Let’s Be Real, Sh*t Happens When It Comes to Running. Here are 10 Ways to Deal (2024)

If there’s one thing all runners can relate to, it’s the need to do your business before you get down to business on the road. First, try drinking a warm liquid, such as coffee, tea, or hot water to get things moving.

Studies have found that regular and decaf coffee have the same poo-inducing effect. Choose your favorite hot beverage and drink it at least 30 minutes before go time. If your prerun Starbucks doesn’t do the trick, perform your warmup near a bathroom. Motion can bring on a bowel movement, as anyone who has needed a potty break just minutes into a run can attest. An added bonus: Warming up prerun enlivens your muscles and gets your heart pumping. Try a dynamic warmup routine before leaving home—with moves such as jumping jacks, walking lunges, and skips—or just jog around the block until you’re ready to make.

When all else fails, try putting gentle pressure on your perineum, the area between your genitals and your anus. A 2014 study from UCLA found this may help ease constipation.

Before a run, most men can hydrate, !, then urinate with reckless abandon because male anatomy makes it easy to relieve oneself almost anywhere quickly and discreetly. Female anatomy, however, isn’t so accommodating. To make it easier to pee when there’s no potty (porta- or otherwise), follow this easy, two-step process.

First, you want to dress for success. In tights or capris, there’s no way to wee without dropping trou. Shorts are a better option. Short compression shorts as well as the built-in briefs underneath baggier shorts can be shifted aside. The best bet, however, is a running skirt, one with built-in briefs or a briefless option paired with bunhuggers. You can easily pull briefs aside beneath the skirt, and the two-piece option allows you to remove the briefs entirely. Black is the smartest color choice because it hides splashes well and matches everything.

Once you’ve found some privacy, take a knee. Lower down on your right knee, with your right foot behind you and your left leg bent at a 90-degree angle in front of you. Take the fabric of the right side of your shorts in your hands with one in front of you and one behind you, and shift it toward your left leg. This should create enough space to let it flow. Kneeling just in front of a tree offers additional protection—passersby might simply think you’re lunging! Here is where it’s important to note that public urination is illegal in every state and can even land you on the sex offender registry, so whiz at your own risk.

No one wants to use the porta-potties along racecourses, but the clock stops for no one—and for no number two, either. The potties are there for the unfortunate souls who didn’t learn how to prevent a poop-tastrophe—or how to stop one in its tracks.

Instead of just praying your poop will go away, watch what you eat and drink in the days prior. Even the common strategy of carb-loading can spell intestinal disaster if you eat the wrong things. (And for some people, pasta—believe it or not—may be a “wrong thing.”) You might be able to determine your gut triggers in training, but if you’ve missed that window, avoid the common culprits of dairy products, artificial sweeteners, soy, eggs, caffeine, and gluten just to be safe. Also limit your intake of foods high in fat and fiber.

Watching how much you eat can also help. It’s simple: More food in equals more poop out. Carb-loading doesn’t mean eating more calories; it means getting a greater proportion of your calories from carbohydrates. You should leave meals the day before the race feeling sated but not stuffed. If you’re anxious on race day, skip the morning coffee. Even if it’s usually okay in training, it can enrage a nervous stomach. When you must have morning caffeine to function, take in a caffeinated gel or two prerace; that format is easier on your innards.

Then work on calming down. Deep breathing or listening to relaxing music prerace can help limit the laxative effects of adrenaline. Looking at a course map and knowing exactly where the potties are might soothe your mind enough that you won’t have to use them.

During the race, stick with the slow fuel plan mentioned earlier. Taking in small sips of gel or sports drink (followed by water) on the course can ensure you don’t overexcite your digestive system or swallow air that can cause gas and bloating. In desperate times, reach for antidiarrheal medications—if you’ve tried them in training. Start with a half or quarter dose, and avoid taking so much that you’re constipated postrun.

Excerpted from Runner’s World How to Make Yourself Poop. Copyright © 2018 by Meghan Kita. Published by Rodale Books, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Buy Now