Is anyone a diabetic and a runner?

[katinthehat]

My mom (heaven help us) is a type 2 diabetic and has signed up for a half marathon in June. She has asked me to help train her (heaven help me.)  She has 0% interest in running it, thank goodness, so I'm throwing some Galloway at her.  The course has a 7.5 hour time limit so I really, really, hope she can finish it.  Regardless of her pace, she's going to be out there for a while both on race day and in training workouts and I was wondering if anyone had any helpful tips or suggestions for fueling on long workouts?

And of course, she's doing all this under a doctor's supervision.

[Susie]

Yikes, with diabetes I would want a dietician's advice. Good for her for doing it, I just wouldn't want to give bad advice to someone who has a condition that makes them somewhat fragile from a sports nutrition perspective.

[nikolita]

One of my friends is Type I and a runner. She wants to do a half with me this spring. She's done numerous 5k's and one 15k that I know of. She always eats the same thing before a run. I want to say a waffle with pb, but I'm not sure. And keeps her glucose chews somewhere on her during the training and races. She is also a diabetes educator...

[gummybear]

MH is T1 and a runner (when not injured, LOL). He's run n10-milers, half marathons etc. Pretty much what nikolita said. Pre-race he'll usually eat something like a banana or a waffle with PB. He carries glucose pills and eats a couple every hour or so.

It's very individual how the body reacts to exercise/finding the right balance between fueling with sugars vs. the body lowering sugar. It took H a while to figure it out. He is very strict about what he eats beforehand, how long after a meal he works out etc., and what his bs should be prior to starting his workout. I def. recommend talking to her endo. and taking baby steps in seeing how her body reacts to exercise (test sugars often, don;t be random about training with different starting glucose levels etc.)