This past weekend (08.03.25), I ran the Funky Monkey Half Marathon in Seekonk, Massachusetts. Currently training for a larger event, I took this half as an opportunity to test new race day routines that I’ve discovered during my current running training as a Type-1 Diabetic.

I learned that the rest of life does not stop just because you have Type-1 Diabetes. T1D can be tough at times, and so can many other things. While taking care of my grandfather, I autonomically controlled my blood glucose. I can’t explain how this happened, but it did.

Five months later, when all of the bad still haunted me at night—I would wake up screaming from nightmares— I found myself at a crossroads in my life. My heart and my mind were broken. I felt as though I needed to do something great… just as I promised my grandfather I’d do.

In 2021, Don Muchow ran 2,845 miles across America as a T1D. He is the first person & T1D to run from Disneyland to Disney World. He writes how stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, which increases heart rate, respiration, and adrenaline, all of which ideally condition us to run!  If such a state is maintained for longer than necessary, it can lead to sympathetic overdrive, chronic stress, and Prolonged Duration Stress Disorder.

As a Type-1 Diabetic, I managed to safely climb one of the most notorious mountains for horrible weather in the heart of winter conditions. However, this was not my first attempt at summiting Mt. Washington alone in the winter. Below, I write about my failure a few weeks before this amazing accomplishment.

If you’d told me a few years ago I’d run that distance in one day, I would’ve laughed. Heck, even a marathon once felt like a stretch. But this past month, I completed my first 50-mile ultramarathon—and I did it with Type-1 Diabetes.

Managing my T1D… it’s become subconscious at this point when piecing it together with all of my other routines. T1D is no different than taking care of oneself. Why? Because I must in order to stay alive and to drive optimal performance.

Delaney Holtey, a student athlete on the University of Iowa women's soccer team. Delaney, a Type-1 Diabetic of 14 years, is deeply passionate about health and wellness. As she nears graduation and prepares for chiropractic school, her experiences highlight the power of work ethic, mindset, and leadership.

T1Determined is aimed to conceptualize, design and execute storytelling mediums of podcasts, blog posts, and documentary films that look into the sports physiology of Type-1 Diabetics. Over the past five years of being a T1D, I’ve seen many others accomplish wild and astonishing feats. I’ve seen other T1Ds simply compete at their desired level. Whether it was recreational or professional, there is a whole world out there of T1Ds embodying an active lifestyle.

Ice particles rained out of the clear skies directly into my mask. Head down, I dodged them like a ninja. The wind was so intense.