taking imodium before the london marathon

Hi i am running the london marathon this year and it will be my first ever full marathon. i have done runs of upto 20 miles and have been fine, but keep hearing people saying its best to take imodium an hour before the race just in case you get the sh*ts! to put it plainly! I have always had porrage in the morning 2 hours before i run and then do my long runs and also take on sis gels whilst running and have not had to go to the lou so far but always fell a bit lose after a race!! and wounderd if it was best to take 1 or 2 imodium before the marathon?

 Any suggestions on this would be great

its all up to you Steve

im doing stratford on sunday , i ll take an imodium sat night & sun morning , & prob still need to go - but thats me & my metabolism, i ve not had to go since mara 1 of 11 so far,

but you know what they say - never try anything new on marathon day ?

yeah thats very true about never try anything new on the day

but a bit worried because i have felt a bit light in the tummy area after long runs and not sure what another hour of running may do to me!

good luck for sunday

If you have a dodgy stomach then make sure you take yor Imodium! You don't want to end up like this dude!

 Good luck for Sunday!

 ..............................................

Running Blog

Tell me that isn't what it looks like......

If the runners sh*ts is a known problem, take immodium, if its not, then don't bother.

Some people suffer from it (me for one), some don't.  

I think nerves on race day play a part too.

I've always woken up on race day and gone several times in the morning.

I always take immodium before a long distance events mainly because when I first started running it was a real problem. More recently it's less of an issue but I still take the tablets an hour before the start.

A couple of years ago I started a thread on this subject and I got this terrific response...

..."the scientific explanation, just to add to Bryan's summing up: there are pressure receptors in your gut that register when there is some bulk present and react by contracting to push it along. That is what causes the normal movement of food and waste through the entire length of the gut. The sensitivity of the receptors differs between people and can be affected by numerous other factors (eg. abuse of laxatives reduces the sensitivity and so can lead to constipation or a dependency on the laxatives, ignoring the "urge" can deaden the sensitivity and so also cause constipation).

When running there is a jostling of the gut and so an increase in the pressure from the contents of the gut. The gut responds quite normally and starts contracting to move everything along. Another normal response to the pressure in the gut is secretion of mucous, to aid the movement of the bowel contents. This mucous secretion is also enhanced during running, again because of the increase in pressure on the gut lining. This alone can cause an increased urge to defaecate but the whole thing is worsened by the fact that, due to the "fight or flight" mechanism, blood is being diverted from the gut to the muscles. This means that less water is being absorbed from the bowel contents and so the waste has a higher volume than if absorption were happening normally.

End result - chaos!

It really is just a dead normal healthy reaction. Things that can make it worse are any sort of food sensitivity (lactose intolerance is a fairly common one) or a high bulk of waste anywhere in the gut before starting running (eg. big meal). Something that can help is firming up the abdominal muscles to lessen the jostling of the abdominal contents.

HTH!"


Hope this helps.

Just take 'em- can you imagine the state of the toilets at VLM??

I suffer from runners trots. I therefore plan my long runs around a bog stop, normally at 12 miles or so.

I did the Brighton Marathon last week, my first one and my major concern was needing the bog half way, as I was used to during training.

On marathon day I had my usual big bowl of porridge, then 2 x immodium plus 2hrs before the race. Result was no bog stops during the race, so I'll class that as a success.

Seems fairly powerful stuff, so probably best avoided during training..........lets face it, you can normally find a convenient bush!!

Sooooooo glad I found this thread.
I occasionally suffer from this condition and quite often have had the urge lately to pause mid-run to "log out"

I'm doing a HM in about 4 weeks and it has been causing me some concern as to how I will cope on the day.
Strange thing is, this is my 4th HM and I've never had "issues" like this on the previous 3. But for the past 2 or 3 months this has become a regular occurance for some unknown reason. I haven't particularly changed my diet or anything. The only thing I'm doing differently is more weekly mileage.
Happy now that I know there may be a solution...

************************* BRING ON THE IMMODIUM ***********************

Euurgh that photo is disgusting!!

 I usually take immodium before long training runs and races and it works. I've only ever needed the loo once during a race and luckily there was one en route so no bush stop offs!