#T1Determined Sponsorship and Branding Opportunities

Several reasons.

When I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1972, I got a bottle of insulin, a bag of syringes, and the advice to eat right and exercise.

I was also told by my school nurse and gym teacher to avoid exercise, because neither of them really knew how to deal with that.

Not surprising. In 1972, there was absolutely NO information available to advise people like me on how to live physically active, healthy lives without the risk of dying from a hypoglycemic episode. It's a very real fear. Every few days we in the diabetes community learn of a fellow type 1 -- often a child -- who perished from a very small overdose of this life-giving medicine. Sadly, a tradition has developed around this all-too-frequent tragedy: lighting a blue candle in remembrance of those lost to the disease.

That fear of becoming "just one more blue candle" traps millions of Type 1s in a cycle of inactivity that leads to long-term complications, difficulties in control, and skyrocketing medical costs.

Until there's a cure, SOMEBODY needs to finish the sentence "eat right and exercise" by helping explain--and show--how actual physically active Type 1s do it without killing themselves by accident.

Our runs have many goals:

• To educate the public about what the disease is really about -- that it's not a lifestyle choice (super-long-distance running is a lifestyle choice!)
• To empower people with Type 1 to reach out to knowledge and resources, including other Type 1s, who have figured it out on their own
• To equip policymakers with tools to make well-informed decisions about access to affordable care and non-discrimination in schools and workplaces.

But the most important goal is to "bridge the gap" between what our doctors tell us to do and how to do it.

I had to figure this out for myself. In raising the profile of active Type 1s in my epic runs, I hope to highlight that this knowledge gap desperately needs to be filled.

Our quest is to marshal the resources to distribute a free "Play Outside" guide to endocrinologists, family medical practices, and diabetes treatment and support centers that combines best-practice clinical advice from doctors, DNEs, and CDEs with articles from diabetic athletes of all stripes on how to safely incorporate physical activity into their day, so that no patient with diabetes will ever have to "figure it out for themselves."

Successfully completing everything from double-century bike rallies to Ironman triathlons, quadruple marathons and multiple solo road races that cover hundreds of miles has given us up-close and personal experience with the physical, psychological and environmental challenges present in every extreme endurance event -- experience that has reinforced the importance of detailed planning before each run.

As soon as each event finishes, we recap "lessons learned" -- what worked, what could be improved.

Then, we start working on the details of the next run. It's a long, methodical and detailed process that produces a routebook that answers questions like these:

• What's the safest and most direct route? For example, which route offers the best combination of paved roads, wide shoulders, and low traffic while still giving access to gas stations and resupply points? Where should the first day start? Where should the last day end? I combine online research, Google Maps, paper maps and road atlases, RideWithGPS and in-person scouting.
• What new training considerations apply? For example, the Texas run includes 6000' elevation, but I live at 750 feet! I also plan dry runs in advance of the event on parts of the course where I'm not as familiar with the terrain or conditions.
• What will the overall schedule and the daily schedule look like? What's the target pace and mileage each day, given route, elevation and weather? When and where will we take meal and rest breaks, where will we sleep, and for how long? We also consider local traffic patterns and build in wiggle room for contingencies.
• What run-specific gear will be needed? I love my anti-blister socks, and I nearly always want gaiters to keep road crud out of my shoes. I was incredibly grateful for a hat with bug netting to deal with Iowa's record-breaking black fly infestation. Since temps in March at higher elevations can be pretty chilly, for Texas I'll definitely need colder-weather gear.
• What types of non-run gear will we need? We always pack cooking equipment and our Renetto shade chairs, for example.
• What consumables will be required? This includes calculating how many calories/day we need to pack, exactly which food supplies to bring, and how many gallons of water to carry.
• What health and safety gear will we need? In addition to my Type 1 diabetes supplies, I always wear an Inreach SE GPS locator beacon. We also bring a well-stocked medical kit plus safety signage for the crew van and an array of high-vis, reflective and high-lumen LED night-running gear.

Then we develop contingency plans: how will we handle weather delays, washed-out roads, or road construction surprises, for example.

We also research a detailed social, print and broadcast media and online and local community outreach plan that we start implementing long before the run starts to ensure as much visibility and participation as possible.

It's been said that knowledge is power.

In the case of Type 1 diabetes, knowledge is life.

By sponsoring our events, you'll be:

• Helping inform and empower millions of people in the chronic, auto-immune, and Type 1 diabetes community to make life-saving and life-preserving decisions for themselves
• Associating your brand with an ordinary-hero story about overcoming obstacles despite an "invisible" disability
• Helping tell the story that fulfilling dreams is possible for anyone, even when they've been told they can't -- or shouldn't -- fulfill them
• Raising awareness among people without Type 1 about just how much we still need a cure
• Supporting the diabetes community in a highly visible way
• Demonstrating that your products or services are the choice of serious, committed hardcore athletes

There are several ways you can help. If you can do ANY of these, we consider you a sponsor of our efforts.

Support our primary mission to empower people living with type 1 to feel safe an confident with physical activity.

Often, it's the fear of low blood sugars plus the lack of a tangible example of the success of others like them that prevents many type 1s from even starting.

You can help us to produce a patient's guide to active living with type 1 diabetes, to be distributed free to clinicians to help bridge the gap between general advice to eat right and exercise and the feet-on-the-street reality of what it's like to do that.

Our guide will feature the insight of type 1 diabetic athletes as well as input from physicians, RDs, DNEs, CDEs, and other folks who work directly with people like me.

Support our mission to spread the word to others living with type 1 that it's possible to live a physically active lifestyle without fear  -- it's just a little harder than it is for ordinary folks.

You can help by sharing the story of our runs and our mission through your website, social media, and your media contacts. We will reciprocate with crossposting and promoting that outreach to a large audience within the type 1 diabetes community, where your brand will get increased exposure while supporting a worthy cause.

You can also help educate and inform those NOT living with type 1 diabetes about this incurable autoimmune disease that is NOT caused by poor lifestyle choices -- by sharing the stories like ours and those of others who are physically active and living with type 1 diabetes.

You can help with gear and supplies.

We'll tell all our friends. And we have LOTs of friends -- thousands in the ultra running and type 1 diabetic athletes communities. Reach out to us at donsolo@t1determined.org.

You can support our runs financially.

Look for the direct contribution link on the Support Us page.

#T1Determined can provide your brand with a high-visibility opportunity to get behind a feelgood, fulfill-the-dream, "underdog overcomes" story that will produce positive brand associations and feelings of community, tribe, and brand loyalty.

In return, we can highlight how your brand not only supports an important mission in the Type 1 community, but is particularly well suited to epic exploits, outdoor use, varied weather and terrain, heat, cold, sun, rain, hills, humidity, hard use, and use by members of the diabetic community.

We're aware that the sanctity of your brand is important to you. We strive to provide an image that is positive, hopeful, empowering, and free of prejudice or meanness.

We believe the best way to represent our sponsors' brands is to demonstrate responsible, authentic use that demonstrates their wisdom in backing our epic events and underscores the unique appeal of their products and services to our audiences' needs.  That means real-life stories and images showing them in action, solving problems.

We work closely with our sponsors to determine product match to needs, provide feedback on field performance and suitability for purpose, resolve difficult or extreme use cases, and produce creative solutions in a live testbed that involves hundreds of miles and months of daily use. When we run into issues, we work directly with our sponsors to address them.

The result is often spontaneous, inspiring stories, photos, and video showing real live people doing epic things with our sponsors' help.

Yes, it'll be challenging. It'll also be fun for both of us. Together, we'll learn what we're capable of, and highlight a little bit of that indomitable human spirit.

So let's put on our thinking caps and go do the impossible.