Gurnee man's team of diabetic athletes wins cross-country bike race

Five days, nine hours and five minutes.

That's how long it took Bob Schrank and the seven other members of Team Type 1 to travel almost 3,000 miles on their bicycles in the 28th annual Race Across America. And it was fast enough to set a world record.

On the way to setting the record, Schrank's team dealt with a factor many would call a disadvantage: type 1 diabetes.

But Schrank, 40, of Gurnee, does not see the disease as much of a setback. He sees it as a condition that requires him to understand how his body works and adjust accordingly.

"Before, you would just go for a run or whatever and there wasn't really anything you thought about," Schrank said about being an athlete before his diagnosis at age 23. "With diabetes, obviously there's food and insulin and matching those two items definitely has an impact on what you can do."

Diabetic athletes often go through trial and error to keep their blood sugar levels from rising or dropping too much during and after exercise, said Marcia Draheim, president of the American Association of Diabetes Educators.

But as they raced from Saturday afternoon, June 20 to 2:30 a.m. Friday, June 26, the athletes of Team Type 1 benefited from the collective knowledge of eight riders with experience managing the disease.

"That's why you have teammates," Schrank said after his third consecutive year riding in the Race Across America. "You bounce ideas off of them."

For the first time, the team brought a doctor along with its support staff of 20 nutritionists, massage therapists, trainers and coaches. Dr. Bill Russell, director of pediatric endocrinology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said he came along as a way to thank Team Type 1 members for visiting diabetes patients at his clinic and inspiring them.

"They're all tremendously appealing young guys who get people to think about themselves differently and take better care of their diabetes," Russell said.

Russell said team members knew how to take care of themselves to avoid dangerously low blood sugar levels and unrelated illnesses. However, he was surprised to find each day of the race required different adjustments.

"The first days were different than subsequent days," Russell said. "But the riders had collective wisdom and they taught each other and me ... There were a lot of little problems, but no sugars were dangerously low."

Blood sugar levels can continue to drop for hours after diabetic athletes have stopped exercising, Draheim said. But this did not happen right away for Team Type 1 members.

Only after four days of racing did Schrank notice his blood sugar levels drop lower than usual. As the race went on, he said it was valuable to consult with Russell for a second opinion.

"As diabetic athletes, we wanted a doctor on board so they can start to understand what our needs are so a doctor doesn't prohibit a person with diabetes from excelling in a sport," Schrank said.

To excel at cycling, Schrank trains up to 30 hours a week on roads in northern Illinois and Wisconsin. Members of Team Type 1 - which he manages as his day job - are scattered across the U.S., so he usually trains alone.

"We don't play it safe and we don't want our doctors to play it safe, either," he said.

Instead, the riders challenged themselves to exceed their athletic limits, taking turns riding for intense 10-15 minute bursts. Schrank said racers used the time they were off the road to eat, shower and check their blood sugar - often up to 30 times a day.

They each wore an insulin delivery system called the Omnipod that allowed them to receive medication constantly without injections and make adjustments quickly.

"There's less parts, less pieces and less interruption in what they're trying to do, which is perform," said Rob Campbell, vice president of clinical services and research for Insulet Corp., which manufactures the Omnipod. "People with diabetes can live and perform and do anything that people without diabetes can do."

Although Schrank said team members were strongly focused on winning the race and setting the world record, Russell said they never stopped being positive role models for young diabetics. Even as they raced across the country, Team Type 1 members signed autographs and talked with fans who gathered at some of the 53 time stations along the route.

"If all they worried about was finishing first, which they did, they wouldn't have wasted time signing autographs and hanging out with kids," Russell said. "But they're really ambassadors."