Type One Run + Beyond Type 1
2018-01-22
Type One Run is a grassroots movement to connect and support the worldwide type 1 diabetes community through running. We are ordinary people who are passionate about using running to build support, camaraderie and awareness for those affected by type 1 diabetes. Everyone is encouraged to get involved, especially beginners, and we are welcoming and inclusive to all.
Type One Run provides a way for everyone affected by type 1 diabetes (T1D) to meet, share and learn from one another, both online and in real life. There are no fees, no pressures to fundraise and you can choose to engage in the community as much or as little as you would like. Find members near you or simply sport some Type One Run swag while running solo. The most important part is to have fun!Our motto says it all: “Leave No Ones Behind.”In 2017, James Mansfield and Craig Stubing took their Los Angeles running group and turned into a global nonprofit. Building on that success, in 2018 they are partnering with Beyond Type 1. It was a perfect match for both organizations’ missions: helping people bridge the gap between diagnosis and cure, which Beyond Type 1 does with its unmatched social media presence and Type One Run does with a global support network of local running groups and runners.James Mansfield, Co-Founder
“In 2015, having decided to run the LA Marathon, I was taking part in a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) research study at my endocrinologist’s office. The tall, affable, and always smiling clinical trial coordinator offered to introduce me to another study participant who was also training for the same race. And so I met Craig.
“Craig and I swapped e-mails back and forth sharing our respective diabetic running strategies: what supplies to bring, how to carry them, what to do about lows, how to handle insulin adjustments and so on. I’d been running, clumsily, for a while by then, but this was the first time I had a chance to meet another T1D runner. Suddenly I no longer had to keep the struggle to myself as I frantically choked down glucose tablets while keeping up with my non-diabetic training group, or explain why I was wearing an enormous CamelBak while jogging the streets (to carry all my diabetes stuff, of course!).“Naturally the first thing I exclaimed when I met Craig in person was, ‘We should start a T1D running group!’ ‘Oh, I already have’ came the reply.“And so I was introduced to Type One Run. Craig had made an awesome logo, soon to be followed by an equally awesome website, and of course running shirts. Our inaugural run was the 2016 LA Marathon, which all of us ran astonishingly slowly, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
“We kept our local running group going at a simmer, finally organizing another big event over a year later, when we brought together a team of 12 people with type 1 diabetes and family members from across the country to run the SoCal Ragnar, a two-day, 188 mile relay, which we wrote about here.“The energy of this event compelled us to turn Type One Run into something bigger, so that people with type 1 diabetes everywhere could experience the same camaraderie, community and empowerment that we felt running together in Southern California. We incorporated, filed as a nonprofit and set to work trying to build our group into a framework that anyone with type 1, anywhere, could use to find and build their own community.”
Craig Stubing, Co-Founder
“When James thought we should turn Type One Run into a nonprofit, I was skeptical that people would join a group a few guys in LA started, despite how cool our shirts looked. That all changed on May 21, 2017.
“A month before, I was at a T1D meet-up in Orange County hosted by Gretchen Otte, a Beyond Type 1 global ambassador. I spent the afternoon catching up with my friends and meeting new people, but as I was getting ready to leave I introduced myself to a girl who had been sitting at the other end of the table and I hadn’t had a chance to talk to yet. It turns that she had been diagnosed with T1D two months prior. I told her about this running group I had just helped start and welcomed her to join us for a run sometime. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through having only just been diagnosed, but wanted her to know that Type One Run was there for her if and when she ever needed it.“On May 21, I signed onto Instagram and saw a picture of that girl wearing a Type One Run shirt after finishing running her first 5K with T1D.“It was that moment—seeing someone going out and making Type One Run her own—that I knew we had started a movement.“Type One Run was no longer just a group of people running, but a way that people with T1D could advocate for themselves and each other with no barrier to entry. There were no rules on what races you could run, how elite you were, or how much money you had to raise to be on a “team.” All of a sudden we had people from all over the world buying shirts and sending us pictures. Chapters were popping up and people were running together for the first time.“A community was born.”
