Capital to Coast

 Let me tell you something, I have met some amazing people in my life.  I don't know how I have been such a fortunate person (besides the diabetes) to be around and know so many inspirational people and to have them include me in their events.  My friend Don came up with an idea somewhere around last November about wanted to get a gaggle of 12 diabetics to run a race called: Capital 2 Coast. 

 Now Capital 2 coast which is also known as c2c is a 223 mile relay of 12 people in two vans which starts in Austin Texas and goes to Corpus Cristi Texas.  The first hurdle for Don was to get 12 willing and able people much less diabetics that were willing to do this and have the ability to get to the race.  Then there were conference calls, logistics, training runs, gear, medical forms, and so much more.

When the event was finally upon us I was nervous, there were only like 69 teams registered and our time was pushing the cut off and we also had team members with all sorts of ailments from back problems to even me and heart surgery.  The thing is though, Don pushed through and got replacement after replacement along with drivers for each van and also navigators for each van.  He even harassed Medtronic enough to get them to buy us appetizers for our pre-race dinner. 

The event turned out absolutely epic and I had so much fun that I couldn't sleep when I got back Sunday night and finally almost passed out at work the following Monday.  There is something to doing events like this with people that have a common bond and ours was raising awareness about diabetes and what we can do.  We were all laughing and joking along the way and at the last team dinner Saturday night we told story after story of what each van did and everyone couldn't wait until next years event.

I don't know if my friend Don is aware of it or not but he has started something big with this event that is just going to grow the campaign to cure diabetes ignorance.  Don even went so far into harassing the Dallas Morning News to do an article on the team and he sold it to them so good that they did a follow up story on the team after the event.  This was one of those events that I just happen to be in the right place and the right time with a great person in Don to allow me to do 40 hours of juvenile diabetes comedy with a van of unwilling participants I am glad to call my friends afterwards and on a team that I would call a family.