Clark's Story

Type 1 diabetes changes you forever. My life changed 21 years ago when I was 11; it was the year after my mother died of cancer.  Over the years, the management has gotten easier thanks to experience, confidence, and knowledge but that doesn’t mean diabetes is ever easy. It also doesn’t mean that diabetes needs to serve as an anchor that brings you down.

As an elite cyclist, my daily diabetes hurdles are vast and yet my reward if I manage it properly is to simply “feel normal.” Every day, you can make the “correct” choices to pre-fuel, fuel while training/racing, and recovery and still you don’t see your desired outcome. Diabetes becomes a mental game when you do everything perfectly and have imperfect results.

Despite many ‘bad days’ and the challenges that could demotivate me, I keep racing to show others that you can be a type 1 diabetic and also an elite athlete. Overcoming these hurdles makes me feel alive and excited to ride and race.

While practice may make perfection, remember that perfection is rare. Hurdles are a means to success, and not all successes finish with a win on the results sheet. For me, the result isn’t necessarily about a win; it’s about having someone come up to me at a race and tell me an inspiring story about themselves, a child or family member with diabetes. We are all in this together, and together we are figuring out what may be possible with diabetes.

Clark Eckel