A Good Plodder On-er

Trigger warning ED discussed later in post

Getting enough and appropriate food and fluid in during ultra races is critical. Even the shortest race for a slower runner like myself will take upwards of 7 hours so not only are you needing to fuel the miles you also have mealtimes you miss. Added to this you need to eat something that won’t make you throw up or will shoot out the other end too quickly. This can be a bit of a steep learning curve.

I have a mild form of colitis which when I started running was not controlled. When you have to make a bathroom stop up to 10 times a day running 30 plus miles in a place where bathrooms are a rarity can be inconvenient to say the least. This leads to the hunt for the least bathroom inducing food a serious quest. Fortunately with the help of good old immunosuppressant drugs this is no longer a problem but even with a normally working digestive system it is something most runners are fairly obsessed with.

My first 100k (which, like my first marathon,was also my fastest) I thought all was going well until suddenly it wasn’t. At 80k I stopped at the aid station and suddenly noticed being out of breath while sitting down with my head on on the table. Some other runners pointed me out to the dreaded (but essential) race medic. This poor man was trying to point out to me that as I was having trouble talking and my lips were blue despite it being a hot summer day that perhaps it was time for me to withdraw from the race. I don’t know what proportion of medics working at running events actually run themselves but for those that don’t it must be mystifying that otherwise rational people will beg to carry on racing when their body is obviously begging them to stop. This kind man took pity on me and told me that I had to wait at least an hour and start by drinking two cans of coke and then maybe he would let me carry on. Coke has mystical powers in the world of ultrarunning, fluid, sugar and caffeine combine perfectly to produce a drink that can revive the most depleted of runners and in this case it did it for me and I went on to finish the race with the benefit of not dying which is always preferable.

Noticing being hungry or thirsty is something I am not very good at. If I don’t plan I will not get around to eating or drinking on time and by the time I realise I am a shaking blue mess on the floor. I think this is true for a lot of runners but I think I can be particularly unaware of my body which may be an autistic trait. I have tried recently to remind myself to drink specifically by having a timer buzz every 10 mins to remind me to sip my sports drink. The first race I planned to use this I forgot to bring it, the second race I thought I had forgotten but actually had remembered but I didn’t see it, next time I did use it but had it on loud alarm which made me and any runner anywhere near me jump every time it went off. The fourth and last time I remembered it, I remembered I had remembered it I even had it on vibrate rather than buzz. It was all going so well but I then didn’t notice it. After a while I put it on my crop top which made it much harder (but not impossible) to ignore. I was only then left with the challenge of feeling the vibration and then managing to sip the sports drink that was inches away from my lips without getting distracted. I managed it a majority of the times so that is a win in my book. The only challenge I have now is to have it somewhere I notice but does not leave a chunk of skin missing where it has rubbed.

Having sports drinks and even sports gels is great background fuelling but the aid station is where the real excitement of an ultra lies. These can vary in quality and range but usually have the standard water, squash, coke, elecrolyte drinks, some sweets, fruit and sandwiches. Some of the longer races will put on hot drinks at the night stage and one company that is set up for walkers does whole meals and even a pic and mix which always causes me great excitement. Actually it caused me too much excitement on my last event I did with them as I left the aid station and had run nearly half a mile when I realised I had left my running poles behind and had to turn back for them. I found them where I had expected to right by the pic and mix.

This is where eating disorders are mentioned so if this will cause you any discomfort bye for now and see you next time.

I have had disordered eating for most of my adult life. Luckily while pregnant, breastfeeding and looking after small children my body felt like something that belonged to them so I was able to have a much better relationship with food but outside those times I have experienced anorexia and bulimia to varying degrees. I do not want to discuss my eating disorder in any detail here but just wanted to give some of my thoughts on how it relates to running and autism/ADHD.

Autistic people are more likely to have eating disorder than non autistic people. The National Autistic Society website says that “some research” (whatever that means) suggests that 4-23% of people with eating disorders are autistic. Running is known to be associated with disordered eating and compulsive exercise is a symptom. But what is compulsive? I was lucky that when I had specific treatment at an eating disorder clinic they saw that in my case running was (mainly) a positive. For me having a healthy body is important because I want to run well. Running is a reason to fuel. Running is a reason not to mess up your electrolytes. The eating disordered part of my brain has been on at me for over 30years and at this point I think will always be nagging away but on the whole I think I am in a better place with running than without it. If you have someone you care about who is eating disordered running may be the absolute worst thing they could do but just consider that it might not be.

Finally a reminder I have been very thin, fat and everything in-between and you couldn’t tell by looking at me how ill I was at certain points because it is a mental disorder not a physical one. Obviously there are physical problems caused by the mental one it is important to understand that you cannot tell who does or does not have a problem. Be careful with your language around food and bodies. Words are powerful and anyone whatever their age, sex, gender, ethnicity or body size might be affected by them.