Sunday, October 05, 2008

Twin Cities Marathon Weekend! Medtronic Global Heros....

What an amazing experience.....what more can I say.

I encourage anyone who thought they would never be able to run long distances, but can now, thanks to any Medtronic development......apply for the Global Heros program.

I can easily say, this weekend was one I will never forget, and I am extremely appreciative for this experience.

24 people from around the world came together this weekend in St. Paul, MN, to run the Twin Cities Marathon. I was one of these 24 people, hailing from Nova Scotia Canada. There were people from Denmark, the UK, Finland, and all over the United States. Each person brought a different story of how Medtronic allowed them to run distances, that they were not able to run prior in their life. Most of us were told we would never be able to run a marathon.....some of the people were wheelchair bound before their Medtronic intervention, some people were in cardiac arrest.....everyone has a unique story.

I was there with my Medtronic Insulin Pump, and my Continuous Glucose Sensing system. It was amazing to hear the stories from the other people....to hear what people had gone through to get to the point they are now. Inspiring...

We were treated with the utmost of respect by Medtronic. It was great to see the scientists behind the scenes in the research facility, the faces and friendly handshakes to go with the names we read about, see an overall picture of the many facets that make up Medtronic, and experience the high level of organization and perfectionism within this company.

Early next year, the applications will open for the 2009 Medtronic Global Heros. If you benefit from a Medtronic device, and you run....please do apply! I hope to have pictures to follow soon.....

....and to top it off, an amazing meeting with Scott! Thanks for meeting me for coffee, was great to meet you face to face! Cheers!

3 comments:

Scott K. Johnson said...

A very well deserved honor to get VIP treatment for the trip.

I too had a great time visiting with you. Can you believe we chatted for over THREE HOURS?!

Easy conversation, lots of laughs, enjoyable company. It was fun!

I even enjoyed a salted caramel somethingorother hot chocolate drink. My BG spiked up to 210 mg/dl then the bottom dropped out and I was down to 116 mg/dl in less than an hour. Had to eat some cereal :-) to head off that low.

I'll get a post up sometime soon on my blog too.

Minnesota Nice said...

Drea - I watched the marathon for about 40 minutes - I was about 4 miles from the start, by Lake of the Isles. Maybe I saw you!
I did post-race massage for the marathon for 5 years. I was a lot of fun.

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