I love the NYC Marathon. It’s the runner pooping on my lawn that bugs me

One morning about five years ago, I was making coffee at my family home when I noticed something strange outside the kitchen window.A hunched-over figure. Athletic shorts bunched around ankles. Sneakers firmly planted in the grass. For a moment, my groggy brain couldn’t put the pieces together. Then it registered: a woman was defecating on our front lawn.It wasn’t exactly a secluded spot. She was in full view of neighboring homes in our leafy Connecticut suburb, and just steps away from a main road frequented by dog walkers and parents pushing strollers.After finishing her business, the mystery woman jogged away — a little lighter on her feet. Left behind for my dad to dispose of with a shovel was the evidence: a pile of human waste and a few wet wipes.For years afterward, my family retold the story of the “pooping runner,” laughing about the woman who relieved herself in broad daylight beneath our dogwood tree. We assumed it was a weird, one-time thing. But then, this month, it happened again. The same woman, the same patch of grass.‘Not even an apology’ ... A mystery jogger keeps pooping on the author’s front lawn. As he would learn, more than a handful of runners practice the dump-and-dash technique (AFP via Getty Images)“I was at the kitchen sink this morning to witness our pooping visitor,” my mom texted me on Oct. 13. This time, she went outside to speak to the woman, asking if she needed anything and where she’d left the mess. “She pointed to the tree and said, ‘It will go away,’” my mom said. “Not even an apology,” mom added.The second incident left me with a question I never thought I’d ponder: How often are joggers just…dropping trou out in the open?After speaking to runners and exploring remote corners of social media, I discovered there are more than a handful of dump-and-dashers living among us. When nature calls mid-run, these people answer. Hiking trails, backyards, graveyards and busy roadways have been used as make-shift commodes. “If I can be vulnerable, I had to go when I was running in Central Park the other day…I had to sprint into the woods…It was a dire situation,” a friend, who is training for the New York City Marathon and asked not to be named, told me.Social media, meanwhile, is awash with vivid confessionals.“I think it’s safe to assume I’ve fertilized more than half of the bushes in my town. I wish I were joking,” a Reddit user wrote in a running thread earlier this year. “I once had diarrhea in a garbage can on the Brooklyn Bridge,” another added.The topic has sparked heated debate in the running community. Many are unbothered by the mid-run squat — provided runners are discreet and clean up afterward — arguing it's preferable to soiling oneself. Others find the practice altogether revolting.Jogger Amanda Limon said she frequently has ‘unauthorized evacuations’ while out on the trail (@amandajoylimon)Some who relieve themselves along their routes say they have no choice, given the nearest public bathroom could be miles away.“I have maybe a minute, and then it's coming out whether I want it to or not,” Amanda Limon, a 33-year-old California nanny who frequently has “unauthorized evacuations” while jogging, told me.Last month, she posted a TikTok video recounting how she pooped beside her car in a residential neighborhood, swinging the doors open for privacy. Afterward, she picked up the waste with a bag and rinsed the spot with bottled water.Addison Marchi knows the feeling. The 36-year-old Ohio content creator and mother-of-three recently dashed into the woods to go No. 2 during an eight-mile run. “I would say that running for me is, it's literally pretty much like a laxative,” she told me.That sense of urgency is actually quite common, health and fitness experts say.As part of a 2017 study, 145 runners were asked to track their gastrointestinal symptoms for 30 days. Moderate to severe symptoms affected about 14 percent of men’s runs and 22 percent of women’s runs.Physical activity in general can increase the urge to poop, said Patrick Wilson, an exercise science professor at Old Dominion University and an author of the study. Tens of thousands of runners are set to take part in the New York City marathon on Sunday, Nov. 1 (AFP via Getty Images)“But running specifically seems to be more problematic for people,” he told me. “In particular, if you're running early in the morning, a little bit after awakening, and especially if you've eaten or had caffeine, that's kind of like a trifecta of things that we know can have an effect on, you know, the urge to defecate.”Long-distance runners appear to experience more gastrointestinal symptoms than those who go for a few miles, Wilson said.In a 2017 study of 707 marathon participants in Oregon, 28 percent of runners interrupted their race for bowel movements or diarrhea.Urgency aside, there’s little agreement on the practice, with runners and non-runners trading views across social media platforms.Some consider outdoor defecation acceptable if it takes place in a remote location, such as a wooded area. “Never do it on a path or anywhere that people would be walking,” Marchi said. “Obviously, make sure it’s hidden.”Others don’t object so long as people clean up after themselves. Suggested supplies have ranged from toilet paper to camping trowels. “People have their dogs poop all over everywhere, and they clean it up, and nobody is offended by that,” Limon said. “So I'm like, I'm just like a dog pooping on the ground. I clean it up, and then it's over with.”But not everyone feels obliged to pick up their waste. In comments posted online, runners have admitted to leaving their feces behind with their footprints. And for some, going No. 2 outdoors isn’t a last resort — but something to relish. In a trail-running Reddit thread this year, one user called it a “simple pleasure.” ‘I would say that running for me is, it's literally pretty much like a laxative,’ Addison Marchi said (@addisonrunning)The practice has no shortage of critics.Limon’s TikTok video captioned “You ever just poop in the street?” drew a slew of negative comments. “So this is gross,” wrote one user. Another added: “No shame in this country anymore.”In an ultramarathon thread this year, one user wrote: “It’s totally shocking to me that people in an ultrarunning sub care this little about the ecosystems that they run in. No, human poop is not the same as animal poop. Familiarize yourself with the concept of Leave No Trace.”A few online users have gone further, calling for law enforcement to intervene.Across most of the U.S., people can indeed be prosecuted for defecating in public, according to Ron Hochbaum, a professor at the University of the Pacific School of Law.“Every jurisdiction I have researched has some kind of law on the books at one level or another,” Hochbaum told me. “The rare case where it might not be a criminal law that outlaws public urination or defecation, law enforcement will use their public indecency laws to punish it.”“But you know, criminal law oftentimes will take voluntariness and involuntariness into account,” he said, noting that the relevant laws are often drafted with public intoxication in mind, rather than physical fitness.Just how often these dump-and-dash incidents result in prosecution remains unclear because publicly available data is limited. Still, a handful of instances have garnered media attention in recent years. In 2018, the superintendent of a New Jersey school district was arrested and charged with defecating on a high school track. The man, who subsequently resigned from his job, argued he had a medical condition known as runner’s diarrhea. He later filed a lawsuit against local police, alleging his life had been ruined after his mug shot was “leaked.”Next month, TLC is set to release a two-hour documentary about a mysterious jogger who repeatedly defecated on lawns across Colorado Springs in 2017 (Getty Images)The previous year, an unidentified female jogger in Colorado Springs went viral for repeatedly leaving piles of fecal matter on neighborhood lawns. Police investigated, but no one was ever charged. TLC is set to release a documentary on Nov. 19, which will provide a fresh look at the unsolved case.Two weeks after the mysterious jogger defecated on my parents’ lawn, I returned home to Connecticut to find the extended family still gobsmacked — and divided over what, if anything, should be done.Some proposed installing a Ring camera or calling the police. A few wondered whether the woman might have a vendetta against the family. Perhaps, others suggested, we could simply tell her to knock on the door next time, so she could make use of the indoor plumbing. One evening, I wandered into the yard to inspect the spot beneath the dogwood tree. Sure enough, the evidence remained: a little brown pile in a sea of grass and fallen leaves.A few days later, my mom texted me with an update.“I saw the woman walking this morning,” she wrote. “I resisted the urge to tell her that it hasn’t ‘gone away.’”