2023 Bondi to Manly Ultra, 80km
This year, I took video blogs of my 2023 race to capture whether I could beat my 2022 time of twelve and a half hours for the 80km run. I did, by around 45 minutes, and exceeded my expectations. But, my phone battery ran out of juice well before me, so my videos stopped while I carried on.
Bondi to Manly is a remarkable course and a challenging run… but I think I’ll come back for the tri-fecta next year and next time try and break 11hrs. After-all with type 1 diabetes anything is possible, just a little bit harder.
This is my insight to what running a very long way with type 1 diabetes is like and next week AMSL and Dexcom have invited me to share my story with hundreds of kids and adults with type 1 diabetes who know (or soon will) that with this condition you can be #Fitterforhavingit.
My start line goal - run 80km from Bondi to Manly in less than 12 hours
Acknowledging Country - and the spirits of generations that came before me
Why I run - reaching 30km and feeling #Fitterforhavingit
Half way - 40km down, 40 to go. I kept going but my phone battery and video didn’t :o)
My video blogs made it half way to Manly, but at the 50km point my phone battery died and I couldn’t bring you my next blog about my approach to nutrition while I ran. So here it is in words.
Essentially, taking on food and insulin is my biggest challenge. As I run my aerobic effort brings my blood glucose level down. And, because I have type 1 diabetes my pancreas doesn’t work. This means without eating, or taking on glucose through food or drink to get it back up, my blood glucose could drop to dangerous levels.
Now that I wear an insulin pump, which is a wearable medical device that delivers insulin to me through a cannula, I apply a two-phase strategy to balance my energy, insulin and nutrition. First , I reduce the amount of basal insulin my pump supplies. This means I’m only taking on around 20-30% of the insulin than my body would normally need to regulate my glucose level. This compensates for the sugar-sapping impact of aerobic exercise over an extended time. Secondly, I graze on carbohydrate throughout the race, and aim to take on about 50-70 grams per hour.
That’s quite a lot of carb when you are running and not good on the gut, so mostly I drink electrolyte energy powders which I dilute with water in my drink bottle. I like the Tailwind formula and typically take one sachet (50g) per hour. The natural or citrus flavours are my preferred, but even these get a bit sickly after 5 or 6 hours (yuk), so I also carry glucose in the form of jelly babies, or lolly snakes to top up.
I keep the lollies in a handy sandwich bag which is quickly accessible in the right pocket of my shorts. I tuck into these when I can feel my glucose is dropping or my pump and CGM (continuous glucose monitor) alert me to ‘lows’. In my left pocket I have a similar sandwich bag, but this one is full of home-made trail mix - which includes almonds, dried fruit like sultanas, cranberries and dates, plus sunflower seeds. I even mix in some crushed up salt and vinegar chips to stave off the cramps and loss of salts that every distance runner experiences. The trail mix is a slower release of carbs, albeit a bit heavier on the gut.
That nutritional mix seems to work for me, and during this race was very effective at keeping my blood glucose levels within a pretty steady and safe range of 4 - 10mmol/L. This can be quite challenging during a typical day in the office, so another reason for me to be quite chuffed.
Carrying food is a hassle, and despite all my years running with type 1, I still over cater in every race. So, when I reached the finish line at Manly I still had a stash of lolly bags, Tailwind sachets, a bag of trail mix and an apple as left over supplies in my back pack.
#Fitterforhavingit for sure, but also a little bit #Strongerforhavingit after lugging round those extra kgs of food and medical supplies for the full 80km.
A triumph and I wouldn’t have it any other way 💪🏼