Recounting Race Day-Motherhood makes you tougher, I swear!

Alone in my hotel room after the race-time for a selfie! :)

Morning blood sugar: 6.6 (up again, not bad though. What the heck? Yesterday was 4.9-nothing different in my routine)
Episodes of low blood sugar today: None- I think. Suddenly got very grouchy and impatient while running errands with C. A Starbucks' cappuccino did the trick. If in doubt, get Starbucks. I am not talkin' a Frappuccino though (might as well be called Junkoccino)-I'm talkin' a Tall non-fat variety.
'C's' mood today: Good. Much better than previous in the week I have to say. We have been under some stress in the Taylor household this week, one of the stressors being our son. C has moved at daycare over to the big kids side (3-5 year olds). He is 2 1/2 but the caring workers at the facility felt C was ready to transition. I think with everything that has been going on lately-returning from a fab trip, moving further into the year of being a 2 year old, etc. he is struggling with this transition. Here is a visual: Jeff drops him off at daycare, C is already crying as they are driving to daycare and proceeds to scream when Jeff attempts to leave. Poor Jeff. All parents know that when your kid is suffering, you are suffering times a million. Having your heart ripped out and stomped on almost everyday for a week makes one want to drink quite heavily (don't worry, we haven't gone that route). It has been rough let's just say. Onward and upward, right?
Workout today: Sprints on the Treadmill this morning. Jeff was off to work early so it was me and C. Tried to have a quick, efficient workout. 10 minute warm up, 30 sec, 1min, 90 sec, 2 min sprints with 30 seconds slow pace in between and an 8 minute cool down. Sweaty fun (and hard work!). I think my 2 year old is on to me though-everytime I slowed down he would look over and smile and say "all done?" He was getting impatient apparently. Hoping our peaceful days of working out together are not quickly coming to an end.
Clean Eating Menu: It is my mom's birthday today (Happy Birthday Mom!) and my mom and dad had invited C and I out for lunch with them. As I know that eating out can sometimes lead to not eating the best, I made sure to have a light and healthy breakfast of a French Vanilla Isagenix 
shake.  For lunch I ordered a thin crust individual Tuscan pizza at Boston Pizza (chosen for a C friendly location) which I ate half of-portion control is so important when eating out, Diabetic or not!

So I wanted to make sure and recount my race day. One, because people have been asking about it, and two, I would like to write an entry about it before my 'mom brain' memory makes it fade into oblivion. Newborns permanently fry your brain. I'm serious. True even 2 1/2 years later. Sad but true.

Lookin' fresh at kilometer 6

The night before my race I was fortunate enough to stay at the Team Diabetes hotel. I actually had access to the hotel for 4 nights but only used it for one, as I wanted to be with my family the rest of the time, and not a roommate whom I barely new. Staying there the night before my race was a really good idea for a few reasons-it allowed me to meet other Team D members at the Carbo Load Dinner, it helped me focus on getting a good night sleep (and not worry about my 2 year old), and my stranger of a roommate was kind of a God send, who helped me relax and realize I should have fun and stop worrying.

Shelby, my roommate, was 18 years old, a student of Scandinavian history and was signed up to do the full marathon (!). I don't mean to get all hippy dippy on you but her aura was calm and gentle. She was perfect for my nervous, anxious, Type A self. A few gems from Shelby: "oh, are we suppose to be down in the lobby for a photo? I didn't know. Good thing you are paying attention." "I love Icelandic music. I've downloaded a bunch of songs onto my ipod for the run" (Icelandic music, what? Other than Bjork, I have to say I was out of the loop). And finally, "Oh, you run with a belt? I don't have one of those. When I was training I would just loop back to my house every time I needed water". After training with a bunch who would die without their "high performance gear" this last comment almost killed me, and also struck me as the cutest thing ever! Shelby, a God send.

Team Diabetes-together we raised over $ 420,000.00!

The morning of the race I woke up with this refreshing sense of calm. After days of being a nervous ball of stress, it was like a choppy ocean turning into a smooth piece of glass. I wasn't even worried about the weather-I couldn't control it, so I had to just go with it. This is Icelandic weather for you-before we left they were calling for 5km/h winds, part sun and 12 degree temperatures. When we arrived in Reykjavik 4 days before the race the owner of our rented apartment told us, "they changed the forecast, it is suppose to rain on Saturday", 2 days before the race it was raining with winds gusting up to 45 km/h (I was almost crying thinking about having to run 21.1kms in that). That is what the Gulf Stream does to Reykjavik-makes its' weather highly transient. Thankfully we woke up to cloudy skies, light rain, and light winds. I could live with that.

Another thing that was stressing me was the race start time. 8:30am. Most of you are likely thinking what's wrong with 8:30am? Well if you are a Diabetic and you usually get up at 6:30 am to run, it screws things up for sure. Too late not to eat, to early not to change your insulin delivery. Usually before a long run at home I just have a glass of chocolate milk, set a reduced rate on my pump and go. When you are Diabetic and need to eat something before you exercise you have to lower how much insulin you give yourself. If you test before you run, having not covered all the carbohydrate as usual, you typically end up with a high reading. Which is exactly what happened.  I decided I would have oatmeal, cover half with insulin, and test before we left the hotel room just to make sure everything was ok. 11.7 is what it read. Again, this sense of calm stepped in. 'Nothing you can do Amy, you are about to run over 20 km at a fast race pace, you feel fine. Don't worry about it'. So I left it and went down to meet up with my Teammates.

The hotel was only 2 blocks from the start line. We walked around the corner in misty rain to meet a sea of people standing in front of City Hall. If you have never been to the start line of a race you need to do so. The positive energy was flowing, and you could feel the excitement through the misty rain. Fabulous!

I don't speak Icelandic and this was kind of a blessing at the start line. I typically start to get a bit nervous when you are standing around listening to a race organizer blather on about course rules, and number of participants, and record times. At this race I could not understand a word that was being said! Sweet ignorance!  I stood there in my throw away warm up clothes (these are clothes you wear to stay warm at the start line, with every intention of taking them off and never seeing them again, as you leave them by the side of the road before the gun goes off) shaking my legs out, and simply getting into the zone. And then before I knew it, we had started!(don't worry I understood enough to take my warm up clothes off). :)

The first 6 kms were a blur of people cheering, banging pots and pans on the side of the road and me being herded along with some pretty fast runners. There were some slight downhills in there too, which made everyone go even a bit faster, with all that adrenaline pumping. My race pace was suppose to be 5:40/km- at one point I did a 4:54, oops! A little speedy. Slow down. Robert from Team D came to see me around 4 kms in-he is in phenomenal shape and completes Team D events by running up and down the course path to see how all of us participants are doing. I know! That man is in shape!  He came to see me at the right time, we discussed my time goal and he settled me down a bit.

Before I know it, after some beautiful waterfront running "by the sea" (as Icelanders like to say-they don't often say 'ocean') we are downtown running between some highrise buildings, and I am running over the 10km mat-I check my watch 54:56 (!) holy s#$t, that's the fastest 10 km I have ever run, Diabetic or not. I'm killing this! :) I spend the next 5 kms getting mentally ready for the hill that I know is coming at kilometer 16. I am counting my carbs, and making sure to eat as planned every 20 minutes. 2 Stinger gummies, every 20 minutes or 8 grams of Carbs (with a 50% reduced rate on my pump). By 15 kms my stomach is getting full and I don't want to eat, but know I have to. I've packed an Eshot by Isagenix for this exact moment, before that hill. An Eshot is all natural, has caffeine and some herbs in it with apple and other fruit juice (think 5 hour energy shot but better for you) and definitely gives you some pep when you need it and it packs 8 grams of carbs, just like my other snacks. I choke it down.

Here is the hill. I was worried about it but shouldn't have been as I am up and over it before I know. At the top a woman says something to me in Icelandic. Maybe that helped distract me. I must look Icelandic! She switches to english when I sheepishly tell her I don't understand-she wants to know how far we have gone. I tell her 16km. Now we are in the "second half" of the race. This is when I always start to fade. They say there are 2 parts to a full Marathon-the first 32km and the last 10km because at 32 km is when things start to get 'really hard' (let's face it 42km is a flippin' long way, the whole thing is hard!)-I get what they are saying though because for some reason at 16km things change. Your legs start to feel like concrete, your stomach a bit queasy, and let's face it, you're hurting! And that's when the wind kicks up. Of course, this is Reykjavik.

I turn back onto the road to head back to the finish line. 17km, 18km, now I really want to stop. And guess what, I've got to eat again (dammit stomach, just fit in a few more chews!). The rain is pelting me in the face, the wind is whipping a bit-it's only about 10km/h but it feels like 30km/h. I hate to write this but to eat my last 2 chews I walk for 30 seconds. It's either that or cramp up-so I do it, reluctantly. I tell myself "keep going! There is no tomorrow!" "Pick me up Dennis! I know you're here!" (Dennis is my mom's cousin-we lost him to Cancer a few years ago. He was the life of the party. A man who loved life, loved family, and L-O-V-E-D being an Icelander. Some of his ashes were spread by his brothers in Tjornin Pond in the center of Reykjavik-a pond I ran passed during the first km of the race- I knew part of him was there with me!). I start running-for Dennis, and for myself. 

I pass a water station, pick up a glass of water, drink two sips and splash the rest in my face. I'm wet already from the rain, but I need to wake up! It's time to tough this one out. Let's go. The road is straight and (thank goodness) flat. I start to hear a few cheers from up ahead. 19km. It's Jeff, I can hear my husband cheering! I can see them, Jeff crouched with C, pointing me out on the road. And there is my Mom in her red raincoat-all bundled up. Thank goodness they're here!!! I fight the tears welling up in my eyes. They yell, take pictures and I have never been so happy to see them. A smile creeps onto my face. C doesn't see me, he is still looking down the road. He is so cute! Look at that face! I yell with all I can muster"I love you C!"  He turns to see me, finally. He is so handsome. I keep running. For Jeff, for C, for my Mom and for me. 2 kms left-that's like 10 minutes, I can do 10 minutes.

I take my earbuds out as I turn the corner, the fences are set up along the street now, towards the finish line. There is a band playing on a stage set up on my right, and I actually listen to them for a few minutes as I run. I can see the clock-damn it has a 2 in front of it, I really wanted it to say 1. 1 hour and blah blah minutes......shoot. I'm just a little too late.  I sprint to the finish, see a photographer and give him the best 'I just ran the best race of my life smile'. In the race program it said "make sure to look up and smile for the photographer at the finish line", so I do just that. My mom later says to me "I can't believe you were smiling after all that". I told her "how could I not smile?! I just ran the best race I have ever run after 8 months of hard training and 13 months after being diagnosed with an incurable disease." That is a hell of a lot to smile about! Oh, and did I mention the $6, 530.00 raised for the Canadian Diabetes Association? Right, still smiling here.

Official time 2:02:07. Fastest pre-motherhood time- 2:07, first half as a Diabetic-2:15. Moms and Diabetics do it faster, apparently. Yep, still smiling!