running sickness

Question
QUESTION: When I run long distances, 8 miles or more, I almost always get a terrible case of diarrhea that lasts for a long time. I am out of commission for the next several hours.  No one seems to have ever heard of this happening to other people.  I drink water, I try to eat 2 hours before the run.  I am going to enter a half marathon the end of April and I don't want to be sick afterwards.  It's happened before and we will be out of state this time and I want to enjoy the rest of the day in Nashville.  Please help!

ANSWER: Hi Arlene,
I have had this happen to me as well, so don't feel like you're left alone.  After going on some 8-12 mile runs and experiencing the same kind of discomfort, I decided to no longer take part in such distances for my runs.  I just didn't see the benefits outweighing the discomfort levels I had.  

However, in your case, you have this big race coming up, and there is a need to somehow get it under control for it.  A lot of what is happening may be due to the diet you have, especially if its a diet with fibrous foods, and foods with slow digestion rates.  If you are eating 2 hours before the run, I would make the meal light, and make sure your 'heavier' meals are 4-6 hours before the run itself.  By then, you should be 'clear' to go and the food should be through your system, thus lowering the risk of any disruptions on the run.  I would tinker with this over & over, but since I was a coach at the time and my main lunch was at 12pm, with practice at 4pm, I would still run into some issues.  I tried bumping my lunch to around 11am and making it really light, such as a basic sandwich.  That 5-hour window helped, but now & then I'd still have some issues if the run was longer than I expected it to be. (I was the assistant, and the mileage was basically picked every day due to how the entire team was doing).  

I also tried taking some Pepto-Bismol or Immodium A-D before the run, usually at lunch time, to help minimize things before they could possibly occur.  That sort of helped, but it doesn't have any real science behind it, just something I thought I would try at the time.

So, I'm not sure if any of this will help, but hopefully you can try timing your meals to an earlier time, allowing a good window of time between a meal & a run to help lower the risk of any GI issues.

Coach Rick Karboviak
http://1MileNation.com


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Do you think I might be losing electrolytes of dehydrating?  I ususally don't get sick until after the run.

Answer
Well, I honestly don't know what is occurring then, since I first understood your question as having GI problems during the run itself.  I didn't know that these issues came up after your run.  I'm not too much of an expert when it comes to dealing with running long distances, so the best place I can turn you to is perhaps Runners World or Running Times magazines, and see if they have any free articles to read about such issues.  Runners World is at http://runnersworld.com, and Running Times is http://runningtimes.com.

Coach Rick