When I was a kid going on a hike meant nothing more to me than taking a walk through the forest. It wasn’t necessarily hard, but it may have been a long walk, long back then being no more than 5 miles (which really, these days, that’s short) and the elevation gain was minuscule. Prior to recently, my last hike was this summer when I was up in Vallecito, CO camping and there was a forest nearby. The distance was short, the elevation ascent was barely mentionable, and there were (depending on the day) 3-6 kids in tow. That’s what a hike was to me…

And then there was this past Saturday, where hike was redefined…

The distance was way longer than I’m used to (for a hike), the ascent in elevation was impressive to me, we went through 4 different biomes, and 3 different weather patterns.

Where do I start…I guess I’ll start where we (Brian, Misty, and I) started.

At the Three Gun Spring Trail. The trail that my Outlaws support. We didn’t get far before (as typical) my blood sugar went low and I was hating being on that hike (realize, we were only maybe 2-3 miles into it). But it wasn’t something that some glucose tabs and chips ahoy cookies couldn’t fix, within minutes I was a happy camper moving along happily.

Down around where my blood sugar went low was the ugly New Mexico desert type area (with a little green). And it was also hard climbs too. Barely any flats and any down hill parts.

Then, we moved into a woodsy area which was awesome and beautiful and my most favorite part of the hike. And it was more of a rolling hill area which was blissful.

And then, things got cool, because as we started moving out of the woodsy area, (and onto another trail, or pass, I can’t remember if it was Oso Pass or Embudo trail) it was snowing, so it was pretty. (Snow makes everything pretty)

We took the trail that we were on all the way to the Crest Trail head marker before turning around because that’s as far as we had intended to go. (I have to admit, I was a little sad.)

And then we had lunch and went back down the mountain. Going back down the mountain was far harder than going up the mountain for some reason. Mostly it was ok except for when we got back to the ugly deserty part from the beginning, then it got miserable and my foot was hurting and I had to ask once “are we almost there yet”.

When it was all said and done, we had gone 10.8 miles, ascended 3,614 ft, gone through snow and rain and just general cloudiness.

It was a great hike and I’m looking forward to this Saturday when we go the same route but then go up the south peak trail.

I’ll be doing things that I love…cycling…running (well, I don’t love it but I don’t hate it either)…hiking…outdoorsy activities that I love (or don’t hate)…things that typically, I enjoy doing…and then, while I’m doing them, I’ll have a thought…an evil little thought….

“I hate this”

It’s a horrible little thought…

“I hate this”

It’s not that I hate what I’m doing either…it’s that my blood sugar is so low that I’ve lost any ability to think clearly and I have that thought…

“I hate this”

And it takes a damn long time to recover from that thought…

“I hate this”

I’ll have that thought, for several minutes, 30 minutes, an hour before it dawns on me that I should check my blood…the lower the blood sugar the longer it takes for me to come around and think that I should check my blood…because when I have that thought…

“I hate this”

My brain is already long past thinking logically. It’s crowded by the low blood sugar demons who aim to beat me down mentally and physically in any way possible. And so I trudge through what I’m doing, all along, thinking that thought…

“I hate this”

And one would think that for as often as this happens, because it happens almost every time that I’m enjoying physical activity that I’d automatically think…no…I don’t hate this…I just need to check my blood…but no, there’s that thought…

“I hate this”

And once I’ve finally come around to thinking, something’s wrong, I’d better check my blood, I get pissed off that I went so long with that thought in my head…

“I hate this”

Because once you’ve put food in me, I’m a happy camper, I’m moving better, I’m moving faster, I’m no longer slogging through whatever it was that I was doing, the conversation picks back up, and things are so much cheerier. There no longer is that thought…

I have diabetes. I support getting the word about diabetes out. But I have to take a moment to play devils advocate because there’s something that bothers me lately.

The Google logo and world diabetes day on Nov 14th. (I blogged about this last year, and yes it would be cool, and yes diabetes is important to me, and yes so is awareness.)

I did some research because almost every time there’s a new Google doodle there’s some hype surrounding it and how Google won’t hook up the diabetes peeps with our own doodle. Most notably recently I remember the barcode and now with sesame street. I do have to say that cookie monster is my favorite:

So, here’s what I’ve discovered: there’s not one disease that has ever had a Google doodle, if someone can prove me wrong, I’ll take that statement back.

There are a million diseases worthy of being noticed. To most of us they’re mostly a name, or maybe they hit us on some level of familiarity, like a family member with cancer. Then there’s the diseases that are personal to us, like me and diabetes.

Diabetes is huge, it affects me directly, it affects my uncle, my sister, my grandmother…it’s all over my family. It’s all over the world. It’s in the remote places where they can’t even get a hold of meds or have to walk a half marathon to get to a doctor. It’s huge.

But so are other things. Like the people that don’t have homes in third world countries, or access to clean water, or access to indoor plumbing, or children without parents because disease has taken them out of this world and the child doesn’t have a chance at living long because starvation will kill them before they even get a chance to catch a disease.

Google will lose what Google is about if they start putting up logos for diseases and everything else that is not pretty in this world. Google is fun. Diseases are not, we can’t create a logo for something so depressing and expect it to fit in with Google’s brand (I’ve been reading about branding, it takes a long time to build up a brand and not much to destroy it).

I understand that Google has an amazing reach since many of the people that use the internet use Google as a search engine, but really, what is a Google Doodle going to do for us, the diabetic population, it’s a blue circle, one that not every diabetic knows of unless they pay attention to all the blogs in the D-sphere and visit the D-communities (and yes, those people do exists). It would link to a search for diabetes which really, is a useless search for us, it brings up general information sites, but doesn’t really link to anything about efforts for finding a cure unless you dig into the sites that Google brings up. And is diabetes something people really want to read about if they’re not already associated with it in some shape and form (mostly, I’d say not…when’s the last time you read about something you’re not associated with, i dunno, let’s pick on prostate cancer. When’s the last time you googled for prostate cancer)?

I understand that the goal is awareness, I just think that we’re getting upset with the wrong people for not doing something that we think would be cool. And yes, I agree having a Google doodle would be cool, I just don’t think that Google is the proper platform for gaining awareness for our disease.

Halloween is typically rough for me. I want to binge on candy. When I was little I used to smuggle candy because back then it was a big “NO-NO” to eat it.

This year, I’m heading out to go “Be The Treat” with my church youth group so I’ll be dressing up and I’ll be collecting candy and we’ll be handing out candles to the houses that we visit.

I’ve got a plan for the candy, there’s only 5 halloween sized candies that I want: a reeses peanut butter cup, a snickers bar, a box of dots, a box of nerds and runts. The rest I’ll give to the other kids.

But the candy isn’t what I’m excited about this year. I’m excited about dressing up, I can’t remember the last time I dressed up. Mom worked hard this week to make my costume and I helped her a little (I made my hat and I’ll be making my candy bag). But I’m not telling you what I’m going to be, you’ll have to find out tomorrow night. I will tell you the thoughts that crossed my head though: princess, peter pan, and a penguin.

One of the things about costumes at halloween is trying to be something that no one else is going to be, you want to be original and cool, or if you’re going to dress up as something that a lot of people are going to dress up as, you want your costume to stand apart from theirs, to have your own little flare; something that says, yeah, I put thought into this and it’s mine.

Dave of RagingTech.com threw out an idea and I scoured the interwebs and I couldn’t find any instances of this being done:

What if… you were to dress up for Halloween as a blogger? What kinds of things would you wear? What accessories would you bring with you that would let people know: Hey, I’m blogging this. ?

It would definitely be original to go out there on halloween and be dressed up as a blogger. Who do you know that’s dressing up as a blogger for halloween? See, exactly, point proven…ORIGINAL! We all have our favorites, there’s lots of great bloggers out there; and chances are, you can be at any party, and there will be another blogger that might have an idea of who you are. If they asked “what are you” and you said something like “i’m Heather from dooce.com” anyone who blogs is going to have heard of Heather.

So, I responded to Dave’s question of who I’d dress up as for Halloween if I was going to be a blogger (no, this isn’t what I’m going to be tomorrow night). And I have to tell you, he’s a pretty awesome blogger. Watch the video and then I’ll tell you more about who I’d be.

I met Drew of Benspark.com two years ago at PostieCon in Vegas. I had been reading his blog prior to meeting him and another friend of mine read his blog and we liked him. We liked what he wrote about, how passionate he is about what he writes about, and how there’s always a picture. There’s a picture everyday. It’s what he does. He’s been posting photos everyday for almost 5 years now. (I can’t make it through a year, I admire him.) In 2008 we were in Orlando at the same time while I was there for a Tour de Cure and this is my first memory of Drew and the XSHOT. I love the XSHOT. I love Drew for being an XSHOT connoisseur. He introduced me to a great product that I love but that’s a story for another day I suppose. Drew is a blogger that makes an impression. His blog makes an impression and if you were to meet him in real life, he is in real life the way you imagine him being after reading his blog. I got to see him again earlier this month at IZEAfest and I got to meet his lovely wife Allison and beautiful daughter Eva. They’re all awesome and little #Evaboo is most cute. You can’t help but fall in love with his blog, him, and his family.

So yes, if I were going to dress up as a blogger for Halloween, Drew of Benspark.com is who I would be.

What about you? Who’s your favorite blogger? Who would you dress up like if you were going to be a blogger for halloween?

I wrote about how the best way to stay on the wagon is to strive not to fall off in the middle of the month. I blew October out of the water in terms of taking care of myself. And I’m struggling to get back on track. And it’s one of those things where you don’t want to tell your family and friends. And I don’t want my family and friends to hold me accountable because it’s the easiest way for me to hate someone, hold me accountable for diabetes. Because they don’t know how to do it in moderation, it’s full fledged or not at all. So I prefer not at all, and I work hard to make sure that people don’t talk to me about diabetes. I don’t want to talk about it with people because it pisses me off, the things they say, because they really have no idea what they’re talking about. And then, it’s my fault that they have no idea what they’re talking about because I don’t educate them. This vicious circle of diabetes sucks.

I’m not motivated. I’m back to struggling to find a reason to take good care of this damned disease. Heck to take any care at all these days is a struggle. I don’t even know how to ask for help because I don’t know what I need. I have a doctors appointment on December 1st. That is the beginning of my every 6 week appointments that I requested back in September during that doctors visit.

I really hope that seeing the doctor more often helps in some way or else I’m a very lost lamb in a very deep dark cave that is floundering in a very cold lake.

When I was at IZEAfest I was introduced to a “social business card”. It wasn’t paper, it’s electronic. Prior to IZEAfest I didn’t see a point in getting one because I’m a bit old fashion, business cards are the way to go. They’re in your hand, you can give them to the people you meet, they make a connection between your card and you. They can look at your card long after you’re gone and say “ah yes, I remember her/him”.

But then, when I came home and had lost one of the business cards that I wanted to follow up with, I was very sad that I didn’t have that electronic social business card, otherwise known as a Poken. I had missed the beginning of the Poken wave. I say beginning because not everyone had one yet. They’re fairly new on the market. But like twitter back in 2007, that micro blogging platform that no one saw the point of, I expect them to get big among the social media networkers.

With Poken’s you “high 4″, they have a 4 fingered hand, and there’s a transfer of data. A transfer of electronic business cards, an electronic trade. Those electronic business cards have up to 30 different networks that you can set up for other people to receive your information. And there’s a website that will show them what’s going on with you when they plug their Poken into the computer and likewise you’ll be able to see what’s going on with them when you plug your Poken into the computer.

We’ll just use me as an example here since I’m what I know best. My current business cards have my website, email address, and Twitter name on them. That’s a start for people to get in contact with me, but I’m on many other networks too: I’m on FaceBook and LinkedIn; and I use Flickr for my photos. Poken will connect to everything that I have and will show the people that I’ve Poken’d with what’s going on with me. They can go to one place and connect with me on so many levels and vice-versa.

When I was at IZEAFest, PokenGirl was there and she showed us how Poken’s worked. She even showed us the new Poken called Pulse, which, instead of a creature, is a 2 gig flash drive with the Poken hand on it. PokenGirl has given Dave over at RagingTech.com 2 Pokens for his contest so we all have an opportunity to win one. It’s one of those things that we can just stick on our key chains and we’ll have it handy when we’re in the presence of people that are heavily into social media networking.

I don’t know about you, but it for me, it’s time to get on the Poken wave. Going to IZEAfest and thinking about other conferences such as BlogHer and Affiliate Summit, this would be a great tool to accompany the “old fashion” business cards I insist on carrying around.

In 2007 when I started traveling to different states to ride in Tour de Cures people would ask where I was from and they’d then be told my story. Where I was from, why I was doing it, etc. I didn’t have cards that year so I could tell them about my blog but the chances of remember it were slim. In 2008, I had little moo cards that I would hand out when I’d talk to other riders at rest stops, it would help them remember me and give them a way to see how I was doing in my quest to ride in every Tour de Cure in the country. It also made it so that they could tell other people about my blog and what I was doing and I could be an inspiration to other diabetics. Here in 2009, I forgot my cards and so when I was telling people about myself I had nothing to give them. It was detrimental to the sharing of my story.

For IZEAfest, I had new cards made with my new logo on them and I was able to not only share my story but give people a way to come back to it.

Business cards give people a way to connect to our stories and share them if they want to.

When I’m out riding in a Tour de Cure, I meet many many people. Some of them are diabetic, many of them are not. The one’s that aren’t diabetic are often riding for a family member or friend that is. 99% of the riders I meet are from the state that I’ve come to ride in. When I share my story I often hear “I’m going to tell so-and-so about you.” or “you’re such an inspiration, I wish so-and-so could meet you.” In giving them my card, it gives them all the information they need to read what I’m doing and to share it with others.

At conferences, it serves the same purpose. Many of the bloggers that I met at IZEAfest said “let us know when you’re doing your next ride, we may not be able to give much, but we can most certainly blog about it and get the word out.” Business cards are an essential tool to spreading the word of your story and what you’ve got going on.

Business cards give potential sponsors a way to further look at us long after we’ve had conversations with them to see if we’ll be a good fit for their brand.

Business cards are essential to sharing what you’re doing. They let people know you’re serious, they provide people with all the information they’ll need if they want to contact you, and when someone asks about you, the people you’ve given your cards to can say “yes, i’ve met them and I have all their info, let me get it for you”.

With all that being said, I’m going to tell you how you can win some business cards so that you’ll have them when you need them.

UPrinting is one of the sponsors for a contest that Dave over at RagingTech.com is currently running. The winner of the contest will receive 500 high-quality business cards courtesy of UPrinting. UPrinting provides you with many options for your cards from the size of the cards, the paper they’re made on, one sided, double sided, colored, black/white, rounded corners, glossy finish, matte finish, no finish. There are many options, you can design the card, you can use templates they have available. It’s a great start to expanding your readership, your story, and your cause.

If you would like to enter this contest, go to to RagingTech.com to see what Dave has in store for you and how you can win.

At the beginning of October I went to Orlando, FL for IZEAfest; an interactive event designed to educate, inform and connect social media enthusiasts. I’ve not written much about my experience out there because I wasn’t sure that this blog was the place for it. After some deep thought, I’ve decided that it’s important to share what’s going on behind the scenes of RideToRemedy.com because there are many people out there with various diseases that are trying to build awareness around what they’re doing and they’re trying to raise money for their causes.

RideToRemedy has been around since 2007 and 2007 was a quiet year in terms of getting established and doing a couple Tour de Cures. 2008 was a bigger year in terms of the number of Tour de Cures I did; and the more I traveled and met people the more I was asked about how I raise money. I have always covered the costs of traveling myself and any money I raise has always gone to the ADA. In 2007 my ability to pay to travel to different states was funded by the blog posts I was writing for PayPerPost a subsidiary of IZEA. In 2008 I had stopped doing paid blogging and I had ramped up the number of Tour de Cures I was doing; I was paying out of my own pocket for everything with no supplemental income and it was rough. Here in 2009, I did a single Tour de Cure.

In 2008, there was a realization of something I knew that hit me hard. You can’t ask the same people for donations when you’re doing more than one event a year and that means you have to have other avenues for raising money for your cause as well as find another avenue of income for your traveling expenses. There are many outlets for creating supplemental income and social media marketing is one that I’m going to tap into. I avoided it for a long time because I didn’t want my blog marred; it was clean and pure and I wanted it to stay that way. But after some deep thought, I believe that I can tap into what social media marketing and affiliate marketing have to offer because there are products that I stand behind, love and use often.

With that said, there are going to be some posts that are out of the ordinary theme of this blog. In the past they have all been mostly diabetes, cycling, running, triathloning related and sometimes some general life posts. These new posts are going to be the building RideToRemedy posts because there’s more to this site than just diabetes and the various sports that I’m doing with this this disease

I was with my midschool youth girls on Saturday night, as I am most Saturday nights. We always have something to eat and so I always check my blood and take a shot in their presence. I don’t leave the room to go do my shot, but I don’t exactly hide it either. I will typically do everything below the lip of the table just because.

Many of the girls have asked if they could give me a shot and so I let them, I draw up the insulin give the the needle and bare my arm for them to poke. The other night, S asked J if she wanted to give me a shot. J was like “Nooooo” so I asked S if she wanted to give me a shot and she said yes.

J had wandered off to the kitchen to get more goodies and a drink, and S was getting ready to give me the shot when she told J to get back over to the table. The conversation that happened was funny:

S: J get in here I’m about to give Courtney her shot
J: just a minute I’m getting [some food item] and a drink
Me: this isn’t a movie, you don’t need snacks and a drink

[fade out]