# First time Half marathon Type 1



## simon88 (May 1, 2013)

Hi,

Im type 1 and im planning on doing the birmingham Bupa Half marathon.
Im curious on what im ment to do with my sugars and insuling before exercise and what effect running will have on my levels.

Also, if anyone has any info that i will need please help me.

Thanks

Simon


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## Northerner (May 1, 2013)

Hi Simon, welcome to the forum  Have you been diagnosed long? What insulin regime are you on? Have you started training or done any running before?


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## rossi_mac (May 1, 2013)

Good luck with that not sure myself but I am trying to get back into running so will be interested to hear what others have to say, I would guess it's a case of learning how your levels go after an increasing amount of exercise and run with ample supplies and testing kit!?


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## simon88 (May 1, 2013)

Hi Northerner,

Ive been diabetic for 8 years, Im carb counting with Novorapid 10g-2.4 breakfast, 10g-1.7 Lunch, 10g-1.2 Tea and 25units of glargine before bed. I have done a little running in the past few months, using a cross trainer and looking to do more Sports as in squash, tennis or badminton.


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## Northerner (May 1, 2013)

Sounds good  I was a runner before diagnosis 5 years ago, and it was therefore something I wanted to get back into as soon as I could. The first thing to bear in mind is that there are no hard and fast rules - what works for one person may not work for another. The key thing I found was to start gradually and do lots of testing to find out what was happening to my levels. Initially, I ran for half an hour, testing before and after to see whether my levels had gone up or down. For me, the timing of my food and insulin beforehand is important - I try to eat and inject around 90 minutes-2.5 hours before the run so that I have circulating insulin and food digesting. Some people find that they need less insulin when exercising or they will drop low, but that doesn't happen to me - the effects of the exercise come later in the day, when I will need to reduce my insulin doses for subsequent meals. You'll need to experiment to find out what works best for you.

I found the Diabetic Athlete's Handbook really useful in explaining a lot of the science behind what happens when you exercise, so worth getting a copy if you can - it should help you with other sports too  Also, have a look at the Runsweet website which also has lots of good information.

I find that I can run about 5 miles without needing to 'top up' with carbs, after that a couple of jelly babies every 2 or 3 miles keeps my levels steady. You've got a few months to go, so I would start slowly, gaining as much info as you can with lots of testing and experimenting with your insulin doses to see if you are one of those who needs to seriously reduce it beforehand, or like me!


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## simon88 (May 1, 2013)

Well i have 6 months to train for it and me and my gf have a training schedule for it provided by the bupa site which gets you doing 10-15 mins walk or run every other day and slowly increasing.
When i have run in the past i have reduced my insulin by 50% before exercise due to going low normally when i have finished, which may be a coinsidence. i read on a site that you should work to 10g's of carbs to 20mins of exercise, have you heard this?

I will have a look at the handbook any help will be good and i have had a quick look at the runsweet site but will need to look more to gain more knowledge.

I have had a look at using pumps for exercise is this something that would be worth while and has anyone had previous use with them?


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## Copepod (May 1, 2013)

As you say, you have a fair bit of time to get things sorted before 20th Oct 2013. Runsweet website is very helpful - lots of background physiology information, plus case studies for various sports, so it's worth investing some time to find what applies to you. 

Some people do use insulin pumps for their advantages in fine tuning for exercise, but I very much doubt you could get one before October, and intitially, a pump takes a lot of work to get things right, so you're probably better sticking with whatever regime you're on now.

If you have a Parkrun near you, you may find that regularly running 5km at the same time (9am on Saturday) helps you to experiment with other variables.


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## delb t (May 2, 2013)

simon are you from birmingham?I only ask because if so there is a copy of the diabetic althletes handbook at sandwell library- smethwick high st - which they kindly bought in for me-OH is doing that run too and my son is marshalling-for acorns runners- he will have plenty of hypo stuff on him to throw you! if needed


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## HOBIE (May 2, 2013)

Good stuff Simon ! Possitive !   I would say do a few shorter runs & test ? If you know what a 3 mile run does to you ?    Good luck


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## simon88 (May 3, 2013)

Thanks Copepod, ill have a look.

Delb, im from dudley, ill have a look in the library's around here, thank you. im sure you will notice me ill be running with a suitcase full of carbs and sweets 

Hobie, i guess alot of it is really trial and error, i ran ther other day and reduced insulin by 50% for my meal before i ran and got back and my sugar level was 7 and stayed arounf that for the rest of the day but that was only 1.3 miles. but i also walked a mile to work an hour after and i was fine.


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## delb t (May 3, 2013)

Well well done you for giving it a go- I cant even run for a bus! I think they can transfer books from library to library - smethwick to - maybe blackheath/greatbridge/glebefields- only know this cos daughter was a bookworm


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## HOBIE (May 4, 2013)

Keep us upto date with things & good luck


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## KathleenJ (Jun 20, 2013)

Hi Simon,

I'm t1 and have been for fifteen years. I'm twenty-four and ran a half marathon a year ago. It was a little challenging for me and caused a slight spike in my a1c. The reason was that I overcorrected with carbs beforehand (I wouldn't run with a BG less than 10, sometimes higher), but I also go very drastically low when running. But I wasn't going to let damn diabetes stop me.

Decreasing your basal 50% or even 75% might be the way to go (I did the latter). Also, every ten or fifteen minutes, I'd have a glucose tab or something of the sort. That helped my blood sugars (and my fear of going low). Be sure to eat big meals with a lot of protein and some longer-acting carbs (whole grains, etc.) after your longer runs. I always ran with my monitor, a backup 50-75 carbs, and my cell phone in case of an emergency (never had to use it).

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!


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## delb t (Aug 8, 2013)

Simon- my son has signed up to run the half marathon too!- he was marshalling  at the event but last night said he wants to run and raise funds for M/S- yikes!-he can do 8 miles at the moment so you may have to share your stash of jelly babies


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## HOBIE (Aug 8, 2013)

All possitive stuff !  Good luck all you runners


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## delb t (Oct 18, 2013)

Good luck to all those doing the Birmingham half marathon this sunday I will be cheering H ....and OH  of course!   thinking we havnt done to badly to get this far in 18 months


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## Northerner (Oct 18, 2013)

delb t said:


> Good luck to all those doing the Birmingham half marathon this sunday I will be cheering H ....and OH  of course!   thinking we havnt done to badly to get this far in 18 months



That's terrific! Well done, I hope you all have a brilliant day!  Good luck also to everyone doing the inaugral Yorkshire Marathon on Sunday - hope to be running it next year!


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