ALEXANDRIA, VA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/21/08 -- How do you measure success? The December issue of Diabetes Forecast, the consumer magazine of the American Diabetes Association, features the personal triumphs of people with diabetes -- some of their stories may surprise you. Here are just a few:

With a glucose meter tucked in his pocket, Jerry Nairn, 49, of Chandler, Arizona, completed his first marathon in 1998. Since then he has run a total of 44 marathons and two ultra-marathons despite having type 1 diabetes. A runner since junior high school, Nairn's passion for long distances has grown so much so that he runs between 30 and 50 miles per week and travels across the country to participate in marathons. "I'm more or less always training for a race," he says. "I think in general it helps keep me healthy."

Morris Older, 60, of Orinda, California, noticed his legs were numb and tingly a few years before he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and neuropathy. He enrolled in a four-week diabetes education course and was amazed by the things he learned both about diabetes and himself. "We went over my diet and I was shocked," he tells Diabetes Forecast. "I was somebody who thought I was eating really well. I was into natural foods." In six months, with the help of a diabetes-focused meal plan, exercise, and oral medications, Older's A1C dropped from 12.4% to 4.8%. For him, being successful is being able to live a normal, physically active, life -- like going out for a 23-mile hike. "If I wasn't successful in managing my diabetes, I couldn't do that."

Naomi Kingery of Simi Valley, California, was diagnosed with diabetes just as she was entering her teenage years. Today, at 19 years old, she has written and published a book about growing up with diabetes and its emotional ups and downs. Her book was inspired by a hospital stay where she met another person with diabetes. "He was negative, and he hated his life," says Kingery. "I said, 'I'm not going to be like that. I need to stay positive.'" Her positive attitude toward coping with diabetes has become an inspiration to others -- the role diabetes has played in her life was her topic when speaking at her college. "You need to say, 'I love my body not despite diabetes, but with diabetes.'"

Also in the December 2008 issue:

Blindness, amputations, and heart attack.