HOLMDEL, NJ — Was the alleged New Jersey "pooping superintendent" merely afflicted with a case of runner's diarrhea?

New Jersey — and the rest of America — continues to wonder what could have possibly been behind the actions of Thomas Tramaglini, the Kenilworth superintendent accused of defecating on the Holmdel high track and football field multiple times. Holmdel police said the track team was stumbling over human feces "on a daily basis," and one Holmdel source told Patch it happened at least eight times over the past few months.

UPDATE: Kenilworth Keeps Alleged 'Pooping Superintendent' On Paid Leave

Tramaglini, 42, was arrested at 5:50 a.m. Monday, April 30, after the school district put up cameras that allegedly caught him in the act.

Holmdel superintendent Robert McGarry did not get back to Patch when asked if the track was even open to the public in the early morning hours.

Most people familiar with running know about the unfortunate medical phenomenon of suddenly, very urgently, having to empty bowels in the middle of a run. It even has nicknames: Runners' trots. Mud butt. Both men and women marathoners have been seen crossing finish lines with fecal matter, urine and even menstrual blood streaming down their legs. A Colorado woman nicknamed "the Mad Pooper" apologized to a neighboring family after she repeatedly pooped on their lawn during her morning runs. And Superintendent Tramaglini is a serious runner, completing the New York City marathon in 2010 with an impressive finish time of 03:48:25, NJ.com reported.

But, hang on a second, says Doug Rice, a former long-distance athlete based in Rumson. That shouldn't happen on a few-mile jog around a high school track before work, and it shouldn't happen with every run, said Rice, the president of the Sandy Hookers Triathlon Club.



"Four times around a track is one mile, so let's say he does a max of five miles every morning. And I really don't see him running more than that distance every day," said Rice. "It really shouldn't happen on that kind of run. It's not typical."

Rice, now 62, has completed 14 Ironman triathalons, which consist of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and then a 26.2-mile run, a full marathon. He has also run three or four independent marathons. His company, Split-Second Racing, times marathons up and down the Jersey Shore and in New York. Sudden gastrointestinal upset is also really more about what you eat the night before, he said.