Runners not only battle the force of nature, but we also have to battle the force of our nature. Specifically biologically. Runs of longer than 1 hour… especially after making sure we have a good load of fluids… can be a recipe for a restroom stop. Except… there are not many restrooms on the best running spots.
No… I am not a stranger to the woods. Eight years in the Army and there were many weeks when I never had the luxury of a toilet. The one time some genius decided to bring one of those fold up toilet seats with us on a field exercise in Alaska (it wasn’t my idea by the way) and the thing collapsed on me after doing my business in 30 below temp.
Now… if that sounds like a mess… you are right… it was. But add to that that it is 30 below and I only have a precious few minutes with my fingers outside gloves before I lost the ability to close my fingers. Sure enough… before I was properly clean… I couldn’t clench, but I pretty much exhausted anything I could clean myself with at that point. All that was left was some clean white snow… and yes… I did use some hastily constructed snowballs as the equivalent of toilet paper.
As I said… I am no stranger to the woods.
I will admit that I have used the woods a few times during my runs (not *when* I had the runs thankfully). Leaves work much better than snowballs for toilet paper in a pinch. Monday on my run in the hills at the coast… when it became clear I would have to turn back or find a spot in the woods… I chose the woods. Unfortunately… the leaves were all frozen and using something frozen for toilet paper… is not something I need to experience twice in a lifetime.
So my running gloves were sacrificed and I ran home with cold hands. And that is all I have to say about that.
1 comment:
you lost your gloves, don't worry get new one...!
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