My favourite period story ever involves NASA. When NASA packed off Sally Ride, the first woman that they would send into space, they gave her 100 tampons for a one week trip. There’s a hilarious song my Marcia Belsky about this which includes the line “they were literally rocket scientists”. Although this happened decades ago, it speaks to (some) men’s ignorance about menstruation and the reluctance to have conversations about it. It was easier to hand Sally 100 tampons in a paper bag than to have a conversation about whether she was expecting to be on her period during the trip and how many tampons she might need.
Talking about periods
On Friday I was part of a panel on the main stage at the London Marathon Expo talking about periods and running. There were two GPs and a dietitian on the panel, but I was there to give my personal experience of running and menstruating, as well as a coaching view of working with women runners.
It’s great that London Marathon gave space dedicated to this topic. Back in 2014 when I wrote this piece for the Guardian, it was still somewhat of a taboo subject. At this year’s London Marathon there were period products at every water station, which is great.
Training around your periods
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