Not Dead Yet: My Race Against Disease: From Diagnosis to Dominance

Phil Southerland, John Hanc

Macmillan, May 10, 2011 - Biography & Autobiography - 336 pages

Part memoir, part sports adventure, Not Dead Yet tells the inspirational story of Phil Southerland's battle with Type 1 diabetes and how from diagnosis to sheer determination, he beat all odds and turned his diagnosis and his passion for cycling into a platform.

From leading a Race Across America to managing a world-class cycling program, Southerland's journey on and off the bike has helped changed the way the world views diabetes.

When Phil Southerland was seven-months-old, he lost ten pounds in a week, his body was limp and his breathing slowed to what his mother called a "death rattle." Rushing him to the ER, she was informed that tiny Phil displayed the youngest case of diabetes on record in the world at that time.

Blindness, kidney failure and death were all predicted for him by age twenty-five. Decades later, not only is Phil alive and well but as the founder of Team Type 1, he and his team of championship cyclists — many of them diabetics—have become health and fitness role models for people the world over.

Together, they took on some of the most challenging endurance events in the world, including winning the Race Across America—a grueling 3,000-mile endurance competition—twice. Today, Phil continues to lead Team Type 1 as CEO.

Not Dead Yet is Phil's powerful story: his account of his relationship with his mother, and how she struggled to keep him alive; growing up quickly in the New-Old South of the 1990s, learning at the tender age of 6 years old how to check his glucose and give himself injections; of how he fulfilled his dream of becoming a professional athlete using his team and the bike as a platform, inspiring thousands of individuals and families around the world who are battling diabetes to not just chase, but catch, their dreams.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• A Man from the South: 21
• My Type of Childhood: 41
• Fifty Shots a Day: 56
• Revolutionary Spirits: 68
• On the Road: 101
• Snowman Lights a Fire: 125
• Junior the Punk: 146
• The Great Burrito Challenge: 174
• Thank You Daniel Hopkins Wherever You Are: 190
• The Race Across America: 207
• Are You a Bike Rider or a Bike Racer?: 236
• Hop on Kid: 261
• The Italian Job: 276
• Plan for Diabetics: 296
• Twentyeight Years Later: 307

About the author

PHIL SOUTHERLAND is the founder of Team Type 1, a team of championship bike racers. He and Team Type 1 have been profiled in numerous cycling and diabetes publications, the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He is the author of Not Dead Yet and lives with his family in Atlanta, where Team Type 1 is based.

JOHN HANC teaches writing and journalism at the New York Institute of Technology. He is a long time contributor to Newsday and a contributing editor to Runner's World magazine, as well as the author of The Coolest Race on Earth. He lives with his wife and son in Farmingdale, New York.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Not Dead Yet: My Race Against Disease: From Diagnosis to Dominance
• Authors: Phil Southerland, John Hanc
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2011
• ISBN: 1429923768, 9781429923767
• Length: 336 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Sports; Health & Fitness / Diseases & Conditions / Diabetes; Sports & Recreation / Cycling