It’s been quite a while since I’ve written a post – since October 2019 to be exact! I had just run the Chicago Marathon. A lot has happened since then, both personally and in the world in general. As you can see in the picture above, I’ve logged another marathon. That’s me in the lower left with the white hat crossing the finish line of this year’s LA Marathon. (More on that to come.)

My post title, as usual, is music related and in this COVID-19 isolation world we are all navigating right now, Iron Maiden’s “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” couldn’t be more apt.

So yes, this is where I’m at right now. Like the rest of you, I’m isolating at home – working and still running. Home for me is in Massachusetts. I’m lucky that my job is secure and I work remotely from home usually, so nothing has changed for me in that respect. My husband’s company has him working from home as well. I know how fortunate we are. We have a house. We both have jobs. We have food and all the things we need. I have had no issues getting my insulin pump supplies, Dexcom CGM sensors, or insulin. I did have a bit of a rough time finding some alcohol swabs thanks to Apple telling everyone they could use them to clean their iPhones, but eventually I found some. Like everyone else, we do have issues related to this pandemic to deal with, but again, we have a lot to be thankful for in that our families are safe and healthy.

I’m getting outside still several times a week to run. We are remote enough that I don’t see many, if any, other people on my running routes and when I do, we are easily able to maintain a safe distance. I get out early too. That makes a difference. There are one or two usual runners that I always saw even before this pandemic hit. And, as we always did, we give each other a quick wave from across the street. I’ve always been a solo runner, so again, not much has changed for me in that respect.

I actually had taken a two-week break from running after I ran the ill-timed Los Angeles Marathon on March 8. I was running this one with a group of about six other type 1 diabetics. All of us are just fine health-wise and I’d like to dispel the rumor that T1Ds are at a higher risk or have compromised immune systems. We really aren’t and we really don’t. It’s the other conditions that sometimes go along with diabetes that are the problems – heart disease, high blood pressure, etc. – things I thankfully, do not suffer from.

So, how was the race? I’ve felt a bit odd commenting on it. There was initially a lot of anger out there that the race should have been cancelled. And, yeah, in retrospect, it probably should have been. At the time though, I will honestly say that I did not think this was what it obviously is and I wasn’t alone in that, especially considering that we were following the official race organization who were following government guidelines. That same weekend saw many concerts, conventions, and sporting events still going on around the country. Hindsight is 20/20 though. The organizers did a really good job with an abundance of wash and hand sanitizer stations with volunteers all wearing gloves and a lot wearing masks – that was not yet mandatory. The volunteers deserve their own standing ovation.

So, back to the race. As I mentioned, I live in Massachusetts now, but lived in Los Angeles longer than I’ve ever lived anywhere else – about 25 years. I think of LA as “where I’m from.”  My husband jokes that I never wear socks and usually have flip flops on in New England in February and I wonder why my feet are cold. You can take the girl out of LA, but you can’t take LA out of the girl. He came out west with me and we stayed in Santa Monica at a beautiful hotel right on the beach.

The LA Marathon is a bit of a logistical nightmare, in my opinion. It starts at Dodger Stadium above downtown LA and it’s an out-and-done course. Meaning, you start in one place and finish in another unlike, say, Chicago which is a big loop, which I much prefer. The big problem with LA is that they don’t bring you back to the stadium if you parked your car there or got dropped off. You’re on your own to figure out how to get home from Santa Monica. I imagine the traffic getting in there on race day is ridiculous too. That said, they do an amazing job with the shuttle buses getting you up to the stadium for the start of the race. I had a very short walk to the shuttles from our hotel in Santa Monica and was at Dodger Stadium in about 30 minutes. The course itself is fantastic! You get to run through downtown Los Angeles, Silver Lake, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, West LA, and Santa Monica with each mile passing by an iconic LA attraction such as Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Rodeo Drive. I can’t tell you how cool it is to see the Pacific Ocean come into view at mile 25! If you hit the ocean, you ran too far is the general joke. (As a side note, I stopped briefly when we ran through Hollywood to see the Rush star on the Walk of Fame. Since Neil Peart had recently passed away this past January, it was my own personal tribute to him.)

How were my blood sugars? Well, this was the first race of any size I had run with Control IQ. What’s that? I have a Tandem Diabetes TSlim insulin pump. i had this same pump last year for the Chicago Marathon. The system was then Basal IQ – meaning the pump would read my blood sugar levels in conjunction with my continuous glucose monitor – Dexcom G6 – and would turn my insulin delivery off if I started to trend too low. So, for Chicago, I set a lower temporary basal rate for the duration of the race, but would adjust it on the fly as dictated by my blood sugar readings – kind of a pain in the butt when trying to run a marathon. Tandem had a software upgrade this past January to Control IQ, which is essentially their closed loop system. So, now the pump will give me increased basals if my blood sugar is trending too high and will even give a correction bolus once an hour. It will still turn off insulin delivery for too low numbers, but now it will lower basal rates as well. There is a Sleep Mode for overnight which has safety features to not give correction boluses – that has been great for me. Exercise Mode has been the absolute best thing – for me at least. I turn this on about an hour before running. It means the pump will be less aggressive mainly with correction basals since it knows you are exercising, which can lower blood sugar to begin with. I thought it worked phenomenally well for this race and let me enjoy not having to fiddle with my pump settings while running. I still had my usual pre-race adrenaline spike, but it calmed down and I was trending steady for the majority of the race. I was initially higher than I would like, but that’s trial and error. I continue to love Exercise Mode and CIQ!

I loved the race and I am glad I ran it. I completed the Conqur LA Challenge when I finished this race, which means I ran the Santa Monica Classic 5K (virtually) in September 2019, the Pasadena Half Marathon at the Rosebowl in January 2020 and the LA Marathon on March 8, 2020, which garnered me an additional medal. I said I was a one and done for LA, but you never know . . .

What does the future hold for me and running? Well, I’m currently signed up to run the Chicago Marathon again in October 2020. As of this writing, it is still scheduled to happen, but every day, at least one more race is cancelled, so I won’t be surprised if Chicago is postponed until 2021. And that’s okay. I know how important it is to open the country back up smartly and safely. I will continue to train for it though and I plan on running 26.2 miles on October 11th one way or another – either in Chicago on the course with all the other entrants or doing loops around my neighborhood on my own.

Running keeps me sane in this bizarre time. If I didn’t have the outlet of running, my mental health state would be horrible and it’s a juggling act as it is. I’m scared just like everyone else. I’m exhausted. I’m worried. I miss my old life. Just like everyone else. But, running gives me a lot. It gives me exercise, a way to keep my body healthy, a way to calm my mind, and a way to literally run away from everything even for a brief time. It’s given me like-minded people to interact with on social media. So does T1D. In fact, I get to talk to people who have T1D and run marathons too – just like me. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is sometimes a welcome escape. Running is my meditation and I can’t thank it enough for always being there for me.

Stacey Rose

Stacey Rose is a type 1 diabetic mom of 3 (one of whom also has type 1). She is writer, runner, and music lover. She lives in Massachusetts and travels to LA frequently.