Race Report: Chicago AIDS 5K Run

You know how you are supposed to get a 'good' night's sleep the night before a race? Yeah, well that didn't happen this time. I joined a few friends to help set up a TV Video Studio at my son's middle school last night (awesome fun!) and did not get home until after midnight. I think I got to bed around 12:30am. So needless to say, when the alarm went off at 5AM, I was very grumpy. My own fault.

Luckily, I actually woke up and got myself out the door at 5:50am for the hour-long drive into the city. i ended up parking in the same lot that I used for last week's race. But the race venue was quite a walk from there -- at least 1/2 mile -- so that became my warm-up for the race. I felt pretty good given the lack of sleep so I figured I would be okay (but perhaps not quite 'Personal Record' ready).

The first thing I noticed was that it was really cold out there, because of the steady wind blowing off Lake Michigan. Thankfully, I was wearing my LifeTime Fitness Run Club long-sleeve shirt and running jacket, which along with my compression knicker and Injinji socks, kept me nice and warm. It was going to be interesting to see how the weather was going to affect my running. Oh, and did I mention that I have a cold!? Stuffy nose and running do not get along.

I hit the porta-potty, checked out the vendors (nothing interesting), and hung out listening to some pretty good performers while waiting for the show to get on the road. I got someone to take a photo of me (I remembered this time) sporting my cool LifeTime gear (represent!).

Finally, after a 10-minute delay, the race began (no national anthem... hmmmm). There were about 5000 runners and walkers in the race, with the runners all together at one Start and the walkers at a different Start location. The 5K and 10K runners shared the same course for the first mile and then we split. The course was very similar to parts of the 10K race last week so I felt pretty comfortable.

I started off at a 10:30 pace and kept that for the first 1.25 miles. Then I started increasing my pace as I passed Mile 2. In fact, Mile 2 made me mad because there was a water station and I went to get some. But they didn't have any cups ready. I had to STOP and WAIT for what seemed like forever until I could get a cup of water! What a time waster that was! And leave to me to decode that I didn't need to bring water with me for a 5K since they would have stations! Ugh!

So of course, after that debacle, I felt the need to make up for the lost time. So I kept gradually increasing my pace through Mile 3. By that time, I was running at a 9:30 pace I think. Then the last tenth of a mile, I threw in the afterburners (what little I have of them). I was holding a 7:50 pace through the finish line! Wow!

My time? I finished in 33:08 (10:40 pace). That's 42 seconds faster than my previous 5K race! WooHoo! I am very pleased with the run, especially given the lack of sleep and running with a cold.

After the race, I got some G2, a banana, and a croissant and just walked around for a bit. Then I went to the Finish to cheer on the rest of the runners/walkers. But by 10am, I needed to get going because I still had to weigh in today at Weight Watchers and they close at Noon. So I jogged the distance back to the parking garage (imagine that), and got back to my neck of the woods.

The Weight Watchers place is right across the street from my club. So I went there first, took a shower, changed clothes, and went to weigh in. Down another pound! Sweet! So basically, my day has been pretty awesome!

Hey Diabetes! I am kicking your butt!

I go see my doctor next weekend for my regular 3-month bloodwork and diabetes checkup. I have been maintaining a good eating regimen and checking my blood glucose levels pretty regularly since my last checkup in July. So I am pretty confident that I have been managing my blood sugars well. I am hopeful that my doctor will decide, based upon the bloodwork results we get, that I no longer need medication to manage my blood sugar levels. Right now, I am off of everything except a very low daily dose of Metformin (500mg). Going off all medications, and managing my blood sugar via diet and exercise alone, has been a primary goal of mine since I was first diagnosed back in April 2010. This might be it!

I am so excited about this possibility, that I couldn't wait until the appointment. So I went to the drugstore and purchased a Home Self-Test Kit to analyze my blood sugar levels over the last 90 days. This is called an HbA1c Test, which can assess your average blood sugar level over that period based upon your red blood cells (which have a 90-day lifespan). So I took the test this morning. It takes about 8 minutes to administer the test and receive the results.

A1cNow shows my awesome test results!Awesome news!! My A1c percentage was 5.5! Why is that good? Because the regular range for NON-diabetics is between 4-6%!! (For a diabetic, having an A1c around 6.5% is considered good.) To be at 5.5% is awesome! What is even better news is that I have scored below 6% on these tests since March. Because of this, the doctors have been cutting back on my medications a little bit at a time to see if my blood sugars remain stable/good. Well so far, that has been the case. So, there is a good chance the doctor will make the decision to stop the Metformin at my next checkup!

I cannot tell you how great this makes me feel right now. With the adoption of better eating habits, food choices, and portion control, and the significant increase in exercise into my daily routine, I have been very successful at lowering my blood sugar and losing weight. When I started this journey, my A1c percentage was 11.7 -- very high -- and I was 108 lbs heavier than I am today. Now, I am at 5.5% and wear a size XL shirt (instead of the 4XL I used to wear).

And the journey continues. I still have 52 more pounds to shed so I will stay the course. I am bound and determined to reach my goal. In fact, if all goes according to plan, I will be running in the Illinois Half Marathon just about the same date two years ago when I was first diagnosed. So finishing that race (actually, finishing both the 5K and the Half) will be a sort of culmination for me -- a milestone of achievement in both health and fitness. There might be tears that day, just sayin...

In other news

I ran 3.5 miles on Thursday to finish up my second maintenance run for this week. I was feeling pretty strong during the run which I took at a 11:15/mm pace. I took a different route, running over to Woodscreek Elementary, then down to Golf Course Road, to Miller Road, and then back to Glacier Ridge Elementary, and finally back to the house. It was kinda cool to run to the two elementary schools that my children have all attended.

Tomorrow, October 1st, I am running in the Chicago AIDS Foundation 5K Run in Grant Park in Chicago. It should be a fun race, and it supports another worth cause -- research towards the fight against HIV/AIDS. I am proud to be supporting this research and if anyone feels similarly called to help with this fight, you can lend your support at my pledge site. This will be my third race in as many weeks so I will have to admit that I will relish the next 15 days before my next race to rest and just do my training runs and strength training. Races can take a lot out of you, and I was definitely feeling a bit tired this week. But I am feeling ready for tomorrow!

This week LifeTime Fitness published my fitness journey article on their public 'weight loss' web site, along with a 'before and after' set of photos (which you can see on the About Me section of this blog site). They actually contacted me about a week ago and asked if they could republish this story because they felt it would be encouraging to others who are going through similar journeys of their own. If you want to read it, click here.

Polar USA, the makers of the RS300X sport watch that I use for training, also published an article about me on their web site. It is a little harder to find it since I cannot put a direct link to it. But if you go to their "Polar People" site, you just have to scroll down the photos on the left until you see mine and click on that. Then the article will appear on the right.