spicy guts

I doubt you are reading this blog for a detailed analysis of one poor middle aged guy’s health status, but I think it is worth a dash of transparency to write a bit about the mysteries of the human body—the very thing we are all working and train so hard to lug further and faster down the trails, all to pursue this sport and hobby we love.

My story is one of digestion… uncooperative gut health, to be specific.

My gut health changed abruptly thanks to, I strongly suspect, a tooth infection. It started like this: I was doing great and never needed to worry a whit about what I ate. Then one day I got a pain in my mouth and did an emergency trip to the dentist and an hour later to the pharmacy for some fast acting, super-strong antibiotics to fight an infected cavity.  Long dental adventures followed, and the end result after a root canal and a tooth cap was the bonus souvenir of a never-recovered gut biome… all thanks (probably) to the antibiotics.

Look. Ninety percent of the time I can cope. But running has become a game of roulette with abdominal discomfort other issues not suitable for proper public discourse.

All that is to say… a change to how your body works can happen to anybody, and when it does, it will come from somewhere you least expect it.

I have a degree in biology, but I’m certainly no doctor and have no business talking about anything medically-adjacent on this site beyond my lived experience. That experience has been a rabbit hole of tests and doctors and specialist and websites and reading more than I ever thought I would need to about gut health. Trying to beat it, sure, but just trying to go on a run that doesn’t aggravate me enough to send me back home.

And hey, I’ve got it relatively easy. I’ve known far too many people who have been sidelined for far more serious health issues, from chronic pain to cancer, and so I’m very much not here looking for valour or pity… just personal context. 

Some days and in some ways having some mild medical inconvenience is a unique frustration that no one wants to hear about but which can derail you just as much as a far worse predicament. As lucky as I am to have not experienced something chronic or fatal, neither have those concerns ever been severe enough for me to hang up my running hat and say “well, that’s it then… I guess I’m done.” I just don’t have it in me to quit running completely because of gut cramps, you know, as problematic as they have been.

It’s a spicy take, but the reality is that we’ve all got unique challenges to getting out on the trails, let alone to a finish line. Every story you see and hear, every joke made about upset stomachs and uncooperative digestions or race day butterflies is rooted in a personal struggle by someone coping …and hoping to find a bit of validation that they’re not the only one queued up for a porta-potty because of a weakness or failure.