I’m married to a brilliant interactive designer, Kyle, who I fell in love with at the ripe old age of 17. We got engaged when I was 18, moved to Pittsburgh, and started our life together. We didn’t have much, but we were in love, and we thought it would get us through anything…thankfully, it has.

Kyle and I graduated from college and got married. He loved his work…I didn’t. I felt like there was something I was missing. We got a dog, our chihuahua, Lola…that wasn’t it. We got another dog, our chihuahua, Rocco…that wasn’t it either. I spent two years and a hell of a lot of blood, sweat, and tears completing a post baccalaureate pre-medical program that culminated in the dreaded MCAT…that definitely wasn’t it. It left me feeling even more empty because my path was now paved for me, and it’s really difficult to redirect concrete.

We got pregnant three months later, and the puzzle was solved. Everything about my expanding belly felt right. I walked away from the prospect of becoming a physician, with the trust that school will always be there for later. I am now a stay at home mama to my two children, Kade and Liv, and wonder every day what I will be when I grow up.

I started running over 7 years ago in order to lose weight for my wedding. I fell in love with it. When my mother-in-law was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in April 2006, it was the push I needed to train for a marathon. Liv was just shy of 3 months old when I started training. On an early morning run on March 14, 2007, I could barely walk…let alone run. I went to the doctor and was immediately hospitalized with the diagnosis of diabetes. I was an insulin-dependent, gestational diabetic during my pregnancy with Liv so they thought it was type 2 at first. One week later the antibodies showed that it was type 1 diabetes.

I missed nearly 3 weeks of training in an attempt to get my sugars under control (my blood glucose was over 600 at diagnosis). I wasn’t physically prepared for the May 20th marathon, so I ran the half. I had raised over $2,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, and had pledged to run the marathon…a half wasn’t good enough. I started pumping insulin and trained all summer for the Akron Marathon on September 29, 2007. I finished in 4:26:29. I am still training…trying to hit the 4 hour mark when I run the Chicago marathon on October 12, 2008.

So I guess in a nutshell, I’m a type-1 diabetic, marathon running, wife and mama who’s just trying to figure out how to balance her sugars while balancing her life…it’s not easy, but hopefully we can find our way…