#T1Determined Sponsorship and Branding Opportunities

When I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1972, I got a bottle of insulin and a bag of syringes. Everyone told me to avoid exercise, because it could cause dangerous low blood sugars.

Today, we know that for anyone who has this incurable autoimmune disease, staying physically active is the single best day-to-day strategy for normalizing blood sugars, which helps us stay healthier for longer as our bodies fight the effects of a constant, lifelong hyper-inflammatory response.

Yet fear of hypoglycemia -- low blood sugars -- keeps most of us on the couch. To be clear: It's a rational and justifiable fear. Every few days we in the diabetes community learn of yet another fellow Type 1 -- sometimes an adult, sometimes a child -- who has died from catastrophically low blood sugar.

Every time it happens, we all light a virtual blue candle on social media to remind us that our fight cannot end without a cure.

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

Until there's a cure, those of us with Type 1 diabetes who are active need to show our peers that we can still dream big, that we can still walk, run, ride, jump and play while safely managing the disease and our blood sugars.

I run to:

• Remind non-diabetics that this is an incurable autoimmune disease, not the result of lifestyle choices
• To show people with Type 1 that they can still dream big, whether that's tackling a 5K or climbing Mount Everest
• To help connect people with Type 1 who want to be active to the people and tools who can help them

Most importantly:  I run to close the "last mile" between what our doctors tell us to do and knowing how to do it.

Almost 20 years ago, I knew I needed to get active and lose weight. But I had to figure out how by myself. What finally got me unstuck was stumbling across other Type 1's who had experiences I did not.

This knowledge gap desperately needs to be filled.

After the run, my next epic project 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 stories and tips 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" again.

With a lot of hard work! Completing everything from double-century bike rallies to Ironman triathlons, quadruple marathons and multiple solo road races that cover hundreds of miles has given me up-close and personal experience with the physical, psychological and environmental challenges present in every extreme endurance event.

My biggest takeaway is that every run project takes a huge amount of detailed planning to answer 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 included 6000' elevation, but I live at 750 feet! So I 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. I was incredibly grateful for a hat with bug netting to deal with Iowa's record-breaking black fly infestation. For the US run, I'm adding desert gaiters to my gear because I'm worried about sand and dirt causing foot issues.
• What types of non-run gear will we need? We always pack our Windburner stove, 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. Part of the challenge is that I always, always have to have emergency carbs immediately available and I've learned the hard way I have to eat regularly, all day, every day, to avoid hard lows.

Then we develop contingency plans: how will we handle weather delays, washed-out roads, or road construction surprises, for example. I also research a detailed social, print and broadcast media and online and local community outreach plan because part of my goal is to reach as many folks as possible who need to hear and see my message.

Some donate cash, some donate gear, and some simply help promote the runs so I can reach as many people as possible.

Most also provide a logo for my crew van.

For my part, I get constant questions about the "hows" - what shoes do I wear, what do I eat, what do I drink, how do I carry everything, how do I handle rain/snow/sleet/humidity/heat, how do I handle various diabetic situations, and on and on. Since I actually use and love all of my sponsors, everyone who follows my runs sees and hears how they fit into my run.

On a human level, my sponsors help inform and empower millions of people in the chronic disease, invisible disease, autoimmune, and Type 1 diabetes community to make life-saving and life-preserving decisions for themselves. That's a pretty impressive achievement by itself.

From a business angle, supporting my runs helps sponsors:

• Attract attention for your brand with an ordinary-hero story about overcoming obstacles
• Activate potential customers by showing them that big dreams are still possible, even when you face very real challenges
• Demonstrate how their products and services are especially valuable to athletes like me -- and there are lots of us!