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Ian Halliwell |
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Hi, I’m 53 years old, I’ve been a diabetic for almost 38 years, and I really enjoy lining up in the "geezer" category in the local bike races. I’m relatively new to cycling, having arrived at it via some 40 years of mainly long-distance running, interspersed with back-packing, rock-climbing, mountaineering, and cross-country skiing. It’s great to be setting PR’s again! I haven’t climbed in over 20 years, but about a year ago decided that "when I retire, there are a lot of mountains out there I want to climb". Then I thought, "Better not wait, you’ll need some time to build back up to it". So I bought a copy of Climbing magazine just to get in the mood, and there was a picture of Ernest Bladé along with a web site!
I was diagnosed as Type I in January 1963 when I was 15 years old. It was a real nuisance because I had started running as a twelve-year-old in Sunderland, my hometown in northeast England, and was fairly successful. I was also strongly committed to outdoor activities through the Scouts. One of the nurses in the hospital told me that table tennis might be more suitable for me now, so I was seriously concerned that I wouldn’t be able to run any more. But my doctor was more enlightened. Once I was on insulin, there was an immense rebound effect. That year I failed only narrowly to defend a cross-country title I had won the year before, won the district mile championship in my age group and won my first 50-mile running event, beating the second guy home by over 3 hours!
Life didn’t always go smoothly. My college years were the worst; missing shots, keeping the dreaded secret; not helped by #18 non-disposable needles and glass syringes, which were all that were available in those days. I got a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering, and an M.S. in Advanced Aerodynamics – I didn’t think I had much of a future healthwise, but I was hedging my bets. I suddenly found a reason to take better care of myself when I met Val on New Years Eve 1971, in a pub where the Sunderland Climbing Club used to meet. We married the following October and moved to Southampton, where I began a Ph.D. course in Experimental Gas Dynamics. Val suggested I start running again and I met a doctor who was also diabetic. He wouldn’t let me get away with anything and between them, they helped me get my life back on track. I’ve never looked back.
In the time since then I have been a founder member of 2 running clubs. The first was Rolls-Royce Harriers in the UK, where I ran a number of marathons as well as spent many happy hours during thousands of miles in training. In 1981, we moved to Canada, where I helped set up Georgetown Track Club just west of Toronto. While there my activities included the NYC marathon once and the Jasper-to-Banff Road Relay twice. I also got into citizen cross-country ski racing and was a Scout leader for a couple of years. A job offer from GE Aircraft Engines brought us to the US in 1985, and ultimately to the Cleveland area, where I am Principal Engineer in the Aerospace Propulsion Group of a local mid-size company. I do engineering research and development mainly for NASA and teach courses in jet engine design at the Glenn Research Center.
Currently, my primary sport is road cycling, supplemented by weight-training, but recent conversion to pump therapy has encouraged me to consider extending my horizons even further. I believe that involvement with IDEA2000 provides the opportunity to demonstrate convincingly that even the long-term prospects of insulin-dependent diabetics need not be limited.
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