Outdoor Running (the question of all questions)
 

So, at mile 9.77 (.23 miles from finishing my run this morning) I had to stop, do a quick stretch and get to a bathroom as soon as I could. Yes, the inevitable happened again. I had to go twosies.

As I sat there, I reflected on the many distance runners here and decided to ask the question.

I'm not a morning crapper. I try and eat something on my way to the gym to get my bowels awake but sometimes it doesn't work and I have to start working out because I only have so much time.

The one time I ran outside and did a 10 miler, I was 2 miles from my house when the urge hit me (it was 5:30 am and I wasn't close to a gas station).

How do you guys do it? Do you just have sphincter control from the Gods or is there another secret. Please give me guidance as I am 4 weeks away from the Salt Lake half.

A friend of mine told me that she was doing radio commentary on a local marathon. So she was sitting in the back of the truck watching the guys in the lead in the marathon. They were going through a residential neighborhood, and one of the lead guys suddenly veered into a house's front yard, pulled down his shorts, and did the twosies, and pulled his shorts back up and kept running. All in the matter of seconds. She was speechless.

It's time to decide if you are serious or not.

You need to regulate yourself by changing eating habits.

And it requires you to regulate so that you go about 4:00 am. Unfortunately, certain races require a break despite one's best planning. However, with eating you can regulate that.

part of your problem is running early in the morning. I don't do that so I wouldn't know about how to remedy that.

For any race that I have done, the nevousness gets me going and I always have to go before the race. It could be a 10 k and I will have the runs before hand.

I do know the feeling you are speaking of and it is not a good one. Being far from home and having it hit you is not good.

Which 1/2 marathon are you doing?

Paula's got the onesies thing down in this video. And she won the race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6I2-YP42rs

But seriously, I think you can teach your body to crap before running. Just sit and grunt for a while every time. Pretty soon your body will know that before run is the time to poop. No scientific evidence here, just my experience.

Salt Lake

I've never had that urge hit me strong during a run. The longer the run, the less I have any #2 urges.

Ya I just go to the bathroom no matter what before I run. Sometimes something happens sometimes not. The only time I ever had a problem is when I forgot to go before and it hit me later around the last half mile. Let me tell you I couldn't hold it and my undies were destroyed.

One early morning Saturday run, the day after I OD on some fresh cherries, I found myself in a desperate predicament. I was running up by the Provo temple through some neighborhoods when it hit. I was right by Timpview High School and I seriously thought I was going to have to leave my mark on someone's lawn when suddenly I noticed the bathrooms by the baseball field. It was like God had put them there just for me at that moment.

Hopefully they weren't locked.

Not only were they open, they were stocked with toilet paper too.

You must have been living right. They are often locked.

I was running in Glenwood Canyon, CO last year and the urge hit me. I made it to a park/rest area and discovered that the toilets were all broken. Just dry piles of poo inside what used to be white porcelain toilets. I had no choice but to just add to the pile. They did have paper though. Which is nice.

Holy Crap! That was a great story, Marsupial. It was undoubtedly a moving experience for you.


I had an experience this morning I would like to share with you all. While I was laboring on my early morning jaunt, I found myself at the apex of my run, 2.2 miles from home exploring a new neighborhood where I had previously never gone before. My mind was taken back to Fuegote's original post and I realized that now would be a terrible time to have "the urge". The lawns were too nicely manicured to defile and the house was too far away to hobble home and avoid a “ThatSportsFan” fate.


While I was in the deepest of despairs, thinking about what could potentially happen, suddenly I came upon a new home construction site. Considering the depressed state of the economy in our area, this alone was a sign from above. But there, next to the sidewalk, basking in the soft glow of the streetlight, like a lighthouse to the lost sailor, was a blue name-brand Port-A-Potty, in exceptional condition, I might add.


And while I did not have to make use of this heaven-sent place of public convenience, it was truly a testament to me that God loves the runners (and the cyclists – I've had equally “moving” experiences on a bike that I may share at a later time).


In the name of Prefontaine, Ed Eyestone, Doug Padilla and Fuegote, Amen.

If you run, just don't run tooo early.

One morning, early around 4:30 am, nature called and I ran to the trusty toilet I knew, hoping to find relief. To my great dismay, the toilets were locked. What could I do? It was if God were punishing me for all my sins.

Somehow, calling upon reserves previously unknown to me, until I pinched and hobbled myself ignominiously down the street only to arrive and wait for the portly sleepy gal at the Taco Time to unlock those heavenly doors to the porcelain thrown. That my gal is the definition of purgatory, a closed toilet when nature calls.

I did a ten miler this morning. The rumbling started with about a mile and a half to go. I was in the woods, but with sleet and freezing rain, it was way too cold to drop trow, so I just kept running. I made it to the hotel and made a Fuegotian dash through the front lobby, down the hall and into the arms of my white porcelain friend. And once again, life was good.

Fuegote, this crapping crap has never crossed my mind until your post. I have a 10 mile race coming in mid April, and if I have any problems with the urge to drop a deuce I am blaming you.

I give myself a pre-run enema every morning. Doesn't everyone?

I haven't laughed this hard at an online thread in a looooooooooong time. Nicely done everyone.

The area here in SAT is still being developed and thankfully there are lots of porta potties spread throughout the neighborhoods.

This entire thread proves that the most maligned, and neglected, system of the body is the colon. I have a great mentor who always tells us, "Doctor, when the rectum isn't happy, the whole body isn't happy!"

As said above, getting on a good bowel regimen is vital. Running stimulates the colon to move crap down the chute.

I have left my mark in someone's bushes near layton (half way into a 10 miler)

I've never defiled anyone's lawn before but I remember at least one incident where I fertilized a tree.