May 16, 2009

Daily Total: 49.23 Ride Hours: 01:47

Insulin Breakdown:
Meal: 15.35u
Corr: 6.95u
Basal: 26.93u

Daily Carb Intake Bolused For: 253g

Headed down to Charlotte, NC very early in the morning to help run a MTB clinic for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The clinic was organized by JDRF volunteer Cricket Butler and her Team Up For Type 1 Diabetes organization. The invite went out through the JDRF newsletter, and was targeted at people under the age of 15 who have diabetes.

The weather was questionable today, but luckily the rain held out until after the clinic was over.

We had a GREAT turn out of kids, parents, and siblings who are all affected in one way or another with diabetes. I spent about 5 minutes talking to the group about checking your blood glucose, letting friends know about diabetes, and how I don't like it either. :) Then it was on to riding!

Cricket and some of the volunteers setup cones, skinnies, logs, and ramps so we could practice some skills development before heading out for a 4 mile trail ride. The kids where amazing, and FEARLESS!!

I think they had a good time in the skills area, but they REALLY LOVED leaving their parents at the "pits" and riding in the woods. I laughed and smiled the whole time watching and listening to them. It was really cool to see this group testing themselves on new terrain, and experiencing the joy of trail riding. Sometimes that gets lost on us old folks. :) Everything was big: big jumps, big hills, big mud puddles, big roots. It was awesome and inspiring.

While on the trail I was able to individually ride with each of the kids with diabetes, and they where able to ask me questions in a more one on one setting. They all had great questions, and really understood a lot about the disease. They asked about finger pricking, blood glucose readings, what I eat, how much insulin do I use, stuff like that. Neat stuff.







There was a short video shot of some of us at the skills part of the event. Check it out on YouTube.

It feel great to connect and ride with these guys. I think one of the most telling highlights about the success of this program for me personally was 9 year old Jordan telling us after that trail ride that she "wants to do a triathlon". Priceless.

Tried to ride after the event was over, but only got a little time on before the big rain came in.