A runner’s comeback against Crohn’s
He was an ultra runner and beer miler before the disease sidelined him. Now he’s back with “a new bum”
Crohn’s Disease can have horrible side effects which can affect running — including frequent emergency toilet stops and suffering from fatigue.
Robert Gale has endured those flare-ups and Crohn’s complications that sidelined him from his love of running for a year.
Recently, he made a running comeback after surgery that resulted in a stoma, an artificial opening in the abdomen opening that allows feces or urine either from the intestine or from the urinary tract to pass.
As a former coach for Team Challenge, I’ve seen several runners fight the chronic Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis. It’s an ugly disease that Robert and others show amazing grit to fight through with medication, hospitalization and long recoveries.
In this Q+A, Robert talks about running with his “new bum,” conquering the beer mile and his advice for others running with Crohn’s.
You usually run with the Mikkeller Running Club. What does a run with them normally entail?
The club started 3 years ago and is part of a bigger group of clubs around the world. The Brewery Mikkeller started the club and chapters have sprouted up around the world in pubs and bottle shops. The runs are always informal, and usually involve a 5k or 10k run with beer afterward.
If people choose to run fast they can but most just use it as a social and have a chat and a run. And being located in a bottle shop or pub, people tend to stick around for a couple of beers afterward. You can read about my return to Beer Running Club on my blog, My New Bum.
You had to take a break from running with the group last May. What happened and how did it affect your health?
I’ve had Crohn’s Disease, or some variant of it, for 17 years and in March/April 2018 I had a flare up which made it difficult to run.
Some people may have tried to plow on and keep running. But physically and mentally I found it very tough.
So rather than making things worse by trying to run, and continuing to fail, I thought it…
