Erin Neville
April 25, 2010Hello! My name is Erin Neville and I am 34 years old and have had Type 1 diabetes for 32 years. I’ve been a pumper for almost 10 of those years and will NEVER go back to needles – I love my pump! Last summer I knew a few people that were training for a sprint triathlon and it peaked my interest. I knew nothing about the sport of triathlon but began investigating the different options of participation. I began getting more information and then decided it was something that really interested me and I made the plunge to commit to doing a sprint this summer.
When I first started doing some training in the winter, it was the training that scared me. Could I do the swim distance, the bike ride, and then run? After training for a couple of months, I began to feel more comfortable with the training. I had the thought that I could actually complete a sprint tri – it won’t be pretty but it’ll get done. But the diabetes management during the training and actual race day was and is still the hardest part. There are so many questions and I found it hard to find other Type 1’s who had done triathlons that I could ask questions to. Do I wear my pump? How do I avoid lows or even worse – how to avoid high sugars when you are trying to swim, bike and run? Running with a blood sugar high is like carrying a 250lb man on your back – not that I do it often but I’m guessing it’s exhausting. So I began searching for exercise and diabetes and I was ecstatic when I found Team WILD!!!
Thus my journey began into the training, carb counting (which previously had been rough estimating for me), healthy eating (which may have been more of a 80/20 split – healthy eating being the 20% - still working on this!) and overall general good knowledge that can help me complete my first sprint tri and more importantly help me manage my diabetes while completing my first tri.
I am so excited to be part of Team WILD and am looking forward to my first race!
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