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Hello? It’s me, your GI. You’re not running today.

Hello? It’s me, your GI. You’re not running today.

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Ah, yes.  A post about my gastrointestinal (GI) tract.  We all knew this was coming, sooner or later, since it’s often the subject of many a conversation on the run.

I was inspired to write about this because last Saturday, my 14-miler ended pretty abruptly when I first had to start walking because of what felt like knives going through my gut.  After a bit of walking and bathroom break #1, I felt a lot better, though I still had some seriously sharp pains in my abdomen.  As Jack and I ran a little more, natured called yet again, and by then I had finally realized that my GI was giving me a big “F-U,” middle finger for the morning.  14 miles suddenly, and without any opportunity for me to plead otherwise, suddenly became a lousy 7.   This hasn’t happened in a while, so I guess it was “time.”  Yet another way that the human body, particularly my own, humbles me…

I read a lot of running-related publications, typically online, and I can say with 100% certainty that I’m not alone when it comes to negotiating, for lack of a better word, with my GI when I want to run or, sometimes, when I’m actually on a run.  I’ve read or have heard horror stories or have endured them, myself, when I’m out on a run and suddenly my stomach decides that it’s done for the day.  My stomach says “no more miles,” yet my legs cry, “Go on!  Go on!”  And it’s always the stomach that wins out.

I’ll spare the gory and fairly disgusting details, but suffice it to say that, since I started partaking in all this marathon business in 2007, I have had many a run cut short, and end rather unpleasantly, because of GI issues of some shape or another.  At first, I thought it was strictly related to what I was eating immediately preceding my runs, so I got smarter about that — minimize the volume of fiber I had consumed, be really careful with dairy (which is a breeze now, thanks to my vegetarian-yet-vegan-like-tendencies), don’t drink pop or anything carbonated or caffeinated immediately before, go easy on the sugary Gatorade or sports drinks, chase the gels or gus with water, etc. — but sometimes this isn’t enough.  Some days it seems like the wind blowing the wrong way can affect the way my innards (again, very scientific, I know) handle all the repetitive pounding that is part of the territory of running and long-distance training.  I have often wondered, especially of late, if there is some sort of food allergy or intolerance I have besides those I already know, and it’d probably behoove me to get tested so I can adjust my diet accordingly.  I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Though I haven’t been marathoning for very many years, I think I’ve gotten smart enough to realize that when my body is trying to tell me something, I better listen…or I could be paying for it, substantially more, later.  I was irked that I couldn’t complete my long run on Saturday, yet as the day wore on, my GI freak-out continued, so I figured it was for the better that I didn’t push it.  Besides, there will always be other times and days to run.  If you don’t take care of yourself wisely, today, you may be jeopardizing your chance to run well, tomorrow.

Please, call me “Master”…

Please, call me “Master”…

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The obnoxious title refers to my recent completion of my MS in International Public Service – effective as of this past weekend’s graduation!  Woohoo!!  “Master Erin” is a bit too um, slavery-condoning, for my taste, but suffice it to say that I’m just super excited to have completed the program.

And what better way to start my graduation morning on Sunday than to run a race?  My thoughts exactly.

This past week, I was in recovery mode following my running the Sunburst Marathon on 6/5.  I didn’t run again until Thursday (again, recovery mode), and though I was tired from a long week of end-of-quarter deadlines, running-wise, I felt pretty good.  Come Sunday morning, when Jack, Stacey, and I were running the 13.1 series half marathon along Chicago’s southern lakefront path, I was feeling pretty rested… unless you count the whole getting-up-at-4:30 a.m. thing.  Anyway.

Last year, when I ran the 13.1 race, I went out like a bat outta hell (thank you, Meatloaf!) and suffered for it later in the race, though I finished with a 1:46.  This year, I wanted to race more intelligently and finish more strongly.  (This seems to be my mantra these days, for I held the same goal when I ran the Soldier Field 10 Miler a few weeks back).  Though I still went out a bit faster than I should have, I held on (for the most part), and the decent temps (still humid, but not nearly as hot as the weathermen slated it to be) seemed to be on my side because I finished in a 1:43 and change–a good 3 minutes or so faster than last year’s time.  Better yet, my second-fastest mile on the course was the penultimate mile.  That made me feel pretty good.  I had to rely strictly on water and gatorade the entire race because I accidentally checked my gels with my gear.   I’ve done 1/2 marathons before, though, in the absence of gels, so I wasn’t sweating it too much.  Plus, this race was purely for kicks–just a way of guaranteeing that I’d get in my long run this weekend, despite my graduation.

Though it made for a long day (thanks to a 2.5 hour ceremony), I have absolutely no regrets to have done a race on my graduation morning.  In fact, it seems to make a bunch of sense because I’ve been running and marathoning the entire time I’ve been in grad school for the past two years.  Graduating from my masters program has begged many questions of what my “next step” is, and for now, I’m happy at DePaul and intend to begin another Masters program.  As for my “next step” in my running career, I’m still uncertain.  I’d love to break a PR this year–preferably in the marathon–or maybe even venture into the ultra scary world of ultras.  Graduation is all about closure and fresh starts, so in the spirit of graduation, what are your “next steps” in your running?

Like running, school ends, but learning does not.  As Dean Karnazes says, runs end, but running does not.  Perhaps that why I dig them both so much.