Can a Mexican Meal Give Me a Gas-Powered Boost?
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Herson Rodriguez, Unsplash.com
Dear Dumb Runner,
My friends invited me to meet them for tacos at a delicious Mexican restaurant, which is AWESOME. But I have a long run the next morning. What's the best way to eat at a Mexican restaurant so that you're ripping past your friends thanks to a stink powered boost?—Eric P., Minneapolis
Dear Eric,
I appreciate what you're saying, but you are playing with fuego here. Mexican food before a run—even the night before—is seldom a prudent choice. I would go so far as to call it imprudent.
Yes, I know. Imprudent is an ugly word. But this is your gastrointestinal tract we're talking about.
Is it possible to engineer a taco feast with precision, ingesting just the right things at just the right time, so that it results in explosive gas the next morning? Perhaps... if everything goes exactly the way it should. But it's also possible, likely even, that one tiny lapse—choosing the wrong night, or the wrong restaurant, to opt for pork over beef; getting some queso that's not so fresco; etc.—will come back to haunt you. In a memorably painful way.
There are other considerations, too—namely, those of your running buddies, who would be the ones made to witness the results if your little culinary plan goes wrong. A little "stink" could well be the least of their worries, let me assure you.
For the record, I think tacos pair extremely well with running—see Running and Tacos: FAQ—as long as you enjoy them after your run. If you must rip past your friends, then, I suggest you do so the old-fashioned way—i.e. by "digging deep."
Thank you for writing!
Yours,
Mark
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