Monthly Archives: January 2015

Champion Athlete With Diabetes: Lucas, the Miami Racer.

January 9, 2015 – 9:37 am

All this week I’ve been profiling our newest Champion Athlete With Diabetes medal winners. If you haven’t already, please take a moment and read about the others. Go ahead… check them out! Don’t worry… this will still be here when you get back. In addition to those, there’s a medal winner I want to talk about today, and one more tomorrow.
 
 
Lucas is ten years old, and lives in Miami. He’s been living with Type 1 diabetes since he was 3 (sigh). In the past year, Lucas started running. And what a runner he is!

He joined a group down there called the Miami Milers, a kids running club. In addition to training with them, he’s participated in a series of 5K runs, including at least two in the past two months. He’s running them around 26:08. That’s faster than I ran my last 5K. It’s a little over eight minutes per mile, folks. For a ten year old. But that’s not all.

His Mom, Jessica Perez, has this to add:

”He also is an avid cyclist, every month we cycle for the City of Miami Beach, a 15 mile bike ride. Lucas is a perfect candidate to receive your medal. He will also be doing his first Duathlon in February of next year. He feels very driven and proud of himself to complete more than the average task for a boy his age living with Type 1 Diabetes.”

Well, he is certainly doing that, Jessica. You can just tell that Lucas doesn’t let diabetes, or anything else, slow him down. He’s the kind of athlete that we all cheer for: Driven, determined, great story, overcomes his most difficult challenges.

Lucas… Congratulations on your athletic achievements! You’re an inspiration to people living with diabetes everywhere. An inspiration. Here’s to many more miles on the road, either running or biking, throughout the year.
 
 
Five medal winners this week… one more tomorrow… twenty-five in all so far. Do you want to be next? If you, or the special person in your life has been reaching their athletic goals while living with diabetes too, you should click here to find out more, and send me an e-mail today.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Athletes With Diabetes | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Today’s Champion Athlete With Diabetes: Emily.

January 8, 2015 – 8:58 am

Teenager Emily from Saginaw, Michigan (it’s 13 degrees there right now—yikes!) has a unique distinction among our Champion Athletes With Diabetes.

She’s our first swimmer!

Emily just finished her second season swimming for her high school team, and if they swim around the same time of year that we did when I swam on my high school team in Ohio, her third season should be coming up soon.

According to her Mom Karyn:

”Not a day went by that she didn’t improve by dropping seconds of her best times. Never a day that she would hide her pod or let diabetes interfere. She is my hero.”

Is it just me, or are kids more loud and proud and accomplishing more than all of us adults living with diabetes? Let me tell you: Swimming is hard. To be consistently good, you have to consistently be in the pool, doing laps, day after day, month after month.

The payoff, of course, is great muscle tone and awesome, efficient use of insulin. But to get there, you can’t be half-hearted. You have to really commit to working hard on a regular basis. As a former competitive swimmer myself, I understand just how big Emily’s accomplishments really are.

Congratulations Emily! Your hard work, your fearlessness, and your dedication set an excellent example for others, and it makes you a most worthy Champion Athlete With Diabetes.
 
 
If you’re living with diabetes, and you’re active; or if someone close to you is living with D and is active, we’ve got an honest-to-goodness medal we’d like to award you.

There are only four simple things to do to get yours:

1. The athlete receiving the award must be living with diabetes.

2. The athletic event must have taken place in the last six months. For now, we’re going with a pretty loose interpretation of the word “event”. If you feel you’ve accomplished something important to you, that’s an event. ‘Nuf said.

3. Send me an e-mail at champswithdiabetes@gmail.com. Tell me your name, name of the athlete (it’s okay if it’s you), and your address (gotta know where to send the medal). Most important, tell me what athletic goal was accomplished, and when. Extra points if you tell me how you felt accomplishing the goal. Full disclosure: I reserve the right to use your testimonial here, on Twitter, and on Facebook. I will not use your name if you don’t want me to. As always, I will never share private information.

4. When you receive your medal, it would be great if you post a photo of it around the athlete’s neck. You can send a Tweet to @ChampsWithD (hashtag: #champdathletes) or post it on the Champion Athletes With Diabetes Facebook Page.

I think D-Athletes are amazing. If it’s a big deal to you, it’s a big deal to me too. I want to support you, or support the Athlete With Diabetes in your life.
Click here to find out more.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Athletes With Diabetes | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Adrian, with the heart of a Champion Athlete With Diabetes.

January 7, 2015 – 1:10 pm

I received an e-mail last month from Janette Fernandez in Miami. The subject of the e-mail was:

My Little Champion

How can you not love a headline like that? I just knew this was going to be a good story. And it is.
Champion-Athletes-With-Diabetes-Medal
Adrian was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was just two years old. That was ten years ago. He recently turned 12, and his dedication to working out, staying fit, and achieving his athletic goals is very Champion-like. He’s one of the toughest guys I’ve read about yet. In Janette’s words:

”He practiced TKD (Tae Kwon Do) for many years after his dx. Now that he is in middle school he found out that he loves running. He participated on the XC (Cross Country) team for his school. He is not the fastest kid for sure, but he works really hard to be better every day. He also does Crossfit, and he comes to work out every day with me at 6 am. He is committed to be strong and there is not one day where he ever put D as an excuse.”

Last November, Adrian completed his local Battlefrog Series event (look it up) at historic Virginia Key Beach Park, where he participated twice (twice!) in a race with 27 obstacles. Oh yeah, he’s a tough guy all right. Tae Kwon Do? Cross Country? Crossfit workouts at six in the morning? I’d settle for half of Adrian’s accomplishments to date.

Way to go, Adrian. You’ve got the body, heart, and soul of a Champion Athlete With Diabetes.
 
 
Okay, that’s three so far this week… and there are still three more to tell you about. Want to add your name to the list? If you’re achieving athletic goals while living with diabetes, or someone close to you fits that description, click here to find out how to get your medal minted today.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Athletes With Diabetes | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Champion Athlete With Diabetes: Zoe from New Zealand.

January 6, 2015 – 8:53 am

Working hard through adversity and achieving your athletic goals in addition to living with diabetes is a difficult and extraordinary thing. Today’s Champion Athlete With Diabetes is a prime example of that.
DSC01188
Our medal winner this time also gets the award (for now, anyway) of living the farthest away from me. Zoe Sole lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and her friend Carrie Hetherington sent me the nicest note:
 
 
Hi Stephen,

Despite having diabetes myself and working out, I would actually like to nominate one of my friends, Zoe Sole.

Zoe is 23 and has had type 1 diabetes for 14 years, and she is one of the most inspirational and motivated people I know. She had to face 12 months of physical rehab training and also diabetes complications out of her control over the period of this year, but in true form she has completely turned everything around and aced everything, building back her muscle capacity. She still does some rehab work and it will take a while to completely get back to normal, but she is back to doing her extreme Crossfit and extra training on top of that. She works out every single day and lifts colossal weights, does gymnastics, swimming, half marathons etc

This is all on top of studying towards her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery here in New Zealand.

Basically, her athleticism and sheer determination with a positive attitude are beyond belief, she also manages to fit time in for her friends and others with diabetes.

I don’t think anyone could ask for more in a Champion Athlete with Diabetes. I would love to see her rewarded for the hard 24/7 work she puts into her training, and the impeccable blood sugars she has (she aims for perfection and she absolutely gets it!).

Kind regards,

Carrie Hetherington
 
 
I don’t think I can elaborate on that any better. Living with diabetes is no fun. But working hard, persevering through the times when your body wants to quit, making your fitness the best it can be right now—that is special.

So I salute you Zoe! You are an inspirational example of what this effort is all about. And by the way, your friend Carrie is pretty nice to send in this request on your behalf.

Are you living with diabetes? Are you staying active? Would you like a medal?

I encourage you to click here, find out more, and send me an e-mail today.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Athletes With Diabetes | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Champion Athlete With Diabetes: Seth the Lifeguard.

January 5, 2015 – 9:41 am

I have no less than six Champion Athletes With Diabetes to talk about. So I thought, why not tell their stories over an entire week? Okay, I can’t promise that I’ll get all of these in during this week, but I will tell them one by one. Mostly by giving you what was written by friends and relatives.

First up: Seth the Lifeguard.

CAWDSeth
Seth lives just outside of Dallas, Texas. His Mom, Cassie, writes at the blog KDA not DKA. Seth was diagnosed with diabetes at age 16 two years ago. He’s been a lifeguard since before his diagnosis, and last year he participated in lifeguard competitiion, but his team didn’t place in the event.

But that was last year. This year, Seth’s team won their regional competition, and that meant a trip to the state championship! At state they placed 9th overall. Not bad for a team that had never competed at that level before. According to Cassie,

“During both competitions, blood sugar management was difficult but Seth handled it like a true champ. During the state competition, his blood sugar spiked pretty high for him, then crashed after it was over. Adrenaline was a huge factor, I’m sure. He is planning to return to the state competition next year and win!”

Cassie has a more detailed description of this exciting event on her blog.

Did I mention that Seth’s Dad is also living with diabetes? One of his team members also has a father with Type 1. So it’s a family victory, and well earned.

Seth is on the far left.

Seth’s team (Seth is on the far left)

Congratulations Seth! Thanks for never giving up, and for proving again how someone living with diabetes can really do anything.
 
 
So… I’m in the process of ordering more medals. That means I’ll be ready to send your medal when you write me. If you, or the special person in your life has been reaching their athletic goals while living with diabetes too, you should click here to find out more, and send me an e-mail today.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Athletes With Diabetes | Tagged , , | Comments (3)