• Guest, the forum is undergoing some upgrades and so the usual themes will be unavailable for a few days. In the meantime, you can use the forum like normal. We'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Just signed up for a half marathon!

Brownie1993

Brownie1993

Well-Known Member
Hey!

I've just signed up for the Coventry half marathon in February! I've ran a half marathon before (1hr 49) back in 2012, but that was before I had type 1.

I'm quite fit as it is - I play football three times a week (1hr on Wednesdays and Thursday's), and then 1 hr and a half on match days on Saturdays.

Occasionally run 5k as well.. But obviously a half marathon is different. I'm wondering if anyone can advise me on how best to go about this? 5k is different cos I run that in 20 mins or so, so I don't need to carry my blood glucose testing kit on me.

Should I seek expert help? Any advise appreciated!
 
Just smash it. Make sure you eat often (and decrease insulin) and test initially like every 20/30 mins, work it out then you'll be fine! I'm running 26.2 miles on Sunday (took up running in August). Longest is currently 20 miles in 2:55 and I just smashed a redbull halfway round. Was excellent.
 
I signed up a few weeks back for one in March!
I'm not too sure how to play it atm as my sugars have started to go 10+ after 45mins or so
 
alexhill05 said:
Just smash it. Make sure you eat often (and decrease insulin) and test initially like every 20/30 mins, work it out then you'll be fine! I'm running 26.2 miles on Sunday (took up running in August). Longest is currently 20 miles in 2:55 and I just smashed a redbull halfway round. Was excellent.
Click to expand...
Haha I like that advise Alex 'just smash it'. Sounds good though, when I train I'm just going to start off with say 30 minutes running, see how it affects my BG level, then increase by say 10 mins and go from there! Can't let type 1 stop you from doing anything can ya eh!
 
I've run a few half marathons. Got another few coming up I've the next month. Do 10ks fairly frequently too.

I've got a bum bag that I keep my BG meter and a couple of packs of dextrose. Not the height of fashion, but it's critically important on long distance runs that you have your meter and some fast acting carbs on you. Please do not run without them!

Most half marathons start in the morning, so you want to make sure you don't have any fast acting insulin in you otherwise you'll end up hypoing, so either have breakfast and inject 5 hours before, or don't have breakfast and munch through some dextrose tablets on your way round.

I also test fairly frequently throughout my run and top up with dextrose as required. You'll find that for the first 7/8 miles you won't need glucose. After that, you're glycogen stores will run out and you'll need to have some fast acting carbs for the rest of your run.
 
Personally what I would do is grab some of those hypo gels. Very easy to take when exercising (I use em for running and cycling). I find dextrose tablets to dry and make me choke. I tend to eat something every 30 mins when cycling and around every 45 mins when running. For me, a few jelly babies work or as I said, a nice slurp of hypo gel.

I always carry a cereal bar of some sort or a flapjack.

Make sure you take fast acting insulin a few hours beforehand. Personally I dont test blood when out on bike or running because I have a very good judgement on when im going to have a hypo. Its different for each individual.

Most of all, enjoy and smash its head in :D
 
Are you on the Sporty Diabetic T1s FB group? Or familiar with the nice people at Team BG? Lots and lots of experience and helpful advice over there...
 
Back
Top