The thriller is equal elements scatological and consequential, and it’s the speak of the skilled working neighborhood in Arizona:

Did a runner defecate close to a public highschool monitor in Sedona, Ariz., and have elite skilled runners been restricted from utilizing the monitor due to it?

The questions grew to become public on Tuesday when Sam Parsons, an expert runner for the Tinman Elite group, tweeted “Wait… this story of why professional runners in Flag are banned from utilizing Sedona HS monitor for coaching rn can’t be actual.”

It was definitely true that the college had determined to restrict outsiders’ entry to the monitor. It was much less clear that it had accomplished so as a result of a runner had defiled it, however that hardly mattered. The incident nearly immediately was dubbed “poopgate” — a hashtag emerged — and a number of working podcasts mentioned it.

Molly Seidel, the bronze medalist on the Tokyo Olympic marathon who lives in close by Flagstaff, tweeted about it. So did Rachel Schneider, one other Olympian in Flagstaff. The center-distance runner Nikki Hiltz jokingly posted a photo carrying a sweatshirt that claims “I Pooped Immediately.” David Ribich wryly distanced himself from the controversy, clarifying that his skilled crew, the Brooks Beasts, trains in Albuquerque, not Flagstaff.

Past the jokes, nonetheless, is a extra sophisticated story, in addition to an unlikely reality: The skilled working ecosystem in the USA depends closely on a public highschool monitor in a metropolis with lower than 10,000 individuals.

Flagstaff has turn out to be a mecca of distance working, rivaling and even surpassing Portland, Ore., and Boulder, Colo., over the previous decade. It sits about 7,000 ft above sea degree, the proper elevation for year-round altitude coaching, and boasts gentle summer time temperatures and tons of of miles of trails.

As runners moved there, infrastructure developed. Northern Arizona College in Flagstaff has received 5 of the final six males’s N.C.A.A. cross nation championships, and the working shoe producer HOKA sponsors an expert crew, the Northern Arizona Elite, based mostly there.

Nearly as vital as Flagstaff, nonetheless, is the monitor in Sedona that helps runners observe the stay excessive, practice low credo of endurance athletics.

A vacationer vacation spot identified for its purple sandstone rocks and artwork galleries, Sedona is a couple of 45-minute drive from Flagstaff, and about 2,500 ft nearer to sea degree. Runners dwelling in Flagstaff incessantly journey to the Purple Rock Jr. Sr. Excessive Faculty monitor for top depth velocity work and intervals, coaching that’s much less efficient at Flagstaff’s greater altitude.

“For runners usually, I might admit that it’s a significant a part of the Flagstaff coaching expertise,” Ben Rosario, the coach of Northern Arizona Elite, wrote of the Sedona monitor in an e mail. Simply within the final month, he stated, he has seen athletes from everywhere in the United States, Canada and Europe following the high-low path from Flagstaff to Sedona.

Even with skilled runners flocking to the area, the Sedona highschool had the identical casual rule as public faculty tracks throughout the nation — anyone might present up and use the monitor outdoors faculty hours, and typically even throughout faculty hours. However in response to each a rising trash downside and the coronavirus pandemic, final yr the district’s operations director instituted a system by which working teams had been requested to order time on the monitor. Additionally they needed to have insurance coverage and pay a nominal payment.

In some instances, the worldwide working neighborhood apparently wasn’t conscious of the native rule. Earlier than final summer time’s Tokyo Video games, the monitor was virtually swarming with Olympic hopefuls who had relocated — some from as far-off as Japan — to what they thought-about the proper coaching surroundings. Skilled groups based mostly elsewhere additionally incessantly maintain coaching camps in Flagstaff.

“With world Covid restrictions lifted, athletes from everywhere in the world have traveled to Flagstaff this winter to coach and plenty of had been going to Sedona to work out with out going by the right channels,” Rosario stated. “Once you do this, the services usually are not open, together with the bogs.”

As for what prompted the college to limit entry to the monitor, no person was prepared to totally describe the misdeed. Rosario stated the incident occurred a number of weeks in the past, however he wasn’t certain what it was. Stephen Haas, an agent who represents many runners who practice on the monitor, stated the rumors had been “solely partially true,” however wouldn’t say extra.

However the story is clearly greater than a rumor. Jennifer Chilton, the director of operations for the college district, acknowledged in an e mail that the college had diminished the variety of reservations it was taking to make use of the monitor. The rationale, she stated, was principally to make it accessible to college students who wished to make use of it.

Nonetheless, she stated, “It’s correct to say, in a restricted approach, that behaviors of some runners performed a task,” Chilton wrote. She stated that whereas she is just not a runner, she has realized that runners relieving themselves outdoors is just not uncommon and that “packing bathroom paper is frequent and evidenced.”

Chilton stated her fundamental concern was the well-being of the scholars and lamented that “the main focus is on what’s sensational.”

The identification of any runner or runners who might have dedicated a sensational act stays a thriller. Runners and working followers have scoured Instagram photographs to find out which teams skilled within the space prior to now month, and pointed their fingers at a few out-of-town monitor golf equipment, which denied any indiscretions.

Within the meantime, solely school-affiliated teams are allowed to make use of the monitor, although previous reservations are being honored. Skilled runners have migrated quickly — they hope — to much less storied tracks in close by Cottonwood or Camp Verde, or they’re staying in Flagstaff.

Some members of the skilled working neighborhood are engaged on a proposal to revive entry to the monitor that they’ll current at a college board assembly subsequent week. Rosario stated an answer would wish to maintain college students protected, adequately compensate the college, and final however not least enable “skilled monitor athletes to make use of a facility that simply occurs to be within the good location as they practice for the Olympic Video games.”