As we prepare for the One Drop Caicos Adventure in June 2017, we are doing a ton of training. These training diaries are stories from the field and things I have learned from my time in training.
This past week, I finally got to meet Kati Long in person. Kati will be joining me this June on our One Drop Caicos Adventure. She had a few days off and thought a trip to San Diego might be the exact thing she needed after a month of non-stop work. We met up at the lagoon and went out for an afternoon paddle.
One of the strangest parts of doing these adventure year after year, is that I am essentially going on a week-long adventure with total strangers. When people apply each year they are completely unknown to me.
Sure, I interview them and ask tons of questions and we spend a good part of the year chatting over email and in our Facebook group, but, in all reality, they are an unproven commodity.
Traveling with people you know well can be hard if they are not a good fit. But traveling with strangers under a very stressful adventure is a total crapshoot.
But each time I do this it turns out fantastic. And I think one of the reasons is that a person crazy enough to take on 120 miles of paddling, swimming, hiking, and cycling is probably just the kind of person I want to hang out with.
Our paddle that afternoon went great. Kati was laid back and easy to talk with. We did a big lap around the lagoon talking of our training and about paddling form and, of course, about diabetes.
Sometimes I can have a hard time chatting with people I just met. I am so bad with small talk. But, just like so many of you have experienced when finally meeting a diabetes pal, the instant connection is there.
We have so much in common battling a common enemy. It is so great to chat with someone who gets it. And it is so interesting to me to find out the different ways in which we each battle our common foe.
From the pump, shots, or untethered regimen to how you deal with insurance to the side effects of insulin, there is always something to learn from every diabetes buddy I meet.
We grabbed dinner after our paddle, sitting in the late afternoon sun with a bowl of rice and beans and chatted about what it will be like in the islands (and how amazing a short paddle will bring down a day of blood sugars in the 200's).
Just talking about it with Kati made it so real and exciting. This trip went from some wild dream I had to a concrete plan. And in eight short weeks it will be a reality.
I can’t wait to spend those long, sunny, tiring days with Kati and Erika adventuring and boding over our diabetes and helping each other learn how to better take care of our diabetes under extreme conditions.