Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 118, May 2019 | Page 29

local community, the situation was brought back under control. Had runners just understood that they could survive without water, and would have assisted the situation by taking fewer sachets at the next table, the scenario would have stabilised almost immediately. In this case, after the event it was shown that there was well in excess of the required water ordered and delivered, but an error on one table resulted in massive impact. This Year in SA Taking all the above into account, it’s clear why race organisers will never plan to run short of water, nor cut orders to save a few bucks. So why have so many races run out of water, particularly this year, around the country? Of course, there may be specific cases of errors in ordering or dispatching, but there are also key concerns and aspects that contribute to this phenomenon. This distorts the signals and hence prevents the brain from controlling the body’s exertion. Drinking Too Much In an interesting reflection, it was noted that between 1921 and 1980 there had been no cases of heat stroke in the Comrades. Then in 1981, travelling personal seconds were banned and water tables were provided at 1.5km intervals instead. It was then that the first cases of heat exhaustion started to appear, and indeed the first cases of ‘over-hydration’ (hyponatraemia) were identified. Over-hydration is a potential killer, as it dilutes the electrolyte levels in the blood, and also initiates swelling. Patients can go into a coma and die. To the best of my knowledge, the 2007 London Marathon has the case of the fastest marathoner to die from over-hydration, when David Rogers collapsed after finishing in 3:30. That year the temperature climbed to 23.5 degrees Celsius, with radiated temperatures of over 27 degrees from road surfaces – extremely hot by UK standards – and the runners in London were thus advised to drink more. As a result, by 15km even the sub-4:00 runners were faced with empty tables, meaning that around 30% of the field (10,000 runners) had taken the water planned for 35,000 runners! next table, they became fearful of a water shortage ahead, so each took extra sachets to carry with them. This meant that instead of a normal two to three sachets, they took five to six sachets per runner. For every runner that got water, one runner behind was now going to lose out later, and as the news spread forward, each table experienced the same thing, soon getting cleaned out. It was then that the nightmare for the organisers hit, when they found out that only one store room of water sachets for the tables in Orlando had been emptied. They now tried to get those other sachets, and all reserve supplies, to Orlando, but to do so with the road closures meant that they had to access the water points by driving some distance along the race route itself. Ironically, the runners themselves were delaying the very supplies that they would want at the next stop. And when the supplies did arrive, often brought in small quantities by cars, despite requests for runners to only take two each, they would take four or five, continuing the trend. What was effectively a two-station shortage thus turned into a last 16km of no water for many runners. Both the runners and organisers fought the ‘fire’ for around three hours, and with the assistance of the 1 Cooling Down: Firstly, the summer of 2018-2019 has been particularly hot. This impacts on heat perception for runners and increases the use of water as a means of cooling. The sponges and water troughs of yesteryear are no longer used, due to health concerns, and water showers lost popularity due to the waste of water, and thus the focus has come back to using sachets for cooling instead of drinking. In hot weather, this distorts the required quantities in a race. 2 Bucket List Bubble: Thanks to a number of initiatives, running is experiencing a second boom: parkrun has shown previous ‘couch potatoes’ that with a little exercise they can go further, and trendy bucket list participation has been embraced around the likes of 70.3 Ironman, 94.7 and Cape Town Cycle Tours, and the Two Oceans and Comrades ultra- marathons. The latter two have been keen to increase numbers, which improves their viability for both sponsors and financials. The combination has seen a boost in numbers in the sport, and hence in qualifying races. This growth is not, however, as an equal percentage across the finishing order from front to back. This is largely a ‘bubble growth’ around the 53 to 63-minute 10k, 2:00 to 2:30 half marathon, and 4:15 to 5:15 marathon runner. This is where we start to find relatively young runners (25-40) having joined the sport with the sole aim of completing a challenge event. While many The organisers had made 500ml of water available per runner every 1.5km, and a further seven Lucozade stations brought the potential fluid on offer to over 15 litres if a runner only took one item at each station throughout the race. A normal ballpark for a 3:30 marathoner to consume in a marathon would be 1.75 litres. It’s counter-intuitive that a runner should die from over-hydration in a race that was actually being slammed in the media for running out of water! When One Table Runs Dry… One of the classic examples of spiralling water deficit came a few years ago in the Soweto Marathon, when the mid-pack runners reached the Orlando Stadium area. The sun had come up, and the climb back to NASREC loomed large as the runners headed towards Canada Road. The water table there was quickly emptied, with every sachet handed out, and there was still around one hour of runners to come. The runners who missed out were searching for single sachets, and by the time they arrived at the 29