Athletic and diabetic.

Even though I have type-1 diabetes, I've completed a couple centuries on my bike, so I know it can be done with enough planning and commitment. This article in the New York Times ("Diabetic and Determined") gives a good overview of the challenges that diabetic athletes face--while showing how the disease can be a powerful motivator at the same time.

An excerpt:

WHEN Missy Foy, a professional ultra-distance runner, was told she had Type 1 diabetes 10 years ago, she “totally freaked out,” she said. She knew the perils of diabetes: possible blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage. And she worried that the diagnosis signaled the end of her athletic career.

“I cried for days,” said Ms. Foy, a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Ms. Foy, 42, visited four endocrinologists before finding a doctor who helped her figure out how to balance her insulin levels while training. “Part of it was that they didn’t have any experience with it,” she said. “They thought it would be too difficult, too stressful, to balance insulin and the intensity of training.”

No more. Today athletes with Type 1 diabetes are blasting out of the starting gate in full force. Because of new technology, the emergence of companies that help them manage their illness, the rise of successful role models and sheer determination, they are running marathons, doing 100-mile bike rides, completing Ironmen — many with their doctor’s blessing.

Oh, and I just found out the identity of another athletic diabetic in this city: none other than 315-pound Kendall Simmons, starting right guard for the Steelers, who was diagnosed with type 1 in 2003. Here's his story.