My cup overfloweth!!!- Marathon sports drink

dreddie

I emailed Dublin Marathon to check on whether sports drinks are in cups or bottles. They replied that drinks are to be given out in cups only. (Water is in bottles).

Is this a sign of the recession? For an entry fee of 70-90yoyos they can't afford to give out sports drinks in bottles. I'm sure they don't pay a whole lot for the drinks as it is advertising exposure for the manufacturer.

I usually take my sports drink in a bottle and drink it over a period of 2-3 minutes. Drinking from cups ends up being somewhere between having a shower and doing a nasal wash out!

Should we petition the race organisers?

Aggie Plod

I would prefer bottles of sports drinks definately. Far too sickening to gulp down. I find this news very stressful as I've been training with bottles of drinks and sometimes take a mile or 2 to drink it which works very well for me. I have done a couple of marathons and the drinks stations are chaotic enough (no offense to organisers anywhere - I think it's usually just runners panicking a bit) but the idea of Dublin,now already massively subscribed with crowds knocking each other over slooshing sports drinks is not pleasant.
Don't know what I'll do,can't think of enough people who can commit to hand over a drink at a specific spot and my other half is running too

dreddie

Thanks for the quick reply Plod.

I just think it's really cheap for the country's premier marathon. Do other major marathons use bottles of cups for their drinks?

Does anybody think that this could be changed?

RacoonQueen

They gave out bottles last year 95% of which was wasted.

Edit: you could always empty out one of the small water bottles and fill it with sports drink or run round the back of the drinks station and grab a bottle.

dreddie

I've more to be concentrating on mid-marathon than practising my decanting skills! I hadn't planned to carry a funnel.

rigal

Yeah, this would annoy me as well. It was the same story in longford last month and I managed to pour sportsdrink into one of my eyes. Thank god I had a cup of water in my other hand to wash it out with.

They're not going to change now so best bet is to have someone in the crowd with a bottle(s) to hand you when you pass by. Other option is to stash a few along the route. Neither are ideal but are probably your best options aside from carrying bottles on a belt.

RJC

+1 - I always stash 2 drinks - generally 14 -16 miles and at 20 miles.

Sometimes they are for the body, sometimes they are for the mind.

God bless the suburban hedge.

One of the side benefits is that you get to see the second half of the route - good for mental imaging (y'know......'just after this hill is the easy bit, just 2 more miles, etc')

--amadeus--

I carried a 500ml bottle of sports drink with me for my first few marathons. You can also get belts that have small drinks bottles in them.

You can make a spout and pour / drink the drink as you run but it is messy but you'll get enough. Or you could walk teh aid stations and ensure you drink enough - apparently the benefit of enough drink outweighs the time lost.

As RQ says any race I've seen bottles handed out the vast majority is wasted. And if you go to the end of the aid station its not nearly as crowded and I've never seen anyone knocked over or sloshing drinks out of peoples hands anywhere - believe me Dublin is nowhere near as crowded as some marathons.

And yes, the vast majority of marathons (including most of teh worlds "big 5") give out drinks in cups.

Aggie Plod

All very valid opinions but seems pointless offering Club energise if getting 100-140mls in a cup at 4 places in race. If you think about the principles behind these drinks you'd have to be some tiny tiny sized enormously efficient runner for that to be of value. Better to advise people at the outset that they need to supply their own.

gerard65

I think its to do with safety. A few thousand stiff plastic bottles on the ground could be difficult to step around, whereas you'll squash a light plastic cup under your foot instead of going over on your ankle.

tunguska

Crap I really thought they'd have the bottles like last year. Time to recruit a few mates to wait with bottles during the race I reckon.

average_runner

I think its poor form that they dont mention this on the website, as alot of people will assume its like last year i did!!


Also believe be alot of upset people after the marathon about this as they werent told!!

I found the bottles to be great last year, one of the best ideas in the dublin marathon from the people that organise it. Lets face it, its a complete rip off consider the crap good bags you get. Its the worst goodie bag of all the organise races in Dublin that i ever completed in.

sideswipe

I have not been drinking sports drinks during training so it should'nt effect me, though I would'nt fancy drinking from a cup on the run (i would imadgine you'd have to stop and drink it) The question I have is do most experianced runners drink sports drinks and take gels during a race or it it one or the other?

average_runner

Thats the problem, majority of people in the race arent experience runners and rely on certain things like this.

Last year was my first one and i used gels, water and the sports drinks and i do really believe it all got me around, not sure how much is in my head though!!

KentuckyPete

What a cheap shot from DCM!

What's wrong with small bottles? I can't imagine Energise being too happy with this - half their product imaging is contained in the visuals associated with their bottles. Cups of water are fine since you don't mind spilling it on your head or body but that sticky ****e is a different matter.

Some posters are going to put friends out on the route to deliver a supply to them - great idea if you're from Dublin. Those of us travelling up from distance will need to do without or stop and walk.

No warning on the website either... well out of order

average_runner

The bottles of water are essential too, remember that!

Why not reduce the size of the energizer bottles, 500 ml is a bit big, but a 150 be grand!

KentuckyPete

dreddie wrote: »

Should we petition the race organisers?

I'd say it would be a lot more effective to petition the drink vendor

TFBubendorfer

Sorry, can't resist.

Or if you lot can stop whinging for a moment you could start practising drinking from a cup. I'm nowhere near perfect in that respect, but I've done a few marathons where they gave out sports drink in cups rather than bottles, and people do manage.

Better go into hiding now ... :cool:

average_runner

I undertstand what your saying, but for two reasons i prefer bottles:

1 Tried training drinking from the cup and just dont get as much liquid intake!

2. I also like to carry the bottle for a little bit to take the drink in small loads, as too much of an in take will cause you problems! And also you cant carry cups!!

KentuckyPete

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

Sorry, can't resist.

Or if you lot can stop whinging for a moment you could start practising drinking from a cup. I'm nowhere near perfect in that respect, but I've done a few marathons where they gave out sports drink in cups rather than bottles, and people do manage.

Better go into hiding now ... :cool:

Relax boy, it's not a deal killer - people won't pull out because of this - it's just an inconvenience and no harm to ask that it be adjusted. If the anwer is "No" then fair enough, worth a try.

Now that I think of it, I read your blog on the Dingle race (an inspirational article by the way - boy do I want to run there next year after reading it). Didn't you complain there about a mishap with a fizzy energy drink? In my book a totally justified complaint but pretty similar to this one. Definitely not "whinging" (sic)

TFBubendorfer

KentuckyPete wrote: »

Now that I think of it, I read your blog on the Dingle race (an inspirational article by the way - boy do I want to run there next year after reading it). Didn't you complain there about a mishap with a fizzy energy drink? In my book a totally justified complaint but pretty similar to this one. Definitely not "whinging" (sic)

True enough, but the problem in that case was that fact that it was fizzy - not really what my stomach needed at that exact moment in time. It was in a bottle, which shows that having drink in bottles doesn't solve all you hydration problems either.

I'd prefer sports drink in a bottle myself, and I have ended up snorting rather than drinking stuff from a cup on more than one occasion. But my point is, instead of going on and on about it, just deal with it. They had Gatorade in cups in Boston, and 25000 runners managed just fine.

If I remember correctly, they had High 5 energy drink in cups in Connemara. But since there was so little liquid in each cup you could just gulp it all down in one go. It left you unsatisfied but not choking either.

Peckham

I would never expect to get a sports drink in a bottle mid-race and was very surprised when I was handed one leaving the Phoenix Park in last year's race. They said last year that sports drinks would be in cups, but bottles materialised on the day.

A number of issues to consider here:

1) The logistics of supplying 5,000+ bottles of Club Energise at each of the 4 aid stations where they are provided is not exactly easy. AFAIK 500ml is the smallest sized Club Energise bottle, so without changing the production process in the factory, this is all that they can supply in bottled form. That's a lot of reasonably sized bottles to deposit around the city.

2) The associated mess of discarded, half full bottles (coupled with all the water bottles) is an injury risk, particularly for those further back in the pack.

I don't think bottles should be provided, however, the marathon website is a little misleading on this issue. On the course map, the illustration for sports drink stations is a little orange bottle which could lead some to expect bottles. This should perhaps be changed.

Peckham

...and to add to my previous post:

Why not just stop at the aid stations and drink your fill of sports drink? Have read elsewhere that you easily gain back through a stronger finish the time lost by stopping to ensure proper hydration. Think Krusty Clown stopped at the water stations in Berlin last weekend, and he was only a wee bit off a sub-3 marathon.

Alternatively, there is a technique you can master that involves carrying a small straw in your shorts pocket and by using this and pinching the top of the cup it's easy to drink from a plastic cup without spilling.

rigal

^^^
Have to disagree there. Do these same points not apply to the supply of waterbottles as well?

4 stations isn't a lot, it would save the organisers pouring time (into all those cups) and it's not like they can't cover the logistics costs (I'm assuming it's a profitable event). If cost really is an issue then a sensible approach would be to have the bottles available at 2 of the proposed 4 stations.

If people are worried about tripping on bottles they'll need to watch out for water bottles as well. I think a bit of common sense goes a long way - people just need to look where they're stepping. I didn't see anyone struggle with it in Edinburgh earlier this year, where both water and energy drinks were supplied in bottles.

Also, just because some of the world's biggest marathons still hand out cups doesn't mean it's the correct way to do things.

I don't expect bottles at a small local road race where I'm maybe paying €10 to enter but I do expect it at an event where they're already charging €50+ as an entry fee.

kennyb3

tried their website but didnt get far, anyone know what level of sodium, carbs and electolytes are in this club energise stuff and how it compares to gels in that regard. also is it only the orange one they are giving out?

RJC

A solution:

go down to the shops and buy a sponge. Cut it up and keep it somewhere nice and clean (you shorts?, an elastic band on your wrist?).

At the water/energy stops grab 2 cups. gulp one and discard. Shove the sponge into the other cup and suck on the sponge without spillages.

If it is water in the cup you can sponge your face and neck as you go.

Rotterdam did something like this this year (it didn't work for me - the sponge was too small).