It was shortly after making this post yesterday evening that I left for a run in the Park. It was a beautiful summerās day and the Park was crowded with people from all walks of life. On days like this Ireland seems like a paradise. As I ran I imagined myself handing out a political pamphlet to all these people. It would be titled āWhy Leoās Picnic Mattersā. It would be funny and convincing. Of course I knew I would never really do this but the thought filled me with enough excitement that my pace was extremely quick. This was comfortably the best run Iād had since my week in hospital, a month and a half ago. Everything seemed so effortless. I was back.
Around the 7km mark my gliding was suddenly interrupted by a sharp and unexpected discomfort in the bowel or anal area. I was immediately forced to stop and I was crippled over with the bloating feeling. It is incredibly unlike me to stop when Iām running. However, I intuitively sensed that if I ran through this pain I would spectacularly shit myself. As I stood clutching my lower stomach, afraid and confused as to what had just happened, a beautiful young couple jogged past me. āThatās embarrassingā laughed the man in my direction. What was happening? Did I have Crohns or IBS?
I tried to jog on again but was soon forced to stop again. I badly needed to go to the toilet. Had I not gone before I left on the run? I had felt fine when I started. This had never happened me before in my entire running career.
I realised that I was in a terrible situation. I was over 2km from home and unable to run. The Park was swarming with people. Every nook and cranny was filled with groups enjoying the weather. There was nowhere I could run and nowhere I could hide. I didnāt think I could make it home without shitting my pants.
I limped on for as far as I could. I was getting frantic, looking right and left for somewhere with no people. Could I sneak into the Aras? Finally I came across a small glade of trees in the middle of one of the Parkās great lawns. On my night runs I sometimes called it the āevil gladeā because of how it looked in the dark. People were strolling past it in all directions but no-one was going inside. Realising I could go no further I waddled over at top speed. On my way I manually forced my buttocks closed with my hands, to stop the shit from spilling out. As soon as I made it inside the glade I removed my hands from my ass cheeks and hadnāt even time to fully pull down my shorts before bright orange goo started spraying from my hole onto a nearby tree. The shit was spraying up as high as my waist. Its colour was almost florescent.
I couldnāt believe that this was happening. I could hear the laughter of some of the people walking by but no-one came near. I grabbed a handful of grass to clean my shitty wet ass. There were no decent sized leaves on the ground here, maybe the deer ate them all. I pulled up my pants and tried to waddle away, only to immediately rush back to the trees and my ass erupted again.
Eventually I walked back to the road and walked out of the busy park. Luckily my shorts were black so it wasnāt immediately obvious that I was covered in my own shit. I realised I was in a race against time - I had to get home before I shat myself again. The thought of this spurred me into trying to run again and again I felt sick.
Finally I made it out of the Park and onto the street but I still had a mile or so to travel before I got home. I was never going to make it. And now there were no trees to hide behind. I was going to spontaneously shit myself right in the middle of the street in Dublin. I would probably be arrested.
Frantically I began searching for a toilet. I spotted the Central Criminal Court, beside the exit to Phoenix Park and ran up to the entrance. I slammed my shit-stained fists desperately against the glass doors but to no avail. They were locked. I tried a nearby pub next, Nancy Handās, but it was locked also. The moment of final judgment was fast approaching. Everywhere was locked and there was nothing I could do. My heart was pounding.
Miraculously, I wandered home in a daze without shitting myself again. I simply accepted my fate and stopped running. This stopped the diarrhea. When I got home I googled ādiarrhea when runningā and discovered that itās a common condition that affects most runners, albeit not a condition that had ever affected me during all the marathons that Iāve trained for and completed. Doctors donāt know exactly what causes it but possible causes include colitis (an inflamed area of the inner bowel or colon) or the bowel being slightly out of place. I had seen a spot of colitis in my colonoscopy a few weeks ago and the CAT Scan during my stay in the hospital had also shown that my bowel was slightly out of place after the infection.
I really want to be able to run again and I hope my bowel gets better.
The End