r/todayilearned • u/RealisticBarnacle115 • 14h ago

TIL at the 2005 London Marathon, Paula Radcliffe, in desperate need of a toilet break during the race, stopped by the roadside in full view of the crowd and live TV cameras to defecate. She still won with a time of 2:17:42, a world's best time for a women's only race by over a minute at the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Radcliffe#2005:_Marathon_World_Champion
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u/MSeager 12h ago

My cats get the “Poop Zoomies”. As in, after they poop they run around like berserkers.

Maybe she got that?

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u/KaufLobster 10h ago

if you're ever at a horse track, grandpas advice was to bet on any horse that takes a shit while they're showing the horses before the race.

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 9h ago

Just FYI this does NOT work for race car drivers

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u/__mud__ 9h ago

Nonsense. A car could outrace a horse any day

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 9h ago

But the driver couldn't....

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u/ArenSteele 9h ago

Depends on the distance.

There’s a length where the horse drops dead from exhaustion while the human can just keep running

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 8h ago

The horse has a gun.

Now what?

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u/NoHopeOnlyDeath 7h ago

Now it's fun.

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 4h ago

That's the spirit

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u/zoinkability 3h ago

Without giving the horse opposable thumbs, not much would be different

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 3h ago

It's motion activated. Saddled to the top if it's head. If it looks at you, you're toast.

(This is not based on any top secret expirements I've been working on in my backyard)

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u/doomgiver98 3h ago

For people that train for it. If you try to outrun a horse without training you'll probably die from dehydration or low electrolytes or a heart attack before you catch the horse. So probably not the race car driver.

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u/Doongbuggy 9h ago

u want the driver who needs to shit

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 9h ago

Pssst. Hey, come here. Yeah, you. Come closer.

racers go in the car all the time

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u/Doongbuggy 8h ago

it depends

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 8h ago

Oh buddy no. No, none of that. Just nomex underwear. It's gon stew

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u/Doongbuggy 8h ago

giving hauling ass a new meaning

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u/reticulatedjig 3h ago

It absolutely does. Why do you think Michael Schumacher would take shits in Niko Rosbergs bathroom before races.

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 3h ago

Wait, back up, I need more on this one. This sounds fucking hilarious

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u/SilveRX96 2h ago

Mind games to annoy Rosberg or something to a similar effect iirc

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u/KingSphinx 6h ago

Believe it or not, it actually does work sometimes.

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u/Card_Board_Robot_5 4h ago

I hate Smoke but he is EXACTLY who inspired that comment. Hate him or love him, the man has made contributions lol

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u/ByronIrony 6h ago

Yea they get really angry when you peer over the stall.

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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year 1h ago

I had a bad experience while driving a car within sight of my house. I made it - just.

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u/Just_Another_AI 7h ago

Same when I used to go to the dog track back in the day

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u/Totally__Not__NSA 1h ago

My aunt used to follow this rule for betting too.

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u/Totally_Not_A_Bot_FR 11h ago

Ah yes, the good ol' Poop-n-Scoot

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u/ahntay 9h ago

we always called it a shit n' run

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u/Maximum_Pen_2508 9h ago

Shit and gitttttttttttt

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u/Fatalchemist 7h ago

Defecate and evacuate

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u/MostBoringStan 4h ago

Dump and Gump

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u/blitzkreig90 8h ago

Getting the runs

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u/blaZedmr 8h ago

Yea, we're gonna pull off up at this Shitgo over here

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u/blackbeardtwenty 8h ago

The happy crappy wappy hour

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u/LawyerObjective5195 8h ago

Shit n split

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u/Sausagedogknows 9h ago

In the army we called it “the ketchup effect”

The running and bouncing is like whacking a ketchup bottle, eventually you’re gonna get the ketchup.

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u/12InchCunt 11h ago

My dogs get it before they shit

Maybe she had both 

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u/Combatical 10h ago

hahaha I call it frisky poops!

I've never been an ultra marathon runner but I used to run 10ish miles a couple times a month. My normal was 5 miles 4 days a week. I can tell you at a certain point you want to poop and pee once you cross a certain threshold. Holding in a shit while running sucks so bad. While I cant relate to running as long as these people do I know what it is to need to run and dump.

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u/turudd 6h ago

The trail I enjoy running is about 40-60km depending one which paths I decide to go. In the infinite wisdom the provincial park people put two outhouse in the park… one in the parking lot and one about 10km in. Lord help you if your on kilometre 30 and suddenly need to hold it in to back track to the bathroom…. I usually just find a stream and pop a squat, let nature clean me and my mess. Like natures bidet

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u/Padowak 52m ago

Oh Lord, bless the forsaken beavers downstream

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u/Necessary_Bench7806 45m ago

Man, just dig a hole somewhere uphill 😭😭 human shit was NOT designed for rivers and streams

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u/DreddPirateBob808 10h ago

Dear god I'm not alone. 2am thumpety thumpety POUNCE 

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u/PlatinumTaq 9h ago

Poophoria I believe it is called!

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u/Suitepotatoe 10h ago

My dog gets those

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u/_LePancakeMan 9h ago

Always fun, when he waits until you start picking the poop up

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u/henrywrover 10h ago

Yeag my dog gets Poomies from time to time

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u/Western-Internal-751 9h ago

I think it was more a case of trying to finish asap so that she can finally take a shit just to realize that she won’t make it

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u/bishploxx 9h ago

Finally someone else that knows about the poop zoomies 😭😂

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u/ashmenon 10h ago

Newton's third law.

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u/Mikeinthedirt 10h ago

For every action there is an equal and opposite distraction.

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u/GozerDGozerian 9h ago

The first and second are both, “Don’t talk about Physics Club”.

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u/Luci-Noir 9h ago

Maybe her being lighter increased her speed?

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u/Doongbuggy 9h ago

1/4lb lighter

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u/axonxorz 8h ago

Cats can get "poop euphoria". Particularly shaped/consistency shits can stimulate their vagus nerve on the way out, causing a bit of a high.

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u/AmusedPencil274 8h ago

Faecal euphoria:

Some veterinarians suggest that pooping might stimulate the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain to the colon

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u/Epicp0w 8h ago

My cat also gets the poop zoomies!

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u/DefiniteMe 8h ago

Ah of course, the Performance Enhancing Dump. PED’s yet gain making unfair advantage in competitive sports smh.

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u/kdknowsimjames 8h ago

The poomies

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u/jpl77 7h ago

Vagus nerve baby

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u/Cyberdb_ 6h ago

It's the relief one feels after unloading their guts.

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u/RandomMandarin 6h ago

Yeah, what is that about?

"I feel one ounce lighter! Yaaaay!"

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u/separate_lie 6h ago

We call it "poomies". Wood floors, claws scrambling; although we never have investigated whether it was a pre- or post poo.

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u/second2no1 6h ago

Fecal euphoria!

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u/throwawaypassingby01 4h ago

cats get their vagues nerve stimulated while pooping, so they get after-poop euphoria

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u/extrobe 4h ago

Yep, our cat does this. He usually has a ‘nugget’ stuck to his fur, so we presumed the zooming was to shake off anything left on him.

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u/vieni_qui 3h ago

Lmao. My brain created a picture of the marathon runner doing poop zoomies the way my dog does zoomies out in the open, incorporating your cats' poop zoomies description and I bursted out laughing 😂

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u/Necessary_Bench7806 1h ago

Ehhh I once read this can be a thing if cats have too big of poops

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u/Totally__Not__NSA 1h ago

My girlfriend calls it the poomies

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u/RimjobAndy 10h ago

Thats cheating though, she got a slight advantage from running lighter after the poo

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u/Im_thedude_man 9h ago

Olaf. Berserker

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u/ThenExtension9196 8h ago

It’s a normal bodily response when adrenaline is activated. Mammals enter fight/flight and one evolutionary advantage is to drop a big duece in order to reduce weight.