Sitting here watching the Hy-Vee ITU Elite Cup Triathlon that took place in Des Moines, Iowa, I'm awake now after having watched the men's first turn around the buoy -- brutal! I've been dozing a bit because my darn alarm went off once again at 3:00 a.m., this time to get me out the door to participate in the Firecracker Sprint triathlon. I wish I could say I had a successful event but realize in writing that, it really depends upon the definition of success. I finished and improved my time over my last sprint, but those ever present numbers just weren't where I expected or wanted them to be or where they have been in the past. More on that later.

This was a tough race because of the heat and humidity. Humidity was around 40 percent (Tucson usually is around 10 percent except during the monsoon season) and the temp somewhere in the low 90s by the time I was on the bike at 7:30 a.m. Full sun, no shade.

The swim portion of this race was a serpentine swim, meaning swimmers were set off 15 seconds apart. Long course was used, each lane 50 meters in length. This was nice because it meant fewer flip turns. All swimmers had to circle swim up and back in the first lane, then go under the lane line to lane 2, do the same circle swim, and continue doing this in each lane until the last lane which was only one length, after which we got out of the pool.

Into T1 and I check BS before getting on the bike: 256. Not the number I expected. Previous to the swim and disconnecting the pump, BS was 186 and I had taken .6 units of insulin and a swig of Gatorade to cover earlier boluses. Let me back up a bit and go over previous numbers--wake up BS was 151. After a bolus of 6.2 units to cover my breakfast and no reduction in basal, 2 1/2 hours later (6 a.m.) BS is still 207 and I'm an hour from being in the water. Bolus wizard suggests .5 units which I take, resulting in the earlier mentioned 186. Did I have any rebounds for lows, nope, not one, I'm wearing a sensor, which actually had me higher than I was, and the trend was up, not down. It could be that 1) I'm more resistant to insulin right now; 2) my site needs to be changed or 3) my insulin has degraded in the heat, or 4) adrenalin. Take your pick, my choice is number 1, but it really could be a combination of all four.

With the 256 before getting on the bike, another bolus of 1.7 units is given and I don't even think about drinking any more Gatorade, it will be as much water as I can stand. I'm a bit nauseated from the high and my pace, so I slow it down a bit, but push it as much as I can.

Off the bike into T2 and it's as though I have no insulin on board and have done no activity whatsoever. My bike pace seems to have dumped all my glycogen into my system. BS is now 262, great, (that's not really what I said) going up not down, another .8 bolus. Grab my previously frozen but now warm water bottle and I'm off to run. It's hot and it's difficult at this BS level. Turns into a walk/run with definitely more walking than running. Check BS one more time midway into the run and it's dropped about 60 points.

All the while this is happening I'm thinking somebody has to be last and I'm okay being that person because it is so miserably hot. The bell at the student union chimes and I look at the clock because I don't know if it's 8:30 or 9:00, and it's neither, it's 8:45. I think my time is going to be really bad and I must be going really slow on the run. Then realize I need to subtract an hour for my swim start. Maybe my time is not so bad after all. Refuse to look at my watch because I really don't want to know. Concentrate on placing one foot in front of the other and running as much as possible.