Fair warning, this post may be a little bit gross and hopefully not TMI. So if you don’t want to read about gurgly guts, complaining intestines, or tummy woes while running then turn back now.
If you’re still reading this than please don’t judge! hehe. And I warned you anyways, so there. Ugh, after just finishing a hard workout I’m now stuck with some nasty stomach distress. I’m not sure if this happens to everyone, or I think it does to most runners but to different degrees. I’ve 
always been prone to having a sensitive stomach, I can’t handle too much food/liquids in there before a run, and then sometimes during runs BAM my guts start yelling at me.
Usually it’s during longer workouts or long runs, but even sometimes during an easy run I’ll feel it. It’s so annoying because my gut has a mind of its own and who knows what it’s gonna offer up any given day. Today was one of those days, after only about a mile into my tempo I feel a little gurgle. By the end of my cooldown I knew that for the rest of the day my stomach would feel jacked up.
I know this isn’t only me, and trust me I felt for Paula Radcliffe (or anyone else I happen to see this happen to) during that race where she started to…well, do some running but not with her feet. There were times where I’d have to take an Imodium before each and every workout/race in an effort to stave off just such a thing. And not gonna lie, there was one time in particular where I finished the last lap of my workout and ran straight for the bushes! hehe. (back to the warning of the TMI, you chose to keep on reading!)
At any rate, my mom’s even worse than me and it’s kind of a little joke between she and I. I made her a funny little book awhile back and that’s where these pix are from. Enough of this nasty talk…but for any other fellow runners, do you suffer from these gurgly guts too? What 
have you found that helps?
In other news, I’ve got to keep this short because I’m really excited to go pay a visit to my friend in town from Australia! I’ve always wanted to go there, hopefully one day. But she’s a kick butt runner and in town for the big Prefontaine meet here next weekend. So I’m off to jump in the shower and hopefully get my gurgly gut to shut up!
1) Have you suffered from what I’m talking about?
2) Do you just think I’m totally nasty and will never visit this blog ever again after reading this?
3) Have you been to Australia before?
I know exactly what you are referring to! I have just learned what I need to do before a run and what works for my body in particular. I wake up at least an hour before, eat plain oats with a bit of maple syrup and a tiny glass of water. Then I make sure I hit the bathroom before I head out. If I eat any more than that I get cramps and gurgly gut galore.
I will totally keep visiting your blog. I love TMI posts haha.
I have never been to Australia but I would LOVE to go. My boyfriend and I tried surfing in Hawaii last summer and would like to try it somewhere else as well. I think Australia is next on our list for surfing destinations!
So happy to hear that at least on person enjoys my TMI rants. 😉
If you guys do end up going you will HAVE to take tons of pix, so I can vicariously visit and pretend I've been. 😉 How was surfing, I've always wished I could pull off being a really cool surfer chick, but I'm pretty sure I'd only end up with a mouthful of salt water and a bathingsuit full of sand. 😛
I would LOVE to go to Aussie one day!!!
Oh. My. God. I had the worst gut rot after my half marathon two weeks ago. Normally I have it for the day of the race (before and after) but this lasted for literally 3 days after the race. I did have popcorn the night before the run which might not have been a good idea. Anything I ate went right through me!
I will actually read your blog (read: stalk) more often BECAUSE of this post. Amen, sistah.
thank you so much for your show of support. and please, feel free to stalk me all you want…i've been reciprocating. 😉
as happy as i am to find another person who could talk sh** and gut rot with me no holds bar, i'm sorry to hear that you're cursed with this thing. it is THE worst. i think the worst part is that sometimes you just never know it's coming. oh, the stories i could tell, i'll save you the gory details but some are quite funny. two weeks is a really long stretch…ugh. for me, i know mass consumption of ice cream will usually set me off, but sometimes i just cave and know i'll have to pay for that one on tomorrow's run!
I usually know how to clear things out before my runs (er, no pun intended), but I do get the occasional prairie dogging episode (that's from the movie "Rat Race" and definitely TMI). Luckily there are usually strategically placed porta-potties on my routes in town. I remember on an 8-miler the week before my marathon, I was in the middle of the run and suddenly had to go. I knew there was a porta-pottie at this park. I thought I could make it, but it was about half a mile away. It got so bad that I had to stop running because every step I took urged it along.. Thankfully there was a porta-pottie sooner than that one. I wouldn't have made it otherwise. I barely made it to that one.
haha…that porta-pottie story has happened to me many a times…not fun. The good old stop, squeeze, and shuffle! oh and as for prairie dogging it, this may be TMI, but i was doing 800's with a friend of mine. on the last one, with a lap to go she starts shouting to the coach that she had to go and he's all, "suck it up, you're finishing the workout, you're on track to one of your best workouts yet, finish the lap!" then she goes, "but i'm touching cloth!!" ever since that day we'd all say that line to her and crack up. 😛