Running Gluten Free Style

Our son ran cross-country and track in high school. He ran 5K’s, 10K’s and half marathons for fun on weekends and at fourteen and fifteen was consistently winning top honors in his age group.

He loved running for a couple of years, then he began to complain of severe cramps, shortness of breath, and dizziness while running, even coming close to blacking out a few times. My husband, who is a marathon runner himself, would make sure we brought bagels for the team to each meet and see to it that our son ate one before he ran. His coach constantly joked as a veiled complaint that he was not sticking to the carb-loaded eating program she had designed. The solution? “Eat more carbs before you run,” everyone told him.

He first stopped his weekend races, except for the San Francisco Half Marathon that we run each year as a family. Then he dropped out of track. Next he began to ask if he could drop cross-country, which he used to love so much, and he eventually did drop out.

When medical testing cnfirmed after tenth grade that he had to go gluten free, it all made sense! He instinctively knew that the wheat-filled carbs we were all forcing on him were killing his desire and ability to run. We apologized profusely for hassling him to stuff down the unwanted bagels and pasta. We felt terrible that what we thought would help him, was really hurting him.

I’ve since read of many previously undiagnosed gluten intolerant, wheat allergic and celiac runners that had to quit running for the same reason our son did. They did not know that the recommended dose of pre-race wheat was toxic to their systems and making it unpleasant, if not impossible to continue to run.

Running Gluten Free Style

To successfully run gluten free style, you have to skip all race festivities involving food and plan your own menu. If out of town travel is involved, do your research and pick gluten friendly restaurants and pack race-day snacks such as Jelly Belly Energy Beans and fruit roll ups. Many gluten free energy bars to fit any taste are available at health food specialty stores.

In 2007, the Fargo Marathon became the first “gluten free marathon,” offering all GF pre-race and post-race refreshments, pastas, energy bars, and even gluten free goodie bags. Hopefully, the current gluten free trend will continue to spread throughout the runners’ world, making it easier for the gluten intolerant to participate.

You can join Team Gluten Free, sponsored by Rice Chex and other gluten friendly companies, http://www.teamglutenfree.org/, by picking any event anywhere (5K, 10K, half marathon, or marathon) and register as a member. Gather a group to run with or join an existing group online and you all get a t-shirt as you help raise money for Celiac disease at the same time.

If you’re aware of any gluten friendly running events – post them below!