Was That A False Alert?

I ran the LA Marathon on Sunday. My day started at 4:15 am with a cup of coffee, a banana and a Cliff bar. That is a pretty typical breakfast for me before a long run. Once we got to Dodger Stadium (the starting line) I had a second banana. Once the race starts, every 5 miles I consume a GU energy gel and drink some NUUN Hydration drink in an effort to maintain and consume about 40-60 carbs an hour.



I had a great marathon. I didn't hit my time goal, which was to finish under 4 hours, most likely due to being sick for the 2 weeks leading up to the marathon. But I finished in 4:14, the weather was great, the support was amazing, and the course was perfect and very challenging. I went with 2 of my training buddies, and we all finished, adding to the awesomeness of the day. And the medal was pretty epic too!

So there is the running part. Now what does this have to do with DAD's? Well, as soon as I walked in the door, the dogs went crazy. Major alerted to me, and Raven ran up to me, barked, backed up, bowed, and barked at me some more. I thought maybe my outfit confused her, but she sees me in my running gear and hat every day, and runs with me while I'm wearing the same stuff. She was really out of sorts, seemed confused, and a little scared. I knelt down, and she came over cautiously and let me pet her, and then seemed okay, but she immediately got a bringsel and alerted to my wife. So she checked Stella as both dogs alerted, but she was 140, a great number for us.

10 minutes later, I went into our bedroom to change, and Major started bowing multiple times, his alert for a low. Normally he does it once, but he did it several times. We thought maybe Stella was dropping, and we were getting a "pre-warning", so we checked Stella again. She was still in the 140's, holding steady.

During my run (26.2 miles) I burned off 4000 calories, and consumed about 1200. When I came home, I was pretty tired, and hungry. I made a cup of coffee, used 3 teaspoons of sugar (I needed a boost), took some ibuprofen (I was getting a headache from hunger), told the family I wanted to go grab a big burger, so get ready while I take a shower, and then finished getting ready. Major and Raven alerted again. I was getting pretty frustrated with all the false alerting, not really putting 2 and 2 together.

My wife finally said to me, "When was the last time you ate, could it be you?". At this point I'd been home an hour, the race had been over for 2 hours, and all I'd had was the cup of coffee. So, I did a blood sugar check. I was in the 80's. Keeping in mind I'd had 3 teaspoons of sugar with the coffee, about 15 grams of carbs, enough to raise my daughter's blood sugar 50-70 points. So I was potentially as low as the 30's when I first walked in the door.

We then gave the dogs a big low party. The look on Raven's face wasn't confusion. She was saying "Et tu, Brute?"

When we finally went out to eat, we left Raven at home, and took Major with us. I was handling him, but I had to give him to Laurie and sit away from them as Major wouldn't stop alerting on me.

Every now and again, if your normally accurate DAD is alerting, and the diabetic is in a "normal" range, it may be worth it to think about when the last time you ate, or how hard you exercised. You may need to check yourself. These dogs REALLY look out for their family. All of them... :-)

Team Blackdogsrule