First, a big preemptive congrats to all my friends and running family that are running Boston on Monday.  It is so exciting to see everyone’s posts, and I hope that one day I will work hard enough to be there, enjoying the expo, and exploring the expo.  I’m so inspired by my friends who are there, and heading that way now.

Onto the gross stuff

I know this is literally so gross, but I have to talk about this.

The runner’s trots.

Trots refers to the thing that happens when you run long distance, your stomach starts killing.

I did some reading up on it, and there’s an actual reason for it.  So evidently, when you’re running your body focuses on sending blood to other areas of your area, so your digestive system gets neglected, meaning that halfway digested and undigested food gets shot through before it’s supposed to, which attributes to the cramps, the stomach pain, and in extreme times, the pit stops that have to be made during the runs.

Between that and my gastritis, my stomach has been really sensitive, and I’ve had to be really careful about putting things into it.  That includes gels, and things even in the week leading up to a race.

So, before Rock ‘n’ USA, I was really considering playing with Imodium, because of the experiences I’ve had, and I didn’t really do it because I hadn’t tried it throughout my training.  So around miles 9 of the race, I was hit with some pretty gnarly cramps, and pushed through to the end, but I really wasn’t feeling great in the stomach department after the race.

So for Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh, I paid really really great attention to what I ate in the week leading up, and the evening before, I took a full dosage of this stuff after sending Austin on a hunt for the pill version the night before…

And despite my concerns about using something like this (was I blocking my body from its natural functioning, would it stop me up, so to speak,) it was great. There were never a moment during the race that I was concerned about my stomach, and it really really helped my shift my focus from my normally-upset stomach to actually tearing up some of the hills.

So, what do you think? For my folks with upset stomachs, would you consider swigging a little bit of Imodium?