June 21, 2010
We just finished a fantastic Camp WILD weekend, where instead of those traditional camp customs of swimming, volleyball, and making s’mores over a campfire, we engaged in swimming, biking, and running, with a lot of diabetes education and sports psychology thrown in. It was nice that Boulder was looking particularly lovely this weekend.
I loved seeing how I’ve improved in the last year. There are plenty of women on the team who can pick up a water bottle off the ground while they’re riding, and some can set it back down without it falling over. This time on the drill where you’re supposed to pick up a (very short!) traffic cone, at least I touched the cone and knocked it over – much better than last year. Those of us doing this for the second year were also more comfortable riding arm-in-arm, and taking our hands off the handlebars, than we were before.
One of the things that I enjoy about getting together with other diabetic athletes is witnessing the struggles we have in common. One of my teammates was lamenting a continuous glucose monitor that had died. Someone finished Sunday’s race with a 490 blood sugar (and it wasn’t me this time). Often some camper or another was quietly consuming quick carbohydrates to treat a low. I hate to say that it’s a case of misery loves company, because it would be less than honest of me to call this misery and I don’t wish these challenges on anyone; it’s just really nice to know I’m not alone.
Camp was exhausting. I’ve never _started_ a race as tired as I did at Sunday’s rehearsal Sprint that was the culmination of our time at camp. In those 4 days, though, we did a ton of laughing; there were also a few tears. There was a fair amount of exercise, and lots of learning. We all came away with new techniques to use in our sports and new information that should lead us to better blood sugars and performance in our events. Best of all, we shared with teammates and friends who are dealing with the same challenges we are.
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