Deb and Tami at the Kentucky Derby a few years back
(Look closely in the background and you may see a celebrity you recognize!)
“It’s Breeding
And it’s training
And it’s something unknown
That drives you and carries you home
And it’s run for the roses
As fast as you can
Your fate is delivered
Your moment’s at hand
It’s the chance of a lifetime
In a lifetime of chance
And it’s high time
You joined in the dance”
-Dan Folgelberg’s Run for the Roses
This Saturday May 4 is the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby! An event near and dear to Tami’s heart since she lives in Kentucky. If you are not familiar with the Kentucky Derby, it is a thoroughbred horse race held annually in Louisville, KY on the first Saturday in May. Three-year-old thoroughbred horses race for a distance of one and a quarter miles at Churchill Downs thoroughbred racetrack. The race has been run every single year since 1875. It is known in the United States as “The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports” (in reference to its approximate duration). And the race is often called “The Run for the Roses” because a blanket of roses is draped over the winner. It is the first leg of the American Triple Crown, followed by the Preakness Stakes and then the Belmont Stakes. A horse must win all three races to win the Triple Crown.
While, it is very difficult to get tickets to the Kentucky Derby, 2016 was our year! We thought you might enjoy this picture of us in our Derby hats alongside the red carpet. Look closely behind us and you may spot a celebrity. Attending the Derby definitely “sparked joy” for us!
Carrying through the theme of the Triple Crown, we want to share with you our solution-focused “Triple Crown” so to speak. (If you’ve been following our blog, you know that we embrace a solution-focused approach to living well with diabetes). We believe in focusing on solutions rather than analyzing the “problem”. When faced with a scenario that you’re trying to sort out, the three key questions to ask yourself (the three legs of the Triple Crown if you will) are:
- What’s going well?
- How did I accomplish that?
- How can I do more of that?
Let’s put that into practice with an example around eating breakfast:
- What’s going well? Maybe you’ve noticed that when you eat breakfast, your energy and concentration are better. You feel better. And maybe you’ve noticed that when you eat a breakfast that has more protein and less carbohydrate (such as a boiled egg and a slice of whole grain toast with almond butter, instead of cereal with milk), you feel even better.
- How did you accomplish that? Maybe it was that you did your grocery shopping before the busy work week started, getting foods in the house that fit your preferences and needs. And you boiled a few eggs to pop in the refrigerator to have on hand to grab in the morning. And you set the bread and almond butter by the toaster so it’s ready to toast in the morning while you’re brewing coffee.
- How can you do more of that? It sounds like it’s related to taking a few moments to plan ahead. For example, Deb buys pre-packaged, ready-to-eat hard boiled eggs at Costco so she can save time. In the end, these decisions help you achieve your goal to feel better and see blood glucose in range.
How can you put our solution focused “Triple Crown” into practice now?
When we hear the above lyrics from Dan Fogelberg’s Run for the Roses, we think of a solutions focused approach. In our interpretation, breeding is your “built- in resilience,” and training is needed to gain skills and foster strength, while something unknown is the solutions you can identify, with a little support, to carry you through life.
Run for the roses is living your best life. You have one life to live. We want it to be full of possibilities, opportunities and for you to live out YOUR vision of your best life, fitting diabetes in along the way.
In closing, we knew our “Run for the Roses” adventure was a once in a lifetime experience. But we enjoyed celebrating so much, that we put our solution focused approach into practice. How could we repeat the experience? In the end, it wasn’t going back to Churchill Downs, but it was joining the festivities and live simulcast from Keeneland racetrack in Lexington, KY the following year. Here we are with our husbands. Happy Derby Day!
Deb, Mark, Tami and Mike at Keeneland Racecourse, Lexington, KY
Celebrating the Derby via simulcast
Deb and Tami at Keeneland, Racecourse, Lexington, KY
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