The hydration anecdote you've always waited for



On the other hand, Ronald Regan hydrated sufficiently

When I ran the Marine Corps Marathon – my first marathon – I trained with a good buddy who was a better runner than me and more physically fit. We started the race together but he quickly outpaced me and vanished from my sight by mile 5. As I struggled through the pack on a very hot, cloudless 75 degree October day (75 degrees is scorching when running a marathon), I lumbered toward the finish line in 4:00 + hours.

Wrapped in Mylar, proudly sporting a finisher’s medal, and inhaling whatever food I could find, I wandered around our rendezvous point to meet my friend who was certainly already there. Time passed slowly, and with my friend nowhere to be found after and hour and a half, I walked two painful miles to my car and waited another 2 hours then went home and waited longer still until he phoned me from his hospital bed in Fairfax Virginia where he was recuperating from dehydration and kidney failure. He remained in the hospital for three days! He was fed intravenously, and it took him nearly 48 hours to get enough juice just to go to the bathroom.

Later he told me that he was so determined to finish in less than 4 hours that he bypassed all water stations and pushed himself as hard as he could. And he very nearly achieved his goal when 15 yards from the finish line he collapsed. God Bless the United States Marines. They honorably carried him across the finish line so he could claim victory, and they kept right on hauling him until he lay motionless in an ambulance bound for the hospital.

Many of us have suffered the smaller, inconvenient effects of dehydration: muscle spasms and cramps, lethargic runs, constipation, and fatigue. But please remember how neglecting something as simple as drinking water can lead to ruin.

As the Wiggles say, “Gulp. Gulp. Drink some water. It’s so good for you.”

Hyponatremia - like the Bizarro Super Man of Hydration. Or some crazy crap like that

Moderation, jackass

Now that you know all there is to know about proper hydration, and the harmful effects of dehydration, allow me to throw at you physiology’s curve ball: HYPONATREMIA.

Hyponatremia is the complete, total opposite of dehydration. It is the infrared to dehydration’s ultraviolet. The right to its left. The Superman to the Bizarro Superman.

Hyponatremia is when you saturate your body with water while losing sodium in the blood. In other words, is a good ole fashioned water logging.

It happens when you sweat and replace fluids with water and do not replace sodium. Hyponatremia causes fatigue, weakness, cramping nausea, vomiting, bloating, dizziness, headache – and death! Yes, death!

Because its symptoms are actually similar to dehydration, it used to be misdiagnosed. And for the runner who does not regularly jog with a physician, mistaking it for dehydration can be exacerbated by innocently consuming more water.

Hyponatremia occurs most often in hot, humid, long races, especially to runners running longer than 4 or more hours, though it can happen in short races too.

What do you do?

• Stick to sports drinks after 1 hour of running
• Don’t drink more than you sweat – so limit drinks to 1 to 2 cups per water station.
• Be sure to consume sodium – sports drinks -- late in the race. Since sports drinks are mostly water, there is little threat of getting dehydrated.

Another of my friends trained for and ran in her first Marine Corps Marathon, almost 10 years after my buddy and I ran our first. Like most new runners, she was warned of the possible threat of dehydration. Accordingly, she consumed buckets of water before and during the race. There was no “after” because she was hospitalized and nearly died from Hyponatremia. In fact, just re-read the anecdote above about by friend who suffered from dehydration, and substitute that word with Hyponatremia. The stories are virtually the same except while he drank too little water, she drank too much.

Po's Hydration Rules of Thumb While Racing

è If you see a water station. STOP. USE IT.

è Drink 1 to 2 cups of water each station.

è At 10 miles and more, drink BOTH water and sports drinks.

è If a brother offers you his bagel bite, eat it.

è If a sister shares with you her orange wedge, bite it.

The American College of Sports Medicine says...

... runners should drink 5 to 12 oz. of fluids every 15 to 20 minutes during a marathon, and that we drink as much as we sweat during the race.

*** Every liter of water loss equals an increase of 8 heartbeats a minute. ***

There is a good caption for this. I don't have it.

You can dehydrate by doing nothing!

Breathing. Several cups of water a day are lost by just breathing. Even while sitting on your couch doing nothing, you are losing moisture.

Not hydrating

Lungs need moist air to do their job. When exposed to warm, dry air more water is lost –especially in wintertime when you can lose 2 to 3 cups of water because the air is at its driest.

The body must moisturize the air before it reaches the lungs, which it does via mucous. When fluids decrease, mucous linings become drier causing the lungs to become more sensitive to irritants like dust, smoke, mold, and Rosie O’Donnell. The result is a dry, hacking cough like the one your obnoxious uncle makes.

Deep thoughts on hydration

Also available in kyptonite

The body performs much less efficiently because glycogen is harder to process in the absence of sufficient oxygen, not to mention the other vital organs and systems that rely on a fortified blood stream to keep the machinery operational.


In addition, the runner’s body is overheating. To cool it down, blood goes to the skin, reducing even more blood available to the muscles, which makes you even more dehydrated. Core temperature goes up, the heart stresses, and performance decreases.

What’s a Super Hero to do?


Why, Drink Up!

· Water is the preferred drink for workouts 90 minutes or less.

· Sports drinks and water are best for workouts  90 minutes or more

· Don’t rely on thirst to tell you when to rehydrate. You are already too dehydrated by the time you’re thirsty – and it’s nearly impossible to “catch up” while still exercising.

· Urine is a good indication of hydration – the clearer, the better

TIP: How do you know you’re hydrated? When urine is clear after drinking water or sport drinks – as opposed to drinking coffee or alcohol.

Eine kleine Klo Musik

Hydration. You really need to read this, slacker.

In. Tha. Zone.

Hydrating is KEY! If food is fuel, water is the motor oil. Your “engine” cannot function without it, and without it your body will seize up and stall out.

Water makes up about 60% of an adult body and 75% of the muscles. For any human water is important. For a marathoner it is vital.

A well-hydrated body will (1) process and store the very important energy source of glycogen and (2) keep cool from the abundance of sweat designed to regulate body temperature.

The body needs about 2.5 liters – or 10 glasses – of water a day. Most of us are accustomed to hearing that we need 8 glasses – not 10 – a day to remain healthy and lubricated. True. The other 2 glasses come from water contained in food.

However, this amount of water is suitable for the mere mortal on the street. For a marathoner, the demands are more since the runner sweats more. A runner’s water demands will be double that of a non-runner. The average superheroic marathoner sweats 1.5 quarts of water and hour when running (blech!). This fluid must be replaced.

In fact, everyone who exercises should drink water all day long. If you wait until you’re thirsty to drink water, it’s already too late. Your body is likely not getting enough water.