Triabetes IronFAN...get your tshirts while they are hot!

Ironman is coming up quick and Madison is buzzing! Our fabulous graphic designer, Emily Dobson, put together the official IronFan shirt for the Triabetes project!

WANT ONE???!!!

We will be handing out tshirts the day before Ironman (more info to come) to anyone who is planning on cheering the crew on out on the course! We want to be able to see you. Shirts will go fast of course, so here's an opportunity to RESERVE QUANTITY AND SIZE TODAY!

If you are willing to pre-order, I will set aside your tshirts! No waiting! No hassle! And you are supporting a GREAT cause!

All it takes is a $10 donation (tax deductible) for each shirt. You can email me your request at curejesse@gmail.com OR click on the "FIRST GIVING" button on the left of this blog with your donation. It's that simple!

You've been with us this far.....now go the full 140.6 miles with us, baby. Get one, and pass on the information to anyone who might be out on the course on 9/7/08. Thanks for all your support - together, we educate the world that people with diabetes can do...ANYTHING.

This steezin' fool is on his way to New Zealand

I know this post isn't really about Triabetes. But, this post is about my very good friend, Sean Busby. Sean is a professional snowboarder diagnosed just a few years ago with type 1 diabetes. I interviewed Sean when he was first diagnosed. Between myself, Miles Gerson, and Sean, we created a snowboard camp in Wisconsin for kids with "d". We had so much fun doing it, Sean's been hard at work creating more camps around the country.

I just hung up the phone after Sean called me (we were discussing Facebook issues as usual LOL) to say he leaves in the morning to hang out with "d" kids over in New Zealand. Pretty cool! He'll be there awhile.... when he returns, he is joining an expedition to snowboard Antarctica. Yes, he is quite crazy. I posted about him today because I stumbled on this picture of Sean. He usually hides this part of himself because he doesn't want kids to see it. But it really struck me. I hope someday he can look at this tattoo and say, "remember when I had diabetes?"

Follow Sean's adventures: www.ridingoninsulin.com and www.seanbusby.com

An Honest Blog - should I still do IM?

Ok, usually I try to post something funny.... but I've had a few days of pondering. Maybe I can chalk it up to some scared "29 days to IM" thoughts, but maybe not. Here's the deal - listen and weigh in, will ya?

So here is the deal. I've worked what, 18 months on this? Well now it comes down to a lot of the local efforts. I've been busy trying to get host families lined up to house the 12 athletes and their families AND their friends....establishing a "Triabetes Headquarters" at the finish line (thank you SHARENDIPITY.COM you are rockstars!!!)....putting together a week long schedule, a welcome reception, dealing with NA Sports (who are FABULOUS) about logistics for safety issues on the course, trying to figure out where the best filming locations are...what is the story really going to be....who's going to market it....distribution...showing at local film festivals....

and on top of all that...I'm trying to train...and be a single mom to three great kids....and looking for a great new job (which I think I found...more to come on that).... I'm tired. And I think this: It is difficult to arrange the schedule and life of one ironman athlete during IM. How the HECK am I going to manage 13? I'm feeling overwhelmed.

I talked to Joe Brady today. Told him I was feeling a little like I should drop out of racing. I mean, someone has to make sure it runs smooth from a business standpoint. It should be me. It's my dream, my goal. Of course he answered that I just need to prioritize and basically told me to stop being a whiny baby (in his own way, but I know what he was thinking!).

Do I race? I biked 30 miles today, 22.5 HARD miles on Wednesday in the pouring rain on the hills of Mt. Vernon with an 20 mph pace...and I'm getting up super early to bike 60 miles tomorrow morning....

Should I do it? Am I being selfish? Ugh...... help?

Meet Triabetes Triathlete - Joe Brady

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFhEtDjLma0


Ok, this video rocks out. Today Nella put together a few clips to share with the world. I'm choosing this one first to share. Meet Joe Brady. Joe was my bike coach at JDRF for a couple of years. (Actually, in the photo to the right, we are at a checkpoint in Whitefish, MT. I had just climbed on board the Kansas City Smack Train and he was about to be the first finisher of the day for the JDRF century ride.) I convinced him to do the Triabetes project - now he tries to convince me to meet him to swim at 6:00 am - yuck! I spent the day over at Ray and Nella's (a.k.a Andiamo Productions). I meant to go over there just to get the video, but the kids hung out and they invited us for a delicious dinner. It was quite rewarding to watch the process of what they do to transfer the data, etc. Ray had just returned from San Francisco, filming Anne, John, Bill, et al as they swam in front of Alcatraz, ran the Golden Gate Bridge - SO jealous! I also think a very cute moment at their house was when my son, Jesse, picked up one of the Emmy Awards that sit above their tv like forgotten bowling trophies and said, "Um, is this REALLY what I think it is???" I said, "Yes. They have 13 of them." Pretty cool moment....





Ok, back to Joe. Take a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFhEtDjLma0


BE SURE TO WATCH IT IN 'HIGH QUALITY'. Click the button directly under the video!





Enjoy!

Meet my new training buddy!

Some people like to go running with their friends, some like to run alone. I tend to run alone more because I'm embarrassed about how slow I am, but the more I run, the more I appreciate just quietly getting into my own head.




I decided to run through the arboretum today which is a really nice 7 mile loop around Lake Wingra. It's just a bit of a tradition for many athletes to run the "arb". As I am stretching outside my car, parked close to the Nakoma Country Club, I realize the mosquitos are swarming. Ugh.

I start my run and feel pretty good. After about 3 miles, I walk so I can wipe sweat that is dripping in my eyes. Instantly, my buddies are back, biting me.

So instead of a rabbit, it appears that mosquitos become my new running buddies. Stop, and you are a goner. What was that crazy movie? Logan's Run or something?

Two loops of the arb today, 14 miles and man, am I crabby ... and goodnight!

Hey! How can I support Triabetes? Here's how!

So, if you want to have an interesting afternoon searching the web, I highly suggest googling things like "kids saying please" or "giving". I was looking for just the right image to put with my asking you, your friends and complete strangers for money. You know what came up when I searched for a cute little kid face saying please? I got this photo of kid flippin' the bird. Huh. My mom must have taught me wrong?

Anyhow. I've set up this really cool thing called "First Giving". Any money raised by clicking on the button to the left will go directly to funding the Triabetes project. I mean, look how COOL Dave Shack looks with these iron-fans last year during sign up!

But, Michelle, isn't the project already funded? Well, yes, thanks for asking. We have had HUGE support from sponsors who gave us huge amounts of money (ahem, Lifescan) and those who gave us really cool stuff like Specialized helmets, shoes, and optics, training from Diabetes Training Camp, spibelts, vitalyte, purefit bars, money to spend at the tri-sports store - just to name a few. But documentaries are expensive!

What we would like to do is make sure everyone who comes out on race day to support the team gets a free tshirt to wear - what's the point? A free tshirt? Well, no, actually. The point is, we want everyone out there racing to feel at home. We want them to feel the diabetic love. We want the film crew to be able to "spot" our fans for the documentary. We want our tshirts to show up all over the official Ironman video too of course!

Steve Ahn has been working with a supportive fan in the Boone, NC area who is trying to get us 500 tshirts! Imagine the course dotted with little Triabetes Iron-fans everywhere. Let's make it happen!

PS googling "giving" comes up with a lot of unsavory pictures of birthing....don't go there!

The Ultimate Compliment

What would be the ultimate compliment? Ponder while I tell you about my day.

Today was a beautiful (but hot) afternoon to go biking with the usual JDRF suspects - Dave Dahler, Steve & Amy Eager, Steve & Kitty Verkuilen, Joe Brady, Harvey Johnson (who has become a crazy rockstar on his bike), Patti Batt, Bob Gorsuch, newcomer Julie from Saris, Sheryl, Laura Bauer, etc. A great mix.

I was rushing around because a new neighbor decided to pop over to introduce herself and welcome me to the neighborhood - turns out we have known each other from a previous life, but I digress. The point of that story is that it made me late. So I rush into a convenience store to buy necessities - water, gatorade (I could NOT find my vitalyte and was seriously bummed), blueberry crumble coffee (yes, I am a coffee snob) and then I look...what on earth is actually edible? Hmmm... I pick up...these oatmeal cookie dealios. Um, bad idea.

So, I eat it as I'm driving and realize it has this taste...you know the one... "shelf-life" taste, like it could last through a nuclear holocaust? That's the one.

Patti and I are climbing a hill called "Old Mother" (which I might have added one more noun to that phrase) and the so-called cookie gets...well.... tossed.

Hm. Interestingly enough, I feel GREAT after that.

After finishing up a great ride with friends, I go home and spend some time chatting with Anne Findlay, one of the Triabetes superstar athletes. As we are chatting away, she makes a comment about Jesse doing the Ironkidz trip - a great excursion planned by the good folks at insulindependence that pairs up a type 1 child with one of the triabetes athletes. And she says, "you could be Jesse's Triabetes athlete."

You see, she then cracked up because she remembered - I do not have type 1 diabetes. Now, John Moore has said to me on many occasions that I should be flattered that he frequently forgets that I produce insulin. In our world, that is an extremely flattering compliment in some strange way. It just is. Now I got two of the athletes forgetting...who can I get to forget next?

PS The picture of the cookie is NOT a product endorsement NOR was it delicious NOR do they give us money for this project. Um, yucky.