Name:ANDY MEAD RACED IN RAAM 2007 Location: PHILADELPHIA, PA Age: 28 Age diagnosed: 16 years

Most Vivid Memory of Diagnosis:I went to the doctor after a week of tryouts for my high school hockey team. I’d been losing weight for quite a while, all my equipment was loose on me and I felt awful. I guess my best memory of that time was just how great I felt after being on insulin for a few weeks. Three months later I had gained 30 pounds.


Family: Just me here in Philadelphia. Lots of folks in Michigan, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Maine. My brother Charlie is a good friend of mine. He’s 13 years old and was diagnosed with type 1 when he was 9. He’s doing a great job, and though I haven’t gotten him into cycling yet, he’s an avid skateboarder.

Current A1C: 6.6
Goal for next A1C: 6.5

Riding Experience: I rode BMX a bit as a kid and had a road bike in high school, but didn’t begin getting into riding seriously until about five years ago while at school in Santa Fe, NM. I fell in with a group of ex-pros, including Todd ‘go-go’ Gogulski who were kind enough to show me the ropes. The riding community, the landscape, and the freedom of being on a bike hooked me on the sport, but I was also amazed how much easier it was to control my blood sugar levels when riding regularly. I currently race with the University of Pennsylvania and locally in USCF.

Training Regime/Racing Regime: After another month of base, I begin putting the hurt on. I’ll be doing a lot of (cold, miserable) collegiate races in March before taking some time off in April to prepare for RAAM.

Job/Employer/School
Graduate student (biology)

School Attending/Attended: University of Pennsylvania; St. John’s College, Santa Fe NM

Fastest speed ever gone on a bicycle? 56mph …wouldn’t do it again without sunglasses.

Having diabetes has caused me to: It has forced me to consider my physical well being, to pay attention to what I eat a bit more. I think I’m probably healthier than I would have been otherwise.

Most memorable event per or post diagnosis, sporting or personal: One important moment for me that’s relevant here was discovering cycling. I was living in New Mexico at the time and hockey was hard to come by. I ‘borrowed’ my dad’s old road frame and built it up. In particular I think making it to the top of the climb out of Santa Fe to the ski basin for the first time was a turning point. Now it doesn’t seem like much, but at the time it felt like the hardest thing I’d ever done.

Words of wisdom, some personal advice… Working in a major biomedical research center allows me to see how donations to the JDRF and other organizations like it are put to use first hand. There are a lot of very smart and passionate folks here working on making life better for people with diabetes and they need all the help they can get.

Email: ANDY