London Marathon 2017

robinph

juke wrote: »

robinph wrote: »

Have just been catching up on the coverage on telly and have seen myself staggering along in the background of a few different shots now. One of them even has me walking on the kerb through the tunnel on the Embankment whilst attempting to drink Lucozade.

Genuinely curious - I get you said you have a very good handle on your medical condition, and you are a very experienced marathon runner, but having watched the footage back, in hindsight, do you think you should have dnf'd?

Which got you over the line: strength or pigheadedness (ie head or heart )?

Fantastic achievement given the circumstances. As a novice, I can't imagine I'd have enough of either when the going gets that tough.

Pigheadedness mostly, but a certain amount of strength and just knowing what I needed to do to get the quickest resolution.

But if I'd spotted a First Aider in that last mile I would have probably just aimed straight at them and collapsed instead of continuing for the line. Thing is that the first aiders on the side of the road wouldn't have had enough sugar on them to fix me, and subconsciously I knew that, so that is why I just kept on moving while I could knowing that my time of being able to remain upright was limited. I grabbed handfuls of jelly babies from a spectator, and could have done with more but not many spectators had them once into the final mile.

There was another diabetic that I'd said Hi to around 6 miles, I spotted him because he had the same blood glucose sensor on his arm as I do. Just after Big Ben he went back past me and encouraged me to run again. I did then get going again and tried to keep up with him, this was part of a desperate plan in my head that if I was to fall on the floor over the line he would at least be quickly able to tell the first aiders I was probably diabetic and they would more quickly know what to.

Despite my very limited mental capacity in these situations I do have a good survival mechanism that kicks in and have previously collapsed at the feet of a Garda who then went and stole a bottle of Lucozade from a shop for me before propping me against a wall and leaving me to it. I knew at that time where I needed to get to before collapsing and used every last ounce of energy to get to a relatively safe place. Same thing essentially happened on Sunday.

MrMacPhisto

robinph wrote: »

Pigheadedness mostly, but a certain amount of strength and just knowing what I needed to do to get the quickest resolution.

But if I'd spotted a First Aider in that last mile I would have probably just aimed straight at them and collapsed instead of continuing for the line. Thing is that the first aiders on the side of the road wouldn't have had enough sugar on them to fix me, and subconsciously I knew that, so that is why I just kept on moving while I could knowing that my time of being able to remain upright was limited. I grabbed handfuls of jelly babies from a spectator, and could have done with more but not many spectators had them once into the final mile.

There was another diabetic that I'd said Hi to around 6 miles, I spotted him because he had the same blood glucose sensor on his arm as I do. Just after Big Ben he went back past me and encouraged me to run again. I did then get going again and tried to keep up with him, this was part of a desperate plan in my head that if I was to fall on the floor over the line he would at least be quickly able to tell the first aiders I was probably diabetic and they would more quickly know what to.

Despite my very limited mental capacity in these situations I do have a good survival mechanism that kicks in and have previously collapsed at the feet of a Garda who then went and stole a bottle of Lucozade from a shop for me before propping me against a wall and leaving me to it. I knew at that time where I needed to get to before collapsing and used every last ounce of energy to get to a relatively safe place. Same thing essentially happened on Sunday.

Fellow type 1 diabetic here Robin. Do you test your blood glucose during the race? I personally don't. Does the magic patch thing make it more feasible?

Well done on the race. Glad the pigheadedness got you to the finish line and medical tent.

juke

robinph wrote: »

But if I'd spotted a First Aider in that last mile I would have probably just aimed straight at them and collapsed instead of continuing for the line. Thing is that the first aiders on the side of the road wouldn't have had enough sugar on them to fix me, and subconsciously I knew that, so that is why I just kept on moving while I could knowing that my time of being able to remain upright was limited. I grabbed handfuls of jelly babies from a spectator, and could have done with more but not many spectators had them once into the final mile.

Despite my very limited mental capacity in these situations I do have a good survival mechanism that kicks in...

That makes a lot of sense, thanks. The survival instinct is that kicks in is pretty amazing.

I just googled what the blood glucose sensor looks like so I could recognise one, if need be..I'm none the wiser. Any link?

MrMacPhisto

juke wrote: »

That makes a lot of sense, thanks. The survival instinct is that kicks in is pretty amazing.

I just googled what the blood glucose sensor looks like so I could recognise one, if need be..I'm none the wiser. Any link?

juke

MrMacPhisto wrote: »

Thanks, very discreet - i would have looked for a bracelet of something!

MrMacPhisto

juke wrote: »

Thanks, very discreet - i would have looked for a bracelet of something!

You probably won't see many of them in Ireland as the device is not available on the Long Term Illness scheme as of yet. I hope it will be soon as I think it will have huge benefits of treating the condition in general.

I wear a RoadID bracelet myself.

Anyway, back to London 2017

robinph

MrMacPhisto wrote: »

Fellow type 1 diabetic here Robin. Do you test your blood glucose during the race? I personally don't. Does the magic patch thing make it more feasible?

Well done on the race. Glad the pigheadedness got you to the finish line and medical tent.

For some reason I didn't test this time until it was too late to stop the hypo at the 23 mile point. With the magic patch (Libre) it is possible to test on the run using my mobile phone and still keep racing. Just wave the phone over my arm and have a result and trend arrow in a second. I've done it several times mid marathon and for distances of half upwards before, just not this time.

I guess because any testing I've done mid London previously didn't show me anything out of the ordinary I'd just got cocky and assumed that all was fine this time.

robinph

MrMacPhisto wrote: »

Anyway, back to London 2017

Well the manufacturer is the marathon majors sponsor so is kind of related.