The week before my last period I had a moment of “oh crap”. And that was because I realized I was most likely going to still have my period during my marathon that weekend.

Why hadn’t I realized that before?

Well, when I originally did my calculations I was supposed to just have finished up my period when it came time for the race.

But because my Sept/Oct cycle was longer than normal (30 days instead of 26) the rest of my cycles had all been shifted back 3-4 days.

Thankfully, my cycle was back to “normal" and I had a 26-day cycle, with my period starting on November 9th, and the last day of my period ended up being the day I ran, which was perfect.

No need to worry about changing out my cup or leaking while running.

But I wanted to share my game plan if I would have had a heavier day during my run.

+ Use menstrual cup, which I did anyway. This would be my top tip. It would have been a pain to fit in tampons even though I had a little pouch on my hydration belt. With a cup, you don’t need anything extra. Just pull it out, dump it and put it back in.

+ Wear your best, most “I’ve got you covered", pair of period underwear. Even though I knew it was one of my last days of my period I wasn’t going to mess around. My period has a way of doing mysterious things when I run. I grabbed my “thickest” pair of Modibodi underwear, which could have supported me through a heavy day without a cup.

+ Don't wear anything too tight around your waist. Not sure about you but I find I bloat and cramp when I’m wearing tight things around my uterus during my period. Thankfully the pair of Michael’s thick tights I ended up wearing fitting me nicely but not nearly as tight as my normal pair.

+ Have a water bottle with you to clean off your hands if needed. Regardless of if you’re on your period or not you’re going to have to use porta potties on the run. If you need to rinse out your cup or your hands before using the hand sanitizer that’s where a water bottle comes in super handy. I had two on my race belt, and while I just drank out of them, I could have used them to spray off my hands (into the toilet).

+ Go with it. The last thing you need to be worrying about when you’re getting through those miles is leaking. So go prepared, wear dark pants, and say, Well I’ve done all that I can and then just focus on the run.

Has anyone ran a race on their period, what was your strategy, and what advice do you have?

Also, we're two and a half weeks out from the next session of Chart Your Cycle! S,o if you're ready to learn how to use the sympto-thermal method in all of it's greatness, grab you spot today!