This past week I raced twice. The Wednesday night race (WNR) at Emily Murphy Park and the Edmonton 21 10km run. I also have been having some pretty shitty stomach problems. No pun intended. They have been effecting my running quite a bit.
The WNR is a 8km race 2 4km laps. My pace time was really good and I was feeling great but I dropped at the 4km lap because I had to poop. Really BAD! This is also the second year in a row I have dropped in this race because of bathroom problems. Its like the poop inducing race. My 4km time was 21 minutes which would have been a good split time.
The Edmonton 21 10km race was not that great. My stomach has been acting up really bad the last few days and I considered not going to the race at all. Finally I made myself to go. There were like no runners there at all; the first sign of a possibly lame race. The course was nice but poorly marked and the last 3 km were not very fun and an out and back to make a kilometer at the 8km mark isn’t worth it; when there were obvious alternatives. The race was at laurier/hawerluk park my training grounds so I know the terrain really well. After the Keillor road hill I passed about 15 people and was feeling really good; then at about the 5 or 6 km mark my stomach really started to act up. I had to stop and walk because it felt like one of two things were going to happen. Pooping of the pants, or passing out. I walk/ran the last 4km of the course. It was very frustrating because my legs and lungs felt good; my pace was 5min/kms no problem when I was moving but I would have to stop because of my stomach. Shitting your pants is out of control so I just hobbled through. I finished in 58 minutes which, is less than ideal but I still finished and didn’t drop. On a positive note no poop in pants and stinger waffle cake things are DELICIOUS. Also a thank you to Morgan and Jesse for taking pictures and coming in the cold.
Pre race freezing
Fighting it out at about 8 km
This week is the Whitemud park Wednesday night race 4 2km laps to make an 8km run and Saturday 5 Peaks Devon sport 7km. Hopefully my stomach starts to feel better for the upcoming races. I have been cutting out dairy and other things that contribute to stomach/digestive problems.
Every runner who has been at it for awhile has had the “I need to find a bathroom NOW” moment during training or a race but it should not be this persistent.
We will see how training goes this week!
