White Bear Lake track star keeps running while keeping diabetes in check

WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. (FOX 9) - Some members of the White Bear Lake High School relay team are competing in the state track meet Friday at Hamline University. They’ve got a great team but one of the team's key runners has overcome some big medical challenges to get to where they’re going.

Adam Bear's life changed a few years back with a medical diagnosis but he said no excuses. Bear is runner with a will of steel and the feet of mercury and it’s why he anchors his four-by-four relay team at White Bear Lake High School.

“Once at sections, we finally clicked and a pretty fast time and qualified for state,” he explains.

But, as all runners battle the clock, Adam battles something else. He says, “I was diagnosed in December of fifth grade, so I think I was about 9 or so.”

The diagnosis was Type 1 diabetes. He wears a continuous glucose monitor on his abdomen that coordinates with an insulin pump to keep him alive. He admits, it’s a challenge.

“Not many people realize, not necessarily, what I’m going through every day, or on race days to make sure that I can perform at my best.”

None of that is lost on his coach.

“It’s the best part of my day to come over here and watch him lead other kids to greatness,” said David Percival, White Bear Lake track coach.

Especially knowing nothing holds him back... “It’s one of those things that if let it hold you back, it always will hold you back. But if you say it’s no big deal, you can overcome it like anything else.”

“And the cool part about it is, I think, even with what he’s wrestling with and monitoring day-in and day-out, he still finds a way to succeed and lead and it’s exciting,” the coach adds.

With it, a message for anyone battling type one diabetes: “Just go for it," says Adam. "You have nothing to lose and you can’t let it hold you back or you’re not going to every experience anything that you love to do.”

The White Bear Lake relay team competes Friday afternoon at the state meet. Adam says in order to win they need to run close to 3:21 or 3:22. He thinks they can be up there with the best of the teams.