The Burp-O-Meter

While giving some thought to Dayton's Burp-O-Meter I came across this passage in Ultra-Marathon Man, it describes the minutes after his first 50 mile race:
"On shaky legs, I stumbled to the finishers' tent and received a ribbon and a few handshakes and slaps on the back. Then I lumbered painfully to my car. When I plopped down on the leather seats [It's a Lexus LS 400], my legs went strangely cold. Something wasn't right. Then, without warning, the quadriceps and calf muscles of both legs seized in wicked cramps. My torso swung violently left, and then wildly back to the right. My legs were pegged to the floorboard, completely rigid.All ten toes were locked in place, forcefully curled against the soles of my shoes. My calf muscles were tight as baseballs, and my thighs were like solid planks of wood. The pain was mind-bending, pounding, entirely owning every drop of me.
Sweat poured down my face, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. Out of the corner if my eye I could see people casually strolling by my car, totally oblkvious of the situation inside. Apparently the seals that were so effective at keeping noise out were also pretty good at keeping noise in. There was nothing I could do but scream: other than the ability to open my mouth, I was completely immobilized. I yelled louder and louder and louder, but no one outside could tell that I was inside on the verge of blowing apart.
My sreaming was interrupted by a curious belch. Then came a few more burps. Something was rising up inside my stomach. Suddenly my mouth opened and projectile vomit began streaming out. I tried to tilt my head downward toward the floorboard, but I was completely incapable of altering the flow of things. I must have looked like Godzilla blowing fire into the air." - Karnazes, Dean. "Ultramarathon Man". New York : Tarcher / Penguin, 2005. 78-79.

Now, I'm hoping, as Julie said, that Dayton's Burp-O-Meter stops just below this. Anything short of that and I think we are in good shape. :-) I further offer this Abstract as reason not to worry. Basically all information I could find points to the fact that GI problems are unpredictible and not necessarily attached to running.

British Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol 22, Issue 2 71-74, Copyright © 1988 by British Association of Sport and Medicine

ORIGINAL ARTICLES


Gastrointestinal disturbances in marathon runners

C Riddoch and T Trinick
Division of Physical and Health Education, Queen's University, Belfast.

The purpose of this survey was to investigate the prevalence of running- induced gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances in marathon runners. A questionnaire was completed by 471 of the estimated 1,750 competitors in the 1986 Belfast City Marathon. Eighty-three per cent of respondents indicated that they occasionally or frequently suffered one or more GI disturbances during or immediately after running. The urge to have a bowel movement (53%) and diarrhoea (38%) were the most common symptoms, especially among female runners (74% and 68% respectively). Upper GI tract symptoms were experienced more by women than men (p less than 0.05) and more by younger runners than older runners (p less than 0.01). Women also suffered more lower GI tract symptoms than men (p less than 0.05) with younger runners showing a similar trend. Both upper and lower tract symptoms were more common during a "hard" run than an "easy" run (p less than 0.01) and were equally as common both during and after running. Of those runners who suffered GI disturbances, 72% thought that running was the cause and 29% believed their performance to be adversely affected. There was no consensus among sufferers as to the causes of symptoms and a wide variety of "remedies" were suggested. GI disturbances are common amongst long- distance runners and their aetiology is unknown. Medical practitioners should be aware of this when dealing with patients who run.