"Holding it" can't be healthy, but sometimes it's necessary...

I refuse to take a bathroom break when I go for a long run or the few times that I have run races.  For those of you who run distance, you truly know the horrors of this.  For some reason running kick-starts your system.  I don't know the science of it, I just know from first-hand experience that this happens.  It's not fun and it can't possibly be healthy but, for whatever reason, it doesn't stop me! 

Beyond the obvious inconveniences:
- this always happens at the most inopportune times
- it is not easily explainable to people why you are stopping by their house mid-run
- you don't exactly blend in to the local restaurant crowd when you are dripping in sweat and smelly
I just don't want to stop!  

As I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, I have a keep it moving forward rule (whether it is running, jogging, walking, or crawling I make sure that I am constantly moving forward on all of my runs) and I stick to it.  Maybe I have a fear that if I take a break I will lose momentum and either short-cut the run or, even worse, call someone to come and get me (I have only called someone to pick me up one time and that was a long time ago - thank you Karen:).  Or maybe I just don't want to run for any longer than I have to. 
Regardless, once I set out on that run, I can't stop until I reach my goal.  I am only focused on getting to the end.  In fact, this isn't uncommon for a lot of  runners.  Rumor has it that Uta Pippig "pippig-ed" herself when she won the Boston Marathon in '96.  I don't claim to be anywhere near her caliber (she finished that marathon in under 2:30 hours, about the time I would be hitting mile 14) and I am not willing to pippig myself...that's going too far. 

So you may be wondering am I telling you that there are no bathroom breaks in the sport of running??  Where am I going with this?

My intention is not for this to be a bathroom discussion.  My point is that anytime we are on track to achieve a goal we will experience a little bit of discomfort along the way.  And sometimes we have to just deal with the discomfort because in some sick way it may push us to reach our goal faster and even more successfully than we thought that we could.  I use this example because you can argue that "holding it" can't be good for you (and, I can't counter that argument).  But, there will always be a valid excuse. You just have to decide what's more important (in Uta's case, it was either winning the Boston Marathon and appearing in every search engine when someone types in "marathoner + pooped" or stopping for a bathroom break - I think she is satisfied that she made the right call!).

Until next time...