As the course designer for the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank International Marathon, the number one question I receive from runners is "Where will the port-a-johns be located on the course".  It seems to be a huge concern for runners.  Whether on a training run, during a race or warming up for one, finding a place to take care of one's personal needs can be an exasperating experience.

Years ago, at the start of the Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans, organizers underestimated the number of Port-a-Johns required. So runners, including myself, found every little hiding place around the area to relieve themselves.  The police chief spotted me and asked, "What would you do if your sister was standing here".  I replied, "Doing what I need to do".  I explained the situation to him but it didn't seem to matter.   To further intensify the situation, one runner was arrested for his indecent exposure.  Other runners, knowing how hard it was to prepare for the race and how common the situation, surrounded the cop car and the officer to let the runner out.   As I stood by and watched, I overhead the Police Chief say that the race, which was one of the fastest courses in the world, would never come back to his jurisdiction.   And it never did.

Last year, in the starting area of the Detroit Free Press Marathon, race coordinator Dennis Handley set up thirty port-a-johns for runners. For some reason, runners only stood in line for the first 15 and the others weren't used despite the efforts of volunteers urging runners to line up farther down.

The New York City Marathon with its twenty thousand plus runners on Stanton Island has to resort to different measures to accommodate everyone while they wait for runners to gather at the start.  For several years, as part of the elite group, I always remembered being escorted to the start and passing by what was billed as the word's longest urinal.  Some of the foreigners were a bit surprised at the site of all the runners openly taking care of business.  And this group of secretors included men and women. 

Runners have many tales of the urgency of Mother Nature while out running.  Handley recanted one to me how he had finished the Cherry Festival Run in Traverse City and sat in an outhouse at a post race party only to have the floor collapse.  He ended up knee deep in doo doo. That night the runners burned his clothes at the campfire and appropriately nicknamed "Stinky".

Mike Webster of Northville is well known to his running club members for missing the start of runs to use the bathroom. At the Boston Marathon one year, he had to convince a boisterous section of spectators on the course to let him in between to go to a port-a-john. They thought he was pulling off the course to quit and didn't want to let him through. As he came back on the course the crowd gave him a thunderous applause. A pack of runners joining Mike as he entered back into the race shared some hardy laughter when they heard about his difficulty.

One year, while doing a talk at the Cleveland Marathon, an older woman told me she was concerned because she never had to go to the bathroom before the race.  I asked why that was a problem.  She said that she was afraid she would need to go while on the course.  I told her two things. One, that most marathons had bathrooms out on the course and two, that maybe she wasn't nervous enough before the start.  Somehow she managed to find me after the race and gleefully exclaimed that she was finally able to relieve herself before the starting gun went off.  I laughed so hard over her excitement to tell me that I ran off to the bathroom.

Upcoming Event: The 107^th running of the Boston Marathon takes place this Monday at Noon.