When we first learned about the local JDRF walk being close enough to us to attend, we knew that we were going to do it. We told our daughter and she was so excited. It was almost like a holiday for her.
She got her calendar and marked it down and started to count down the days to it. Perfect math lesson at the same time!
My wife and I have done 10-15 JDRF, ADA, and DRI walks over the years, but this was the first one with two people with diabetes in the family.
JDRF One Walk Allentown PA
Our daughter is super proud to have diabetes. At least at this age, she wears it as a badge of honor and thinks it’s cool to have diabetes. So, when we get to do things that are diabetes focused, she is that much more excited about it because it’s a special club that you have to be a part of.
This walk was in Allentown, PA. It was outside at the PPL Center which is where the Lehigh Valley Phantoms play hockey (affiliate of Philadelphia Flyers). We have not spent much time in the downtown Allentown area, so I was not too familiar with the area and the parking was confusing, so I thought we were going to be late….luckily, we weren’t.
It was a pretty cold day too. I hate doing physical activities in the cold because you never know how to dress. You have to dress warm, but at the same time you are going to be sweating and it’s just a confusing situation for me!
We also had a 4 month old baby that was going to be in the stroller the whole time, so we had to make sure she was bundled up and going to stay warm as well.
More than One T1D in the Family
I have mentioned before in my posts that my niece also has type 1 diabetes. She was diagnosed several years ago, so when there are local diabetes related events, we tend to also meet up with my brother and his wife and kids. For this event, we did the same thing. We also met up with my parents to have a total of 10 (plus a 4 month old in a stroller).
We were rolling in #STOCKERSTRONG
Register for T-Shirts
The first part of any walk is to register. You have to make sure you get those free t-shirts at registration. They had some other pretty cool SWAG as well. They had face covers, which are coming in handy now (writing this during COVID19 pandemic).
Honestly, I have given so many diabetes related t-shirts to Goodwill that I didn’t want another shirt. My daughter was so excited to get a diabetes shirt and she wanted it on right away. This goes back to her wearing her diabetes like a badge of honor.
It makes me so proud to know that she embraces the disease and although I know she is still young and naive, it’s a good start.
She still wears that shirt as pajamas all the time. When she is in charge of grabbing her own pajamas, it is definitely one of her favorites. We typically end up reading either Coco, Rufus, Year One with Type One or Open Up Your Bag or another diabetes book.
This is a bit of a side story, but when my daughter asked what Find a Cure meant on the shirt and my wife explained it to her, she was confused as to why they wanted to find a cure.
Our, then 4 year old responded with “but if they cured diabetes, then I wouldn’t have it anymore and I love my diabetes.”
Our, then 4 year old responded with “but if they cured diabetes, then I wouldn’t have it anymore and I love my diabetes.” Click To TweetStock Up on Snacks
Now, my favorite part of these walks is the free food. I’m not afraid to admit it! Unfortunately, this walk did not have a lot of sponsors, which I don’t understand. There were no food sponsors. Just apples, granola bars, chips and drinks.
We stocked up on some of those supplies for the 5K we were about to walk. Everyone needs a little bit of a snack along the way, so it’s good to have these things at the beginning of the walk.
Some of the JDRF walks we have done in the past, specifically the ones in Boca Raton, FL are loaded with food. Pizza, hoagies, cookies, and other random samples of goodies were a staple and the best part of finishing the walk.
3 – 2 – 1 – Walk
It was finally time to walk. After a few speeches from local leaders and JDRF employees, the music started for us to walk.
I honestly thought the walk was only 1 mile down and 1 mile back, but I was wrong. It was actually 5k.
Our daughter was super excited when we started to walk. She was walking with her cousins and couldn’t be more proud to be walking in something that was all about her.
The walk was packed. It didn’t seem like it when we were at the starting line, but as we started walking, my nerves started going crazy, as they do in any large crowd. I am constantly concerned about knowing exactly where my kids are and being able to see them at all times. So, when my daughter was super excited to start walking, she didn’t really care about the rules of staying close to mommy or daddy.
It was all good though.
Snacking During the Walk
When we started to reach the halfway point of the walk…which we knew was the halfway point because we saw people turning around to start walking back…our daughter wanted a snack. Of course she chose the chips, but hey whatever, she’s exercising, it’s fine.
We checked her Dexcom and gave her a bolus for the snack because she was trending a little higher. We waited only about 5 minutes because we knew the activity of already walking a 2.5k that she was going to start trending down.
Walk Over, Trend Down
And that is exactly what happened. As we were approaching the end, she started to go straight down on her Dexcom, so we decided to give her a juice to correct that.
All the excitement that she was having was going to end up sending her low too. We also knew that we were planning on going to a pumpkin patch after the walk, so we wanted to make sure that she had enough glucose in her to prevent lows happening in the near future..
The walk was a lot of fun. Our daughter had fun and so did the rest of the family. I love being able to share these type of fun experiences with my daughter and family.