If you’re a regular runner, chances are you’ve been hit by a stitch. This stabbing pain in the abdomen – and in some cases shoulder – can strike seemingly out of nowhere and derail your best-laid race day plans. But is it avoidable?
The more I dug into this pesky phenomenon, the more mysterious it became. There’s a surprising lack of concrete answers on what causes a stitch, how to get rid of it while running, and measures you can take to avoid it altogether. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t theories as to the origin and proposed ways to mitigate the problem.
