Gastro Update and Other Unpleasant Consequences of Being a Living Organism.....

You may remember last week I thought I had my GI problem solved by cutting out dairy. But, dang, as luck would have it, I ate soup at lunchtime that contained, you guessed it, cream. Of course, this has plunged me into a frenzy of label reading all week, obsessed with not allowing dairy products to enter my colon. Today, my Wednesday running group, was the test! Ran tonight AND....drum roll please.....NO ISSUES! No cramps, no stopping, no "gotta go" sensation, no need to stop at Our Lady of Perpetual Help church or the Irving. Thank you DS! Sorry, yogurt, you're out!

My experience with sharing this rather intimate issue has been interesting. I noted previously that an estimated 20 - 50% of runners suffer from this yet very little is written about it and what is out there, is reiterative. I found most of what I read to be too general and lacking in enough specifics to really be helpful. But, you know what? This is something that runners do not typically talk about. There are few who are willing to say, yeah, I suffer from this. But, ironically, runners talk about black or missing toenails, injuries, toe fungus, bloody urine, noseblowing techniques and a whole host of other distasteful ailments. What's up with that? Not that I turn my nose up at these conversations...far from it. I do object to marginalizing some issues though like, yes, the trots. I have also found out in the last two weeks that many many of my fellow running partners suffer from runner's trots - many during races. Yet, not one comment on my blog. People have spoken to me and I've received emails but there is a reluctance to talk about this issue in the public domain! Collectively, we are a vast inventory of individual experiences - we have all faced similar challenges in our running. Can we be more open about sharing how we overcame those challenges? We just need to talk about them. Let's be honest folks. We are all human and basically no different from the bear who sh**s in the woods.

Sorry if this seems like a lecture. I guess, the moral of this story is: the next time someone you're running with says: "I gotta find a bathroom" do not silently wait for them or keep on going. Say "it's the dairy dummy!"

The Middle Aged Runner