeded to eat everything I could grab that didn’t require any preparation: mini chocolate covered donuts, cheesecake, a banana, grapes, leftover cold ravioli, yogurt, chocolate, a poptart, and diet mountain dew. All that with just 3 units of insulin!
Despite my impatience over the late arrival of Spring, February hasn’t actually been all that bad. The first part of February, I was in the Boston area and that trip was great (even though I came home with this horrible cold). Then, last week a friend of mine from college came to the area to give a talk at UNC-Greensboro and so I got to spend a couple days with him.
I’ve kept up with quite a few of my college friends over the years and even with a good many high school friends as well, but this particular friend had a tremendous impact on me. Andrew Parasiliti and I were both in the Psychology Department (I was studying physiological psychology, in particular auditory perception which is a fancy way to say hearing, and Andrew was in cognitive and behavioral psych, so there was a lot of overlap in classes and in the labs that we worked in).
More than any other single person during my college years, Andrew taught me simply by his example how important education was and how rewarding it was to embrace learning. He was actually a really normal, cool guy who hung out, went to parties, and all that. But, he was also very enthusiastic about school and never tried to make excuses or deny it.
This sounds so simplistic as I try to explain how much Andrew’s friendship affected the trajectory of my life, but suffice it to say that he changed the way I view the world and my place in it. It was fantastic to catch up with him in person last week and I feel all charged up and ready to take on the world now! Below is a pic of Andrew, me, and two of our profs, Cheryl Logan and Dave Soderquist.
But, in the meantime, back here in NC, in my tiny little office on the second floor, I’m still trying to get back into a regular groove with work and such. Of course, I tell myself that if the weather would improve I would be more productive, but I suspect that the opposite might be the case as I would probably need to take some emergency leave and spend the time outside!
So, in a nutshell, I’m done with February.
Enjoy,
Missy
Trying to get back to a regular routine
Friday, February 12, 2010
I was in the Boston area all of last week and flew home while Snow-mageddon hammered the DC area. We flew right over top of the snow storm and the cloud tops below the plane were a very eerie blue color. The snow from the big one that hit the week before I went to Boston is finally gone here and now it looks like more is on the way today and tonight. The radar loop looks scary.
I came back from Boston with a cold and that’s made it tough to get back into my regular routine. I’ve managed to get some work done and I’ve been able to get in a good bit of running and elliptical time, doing my usual 13 mile loop in the morning and 60 minutes on the elliptical in the evening (my junk TV time!).
I didn’t get a long run in on Wednesday this week because of my cold but I managed to run a little bit over 25 miles this morning, but that resulted in about 20 minutes of coughing afterward so maybe I should have been more conservative. Oh well. I’m thinking that I’ll become well-acquainted with my yaktrax again starting tomorrow, so I was thinking it would be a good idea to get in as many miles as I could tolerate today.
Another item on my ”normal routine” that’s been neglected for the past two weeks is weight training and core work. I got in zero while in Boston because I was so busy and because it would require about a two mile trek to the gym at night in the wind and cold and dark. I got home and was feeling so puky with this cold that it was easy to blow it off for a few more days! So, alas, now I’m slack. I have a HUGE lazy streak, too, so it’s going to take a LOT of momentum to get back on a regular routine with that. I might start tonight … but, then again, I may not.
I had a six month doctor’s visit yesterday. Well, I had it on my calendar for today, but found out from the automated reminder service that it was Thursday. Of course, I told Bob that the doctor’s office must be wrong, but when I scrounged up the appointment card, I was wrong. I have scheduled flights for the wrong days (and the wrong week, too) and I almost missed a conference (which will go unnamed here lest the organizers of said conference might read this) because I had it written on my calendar wrong and found out the day before I was really supposed to leave when someone called to find out what time I was arriving the next day (this one was actually years ago). Oops.
Okay, so I’m not the most organized calendar-keeper. It drives Bob crazy! Where are you racing next week? I don’t remember which race it is. Where are you staying? I’m not sure. Who is picking up the elite athletes at the airport? I don’t know yet. So, even though I might be tempted to get annoyed when he asks multiple times that I check and double-check things, I just do it.
Well, back to the doctor’s appointment, which is where I started before that tangent. After being up in the 100 plus mile weeks for some time now, it occurred to me on the drive to my appointment that I wasn’t sure about my weight. I don’t weigh myself with any regularity - it just never occurs to me to do that. We actually own a scale now. When Bob and I got married, I didn’t own a scale or a TV. He was kind of amazed by that, me being a girl and all. But, you know, I grew up with brothers.
So, I’m driving down the road drinking the coffee I wasn’t supposed to be having before “fasting” labs (but, I had awakened with a little bit of a low blood sugar and had to take care of that, so I figured that since I had screwed that up and my head hurt from my sinus stuff, I might as well have some coffee too) and out of nowhere I thought, I wonder how much I weigh. When running a lot, it’s sometimes hard to eat enough to keep my weight up. It’s no problem when I’m not running much - I can become a fat toady very fast! So, long-story-short, I obssessed over this until I stepped on the scale - 112.6 pounds. Alright! Normal. Not up, not down.
Okay, so that’s pretty much the update here. I now need to go load up the wood pile for the woodstove before the snow starts falling.
Happy trails … via yak-trax I guess,
Missy
Snow!
Monday, February 1, 2010
We got snow at the end of the week and I’ve been running with my yaktrax on ever since. Yesterday morning was actually a beautiful run. I got out early, just as the sun was coming up. It was about 17 degrees but the wind was very light and the sun was bright as it came up over the trees. It’s funny how muffled everything sounds when there’s a good deal of snowpack on the ground.
Just as I got about a half mile down the road, a neighbor came driving along and stopped to tell me that he figured he better get out to clear some of the snow for the neighbors who walk their dogs. He went all the way down to my driveway so I would have an easier time getting back home from my run. When the snow gets packed nice on the road and there’s a light powder on top of that, it’s actually pretty easy going anyway; but, that was nice of him!
It’s been sort of like being on vacation somewhere snowy. Really, the only work I had to do was to shovel a single track all the way up the driveway (so that when the sun came out, the snow would melt) and to shovel the sidewalk and steps as well as part of the deck and patio so that I could let Juliette, the outdoor kitty, back outside and give her a path to go all the way around the house basically - she was getting pretty nutsy inside since she’s not much of an indoor girl and both Bob and I were getting a bit crazy from her constant loud whining to go out or be picked up or eat or play or whatever. She’s a talkative little girl and she gets pretty loud if you ignore her. We can’t quite turn her into an indoor cat - she learned the litter box thing real quick and she doesn’t try to sharpen her claws on anything inside, but she just gets very unhappy after too much time inside.
Last week’s running went well. I had another week over 100 miles (about 101 to 102) and 4.5 hours on the elliptical. After 3 weeks topping 100, I have a down week this week. And, I’m really glad about that!
If we could get some Spring weather to arrive early and get rid of this winter for good, I would be pretty happy. At least the days are getting noticeably longer now. That helps a lot!
So, let’s see … it’s cold, there’s snow everywhere, I’m tired of winter, but running is going well. That pretty much sums it up.
Happy snowy roads (because the trails are knee-deep and unpassable),
Missy
The weather forecast is for impending doom!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
I’ve been so happy with the warmer temps lately, but my big “happy bubble” just got crushed by the weather forecast for the end of the week. We have a cold air blast moving in Wednesday and then a huge system with lots of moisture coming in on top of that on Friday. Holy crap, Batman! I’m no meteorologist and I know what that means!
Ten years ago this week we had the exact same set-up and got the largest snow storm in history around here. I was weeks away from Olympic Marathon Trials and we had 24 inches of snow on the ground. I bought my first treadmill sight-unseen over the phone and Bob picked it up when he got off call. I ran a 24 mile long run on it the next morning and then we lost power. It barely made it into double digits Farenheit over the next couple days. I hope we’re not heading for the same thing at the end of the week. Well, at least I’m an old and much slower runner these days and I don’t have anything like Olympic Trials bearing down on me. But, I do have to make it out of here for all of next week to - of all places in the winter - Boston. It may be an interesting couple weeks coming up.
With the impending doom over the weather forecast and my trip to Boston, I’m glad that my training schedule works out that next is my down week for running - no long run, about 1/4 less mileage for the week (or less), and everything slow and easy. After two weeks in a row of over 100 miles (and this week will probably make the third week in a row), it will be nice to have a recovery week. So, maybe I can enjoy some snow.
I’m looking forward to my trip to Boston. I received a dissertation fellowship from Harvard for this academic year, so I’m heading there for a research trip. I’ll probably have to head back at least once this semester. While I’m there, I’ll get a chance to visit the Joslin Diabetes Center and to catch up with some people I know through DESA.
I guess I’m going to have some treadmill time and some yak-trax runs coming up. Ugh. I don’t mind either one too much, but part of what I love so much about running is the time outdoors. When I can’t get outside to run or when that time is unpleasant because of the weather, it upsets the balance in my life (well, what balance there is which isn’t much I guess). At least I can throw the yak-trax on my shoes and plow through pretty much anything on the ground as long as it’s not too deep. I don’t have snow-shoes so if it gets too deep, I’m on the treadmill. Ten years ago the 24 inch snow was a wee bit too deep.
That’s about it for now.
Missy
A Little Break from Winter
Monday, January 18, 2010
The cold temps finally broke and we’ve been above freezing for a couple days now, even reaching the 50s during the day. A goose froze into the ice the day before the thaw started so he was only trapped for a little over 24 hours. I couldn’t believe that happened - I thought geese were supposed to know better than that (plus it was a Canadian Goose). Oh well, nobody could do anything about it because the ice wasn’t thick enough everywhere to be sure a person could walk out there but it was too thick everywhere to get a canoe or something out there. I guess that goose belongs in the Darwin Awards. There are still spots on the lake and on the small feeder ponds around the lake that look kind of like a soda pop with ice in it or maybe like a slushie that’s mostly melted, but the trail is thawed and has turned from ankle-twisting ice ruts to some good ole-fashioned mud. I prefer the mud.
Last week, I ran long and it went pretty well. I got in a tad over 38 miles in a little under 4 hours and 39 minutes. I finished with 30 minutes on the elliptical, so that got me over the 5 hour mark. I’ll go long again this week and then take a break next week. I’ll keep inching toward getting over the 6 hour mark in order to be good for a 50 miler. Well, I got in 103 miles running last week plus 3 hours and 20 minutes of elliptical time, which converts roughly to 27 miles of running equivalent miles. I’m actually not bothered much by the amount - at least not physically - but the time crunch it creates is tough. I do most of my elliptical time in the evening while my husband is watching ESPN or something so we talk and such while I get my time in. Plus, by getting the evening time in on the elliptical, it doesn’t matter that it’s dark and cold out already by then. The elliptical time is about 3.5 hours and the running time is about 13 hours, so that’s a lot of time eaten up with training. I get up early to get the running in and then I get in the elliptical time in the evening. It all works out somehow usually, but sometimes life gets in the way. Lately, it’s been working in my favor.
I had the chance to go running with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while this weekend and that was soooo fun! Plus, I ran on a cross country loop that I haven’t run on in a long time and it was great to run that trail loop. And, the weather here was fantastic on Saturday (Sunday actually wasn’t bad, but it rained pretty much all day). And, when I got home, the goose was free from the ice. Not a bad weekend.
Okay, back to work for me. It’s that time crunch thing, you know!
Happy muddy but thawed trails!
Missy
Surviving the Winter Blahs
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
I’m surviving winter in NC. It’s been a lot colder than normal for us here this winter and we even had a snowfall before Christmas. The last couple weeks have been cold and windy and I am already counting the days until Spring! The older I get, the more of a fair-weather runner I become.
Despite the cold temps, I managed to run 100 miles last week. I’m not sure where that came from since I did it on one run per day instead of doing any doubles. By Saturday evening (I count my week as Monday to Sunday because that’s the way my coach always did it) I realized that if I ran 11 instead of 10 miles on Sunday morning, I would have 100 miles for the week. Of course, there was only one thing to do: run 11 miles on Sunday! I guess it sounds a bit absurd, though, to say that I got to Saturday and didn’t realize I had run so many miles during the week. Um … I don’t have any explanation for that.
As I’m writing this post, I have a runner that I’m working with in the other room doing a workout on the elliptical. He’s had a string of seasons now where he’s gotten in shape and then ended up injured before he could get all the way through. So, we’re doing his “long runs” partly on the elliptical for now. So, he heads out for some actual running miles and then comes back in to do a long workout on the elliptical. I have a slew of elliptical workouts from the two times that I’ve been injured. Michael (that’s my runneree) is doing the 10 sets of 2 on/3 off workout. So, he warmed up at 84-85 rpm for 5 minutes, then he does 10 sets of 2 minutes at 90-100 rpm and 3 minutes of about 84 or 85 rpm. Then he cools down for 5 minutes. So, that’s an hour of “running” at a hot/cold tempo after a shorter real run. It’s a pretty decent long run for right now. Oh, and I’m listening to ESPN ala Michael’s workout. So, I thought this would be a good time to update the blog.
I have an interesting blood sugar, running, and cold weather story. On Monday, I thought I would get my long run in early for the week. I usually do that on Wednesday. It was something like 17 or 18 degrees out when I got started. Even with my thick running mittens, my hands were getting pretty cold. So, at about 6 miles, I checked my blood sugar and it read 49. I was really surprised because I felt pretty good for 49 (that should have been my first clue). Plus, I was usually about 150 at that point (that should have been my second clue). So, I gobbled down a whole pack of Gu and headed out to do the 10K loop again so that I could check on that blood sugar. You know, some days it just drops like that and I thought it could be due to the cold.
I started feeling a bit puky on the second 10K loop, so I gobbled down another pack of Gu. When I got back, I pulled out my meter, which I had inside my shirt so it would stay warm. I double baggie it when I decide to carry one with me so that sweat doesn’t ruin it or the strips. So, I pull out the other test strip (I only carried two with me as I don’t usually test that often for running because I have it figured out pretty well by now). I get the blood on there, wait, error code. Darn. Well, now I’m going to have to go inside to test - that 49 still had me a little freaked out and I was feeling puky. When I got inside I had to run my hands under warm water because I couldn’t get any blood out of my fingers. Well, I finally got some blood out of my arm - yikes! The meter read about 400!
So, what happened? Well, the meter I had taken with me was actually probably not the culprit. A friend of mine, Jimmy Dodson, is an ice climber and I remember Jimmy once talking about the problem of his fingers getting so cold that the glucose concentration wasn’t correct. Hmmm. I think that’s what happened to me on Monday. So, all the Gu (oh, and the Gu chew cubes too) that I had taken in made my blood sugar sky-rocket.
After all the drama with the blood sugar problem on Monday, I decided that maybe in light of the 100 mile week last week, which also included three and a half hours on the elliptical too, I should take it easy this week. So, wow, 100 miles running and 3.5 hours on the elliptical. That was a lot even for me!
Well, the Global Giving campaign is still going on. I wouldn’t keep pestering everyone about this, but my heart goes out to children and their families when they have to deal with diabetes. Getting the opportunity to go to a conference like Children With Diabetes is such a wonderful experience and those who can’t afford it should still get the chance anyway. So, that’s my plea.
This is the direct link to the page for Diabetes Scholars Foundation’s Global Giving contribution page: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/diabeteseducationscholarships/ and this is the direct link to what they are calling the “leader board” for the global giving campaign: http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/athletes-for-hope?showAll=true.
Well, after a balmy 37 degrees today, maybe the trails won’t be quite as crunchy tomorrow morning. Really, in some places it looks like stalagmites growing up in the middle of the trail right now! We might get snow tomorrow and then another blast of arctic air. I’m ready for Spring.
Happy trails,
Missy
The Diabetes Scholars Foundation
Monday, December 28, 2009
The Global Giving Campaign is still chugging along. The organization on behalf of which I’m working is The Diabetes Scholars Foundation (www.diabetesscholars.org). So, I thought I should share a little about DSF.
I found out about DSF through Laura Billetdeaux, who along with Jeff Hitchcock started Children With Diabetes (www.childrenwithdiabetes.com). Both Laura and Jeff have children with diabetes and formed a group to help other parents find the help and support so desperately needed to deal with this disease. Not only is it hard to find good resources and good care, but diabetes takes a toll on the whole family. The group that Laura and Jeff established has blossomed into a trememdous network of conferences and support groups that touches many, many lives. The Diabetes Scholars Foundation was created by Mary Podjasek as a way to help families without the financial means to get the chance to experience the magic of Children With Diabetes. It has grown into even more than that.
For the child with diabetes, and for the family as well, every minute of every day focuses at least a little bit on balancing life around insulin. For someone who has never seen the damage that high blood sugars wreak on the body or the acute problems such as seizures and unconciousness that low blood sugars can cause, it’s hard to understand why diabetes is so invasive in our daily lives. The activity of injected insulin always has a level of unpredictability and the difference is measured in something smaller than the head of a pin and in a timespan as short as a minute sometimes. So, even when things are running on an even keel, we are always aware that the bottom could fall out at any minute.
It’s stressful. It’s also financially devastating for many families. I often quip jokingly that diabetes is not a good disease for the poor or stupid, but there is actually less joke and more reality to that. It is a complex disease to manage and the cost of medications and the accompanying health care is enormous. The Diabetes Scholars Foundation is working to fill a gap that doesn’t exist in any other form right now.
DSF funds scholarships both for conferences and for college for children with Type 1 diabetes. So, these children and their families can find help on several levels. The college scholarship program was started in 2008 and has so far awarded 40 scholarships of $5,000. The added financial burden of diabetes can make college unaffordable for some children and these scholarships can help with the extra costs of health care for kids who are leaving home for college.
The impact of DSF on the lives of these kids and their families is enormous and immediate: “this was life changing,” “we feel like we are part of a new family.” I’ve worked with some of the kids who have benefitted from the work of DSF and it’s been life changing for me as well. Diabetes can be a very lonely disease because it is so isolating at times. The work of people like Mary, Laura, and Jeff has alleviated some of that for a lot of families.
So, here goes my plea to help out! Here are some links to help us in the Global Giving Campaign:
This is the direct link to the page for Diabetes Scholars Foundation’s Global Giving contribution page: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/diabeteseducationscholarships/ and this is the direct link to what they are calling the “leader board” for the global giving campaign: http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/athletes-for-hope?showAll=true.
Pass this along to everyone you can. And, thanks from the bottom of my heart for anything that you can do to help!
Happy Trails, Missy
Check out this thank you letter from a Diabetes Scholar:
Global Giving Campaign
Thursday, December 17, 2009
For the next month, Athletes For Hope is running a huge campaign to fund-raise for a group of deserving charities. I recently was asked to become a part of Athletes For Hope and I was thrilled, flattered, and excited to have the opportunity to work with people like Tony Hawk, Mia Hamm, Andre Aggasi, and others.
So, I accepted the challenge to participate in the Global Giving athlete race for charities! The charity I am supporting is the Diabetes Scholars Foundation. This is a non-profit organization that helps to send children with diabetes and their families to camps, conferences, and meetings who otherwise could not afford to have that kind of experience. It’s an incredible experience for a child with diabetes to learn that he/she is not alone in this. Diabetes can be such a lonely and scary disease for children (and for their whole family, for that matter).
So, for the next month, I’ll be posting constantly about the global giving campaign. I get nothing tangible out of this but I get a lot spiritually by knowing that I can make a difference in the lives of families who are living with diabetes. I usually just quietly make my small little donations here and there through the year to a few different charities that are either associated with animal welfare or with diabetes. I think this must be the first time I have ever tried to twist arms to get anyone to contribute and it is definitely the first time that I’ve ever made my charitable pursuits public. But, this is really important.
Okay, so here are the different links. This is the direct link to the page for Diabetes Scholars Foundation’s Global Giving contribution page: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/diabeteseducationscholarships/ and this is the direct link to what they are calling the “leader board” for the global giving campaign: http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/athletes-for-hope?showAll=true. As you can see on the leader board, people already started to contribute late last night. So, if nothing else, PLEASE don’t let Jeff Gordon beat me!!!!
Thanks for checking out the campaign and please pass along the links to anyone you can think of. This is a great charity and they do so much good for kids with diabetes. We can make a difference in the lives of these kids; they don’t have to be alone and scared. And, if you check out the campaign and decide that there is a cause you feel more strongly about, that’s okay - as long as you don’t let Jeff Gordon beat me you know!
Missy
Etcetera
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Triabetes: The team completed the Ironman Arizona! Casey Boren was just a few ticks of the clock from breaking the ten hour mark. I talked to Reid Stewart the next day as the team was all jammed into a hotel room together breaking down their bikes for shipping - and preparing to start some celebration stuff. A couple days later, Sebastion Sasseville sent out a note that he was actually walking again. Look up their stuff at www.triabetes.org.
JDRF: A few weeks ago, I went to the JDRF Capitol Chapter’s Night of Hope Gala. This was a great fundraising event and the generosity of the donors was incredible! There are a bunch of pics and some info on the night at www.jdrfnightofhope.org.
Athletes for Hope: I recently became aligned with a phenomenal group called Athletes for Hope. They have an on-line debate going on right now which addresses the question of whether or not athletes are obligated to give back. Check out the lively discussion here: www.athletesforhope.org.
Diabetes stuff in NC: There is supposed to be a weekend for parents and kids in Greensboro in January. I’ll look for more info and post it. There’s both a Diabetes Sisters and a TCOYD conference at the Raleigh Convention Center on the weekend of May 22nd-ish (not certain about the date because I don’t have a calendar in front of me).
That’s all I got for right now. Happy Trails! Missy