Not Dead Yet

not-dead-yetDuring the 2013 Tour de Cure ride, my friend Marty was active on various social media sites … he frequently used the phrase “Not dead yet”.

As it happened, I recently finished a book that was recommended to me by a fellow type 2 diabetic.  It was “Not Dead Yet: My Race Against Disease: From Diagnosis to Dominance” by Phil Southerland.

When Phil was a child, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  His mother was told that he would either be dead or blind by the time he was 25. Despite this prediction, he went on to be a world class professional cycle racer and founded a professional cycle racing team: Team Type 1 (now Team Novo Nordisk).

I found the book to be very good and quite enlightening … on multiple levels.

First, and foremost, it gave me a peak into the life of someone with type 1 diabetes.

The struggles of managing blood glucose levels on a daily basis are daunting … even more so for a professional athlete.

Secondly, it gave me insight into the world of professional cycle racing.  Even though I’ve gotten more seriously into cycling … I never really paid attention to pro racing.  This book actually inspired me to record the Tour de France on the TiVo.

I would recommend this book for anyone who …

  • has diabetes (type 1 or type 2).
  • is interested in cycling.
  • would like to read a very inspirational story about overcoming adversary.

Or any combination of the above.

You an purchase the book at amazon.com here.

One thought on “Not Dead Yet

  1. Buck

    My reading list never gets smaller, no matter how much I try to keep up! I’ll try to add this book in after I finish ‘Islands and Insulin’. Which is still a few books down the stack…

    I can’t imagine trying to manage Type 1 as a hyper-athlete. One day your ratio is 1 unit for 20g of carbs and the next it’s 1 to 100g. How do you manage that transition? At least they have a CGM which will give them real time trends. It’s a shame their web site isn’t more informative. I’d love to see some numbers.

    Reply

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