越野跑者必须了解的野外排便礼仪与规则

Updated October 12, 2026 12:53PM

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Sometimes you can’t stop nature from calling, but don’t let the infamous Hyrox incident stop you from getting to the start line. The perfect poop starts with a plan, and believe it or not, it’s far easier on trails than in a convention center. Sarah Wassner Flynn fleshes, or should we say flushes, out the rules for a courteous crap below.

Last month, Australian athlete Joanna Wietrzyk was competing at Hyrox Beijing, an indoor fitness competition, when she suffered a sudden bout of fecal incontinence roughly halfway through her race. Rather than step off the shared course, she kept going, through burpees on a carpeted floor, a stint on the seated rowing machine, and running segments, ultimately winning the race in just over an hour.

The story, to no one’s surprise, went mega-viral. Sure, there was the shock value of an athlete losing control of her bodily functions on camera. But that’s an unfortunate side effect many endurance athletes have experienced or witnessed on a race course at some point. Marathoner Paula Radcliffe popped a squat on the side of the road in front of live TV cameras while leading the 2005 London Marathon. 2026 Ironman World Champion and four-time Ironman 70.3 World champion Taylor Knibb famously quipped to a broadcast cameraman, “I just s*&% myself, so can you not get my ass?” en route to winning the T100 final in 2024. What made Wietrzyk’s case different from those other bowel movements etched in sports history was the indoor setting on shared equipment, with other athletes racing around (or behind) her the entire time.

The backlash that followed was less about the accident itself and more about how Wietrzyk was allowed to continue racing while putting other competitors at risk. Hyrox responded to the incident within days, updating its rulebook to allow race officials to pull an athlete whose “blood, vomit, urine, or feces” pose a health or contamination risk to themselves or others—an addition that, notably, hadn’t existed until now.

Of course, trail running doesn’t have Hyrox’s shared-equipment problem—there’s no carpet to contaminate and everything takes place outside. But in a sport where pooping mid-race is more or less a given over the course of enough miles, the underlying questions are the same. Are race organizers doing enough to provide proper bathroom access on remote courses? And what obligations, written or unwritten, do runners have to protect the trails and each other?

“A Reality of the Sport”

Ask any longtime ultrarunner and they’ll tell you: bathroom stops are a long-standing, half-joking, half-serious topic of conversation in the sport. Hours of running and bouncing shake up your gastrointestinal system. Throw in early-morning coffee, gels, and nerves, and it’s inevitable you’ll need to go at some point. Many races provide porta-potties at aid stations, but in longer races, when there’s no bathroom for miles, stepping off-course to relieve yourself is a near-given.

“Whenever you have a race of more than eight hours, if you don’t have some kind of bathroom urge, you’re likely severely underfueling,” says Kristen Kelman, an ultrarunner in Deerfield, Illinois and the 2021 Road Runners Club of America 50-Mile National Champion. “It’s often not logistically possible to have any sort of bathroom nearby. It’s a reality of the sport.”

For ultrarunners, that reality comes with a responsibility to take care of the land they’re using, which means being just as deliberate about how they go as where they go.

“It’s an issue of trail stewardship,” Kelman says. “We have a responsibility to take care of the trails and the land we are using so that we can continue to explore and challenge ourselves in these wild and beautiful places. That includes being responsible about your poop.”

The Problem With Poop

While expectations and guidelines vary from race to race, most events follow the seven principles of Leave No Trace, which aim to protect natural spaces and ensure a sustainable future for the planet. The principles apply to everything from disposing of waste to where to wander in the woods, with poop being a paramount point of concern.

“Human waste is often cited as one of the most concerning impacts from recreation that land managers are facing,” Erin Collier, director of education for the Leave No Trace organization in Boulder, Colorado, says. “Given the popularity of [trail running], the scale of the events, and the often-remote nature of the courses, it’s safe to assume the potential for human waste impact is high. When human waste isn’t disposed of properly, the potential for environmental and public health impacts is significant.”

Collier adds that more than 100 protozoans, bacteria, and viruses have been identified in human waste, including Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium parvum, various coliform bacteria, and viruses such as Hepatitis A.

“These can contaminate water sources and spread disease,” she says. “This is why proper burial techniques or packing it out is so important. A common misconception is that if a bear can poop in the woods, so can you. ”

In other words, simply ducking a few feet off-trail to go behind a tree isn’t enough. Standard Leave No Trace guidance is straightforward: If you need to go, get at least 200 feet from the trail and water sources, dig a 6-to-8-inch cathole, and bury your waste thoroughly. Runners should carry their own supplies—like toilet paper, wipes, and a trowel—and pack out their used materials.

In some environments, however, experts recommend taking things a step further and suggest pooping in a plastic bag filled with waste-alleviating gel, also known as a WAG bag.

“WAG bags are recommended or required when you are unable to dig an adequate cathole, get the appropriate distance from water, or are in specialized or high-use environments like the desert terrain of the [American] Southwest, deep snow, or high alpine where soil is too rocky to dig,” Collier says. “It’s important to understand the waste disposal requirements for the area you’re running in.”

What Race Rules Actually Say

Who’s responsible for what when a runner has to go mid-race?

“Both runners and race organizers have important roles to play, and one shouldn’t replace the other,” Collier says.  While the onus should fall largely on runners to prepare for their own needs and pack out what they bring in, race organizers set the tone for what’s expected, though in many cases official race policy on the subject is quite thin.

The race regulations for the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), one of the most prestigious trail running festivals on the planet which hosts some 10,000 runners each August across its various events, don’t specifically address bathroom protocol on the trails. Participants receive plastic bags at packet pickup along with their race bibs to be used for “soiled paper used during any urgent need along the route” and runners are reminded to “keep their rubbish and wrappers with them until they can throw them in the bins at an aid station.” A separate section of the UTMB website dedicated to “good practices on the trails,” is more direct: “If you’re caught short in the wild, move away from trails and water points, don’t stop behind a shelter, hut or refuge, and take your paper with you.”

The race guide for Cocodona 250, a point-to-point ultramarathon in Arizona, is more prescriptive than UTMB, though different from Leave No Trace’s standard policy of going 200 feet off-trail. Under “Restroom use on Course,” the rules say: “It happens. Step 30 feet off the trail and dig a 6 inch (or deeper) hole. Used wet wipes / TP must be packed out in a zip-lock. DO NOT LEAVE TP ON THE TRAILS!”

And the rules for the Leadville 100, the 100-mile endurance race held in the Rocky Mountains near Leadville, Colorado, include a line prohibiting “public urination,” but don’t specifically address pooping (that likely falls under the race’s Leave No Trace policy: “No garbage, clothing, or race-related items may be left on course”).

The “Unspoken Rule”

Some race directors don’t feel the need to go out of their way to spell out bathroom expectations. Andy Bacon, owner of Ex2 Adventures, an events management company that hosts dozens of trail-running and adventure races throughout the Washington, D.C. metro area each year, says while pointing out porta-potties is standard, telling people where to poop elsewhere is never on his to-do list.

“People are always asking about the bathroom situation, and I make sure they know about the porta-potties we provide at the start and sometimes along the course, but I’m not providing information about where to go when you can’t make it to a porta-potty,” he says. “My role as a race director is to inform people of what their options are, but I don’t think I have to tell people, ‘hey, you should carry toilet paper in case you need to go to the bathroom in the woods.’”

In the culture of ultra-distance and trail running, Bacon says the hows and wheres of relieving yourself are “sort of just an unspoken rule.” “Most people know that if you’re going to be spending most of your day out in the woods, you’re going to have a pack with a plastic bag with toilet paper in it,” he says. “And if you have to go, you’re prepared for it, you do what you have to do, and you move on. It’s not a big deal.”

Many ultrarunners we spoke to were equally nonchalant. Asked about his own methods, uber-ultrarunner Michael Wardian, who had just finished running all 2,650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, said simply, “I try to get well off trail and then bury anything.”

When It Gets Awkward

Awkward encounters happen, especially in the late stages of an ultra, when sleep deprivation and fatigue can lead to poor decision-making.

“I’ve definitely seen a lot more than I signed up for,” Kelman says. “For me, seeing another runner go is one thing. But if it’s a family hiking with small kids out there and they [witness] someone pooping, that’s definitely over the line.”

While individual runners may be reluctant to share unsavory stories about pooping mid-race, the bravery provided by an anonymous avatar leaves Reddit boards full of them. One runner described passing three people who had stopped less than 10 feet from the trail during a race without porta-potties. Another recounted a friend who had to stop in the middle of a flat, open desert: “I swear everyone within five miles knew he was popping a squat.”

Have a Poop Plan

The, uh, bottom line? Shit happens, as Joanna Wietrzyk’s viral race in Beijing made clear. But ultimately, Collier says, doing your business the most environmentally and ethically responsible way on the trails comes down to having a plan.

“It’s safe to assume that poop will be a part of anyone’s race experience and [runners] should not assume that a lack of restroom facilities gives them permission to leave waste or toilet paper wherever they choose,” Collier says. “There should be a plan in place at all levels for how to deal with poop in the least impactful way.”