Hydration

By Charles Gallagher

It’s very important that you remember to drink lots of water especially this time of year. Moisture is taken from your body to warm the air up before it gets to your lungs, and wearing all those extra layers of clothes makes you sweet even more. Dehydration cannot only ruin a race but can be extremely dangerous. Drink your 8 glasses of water a day is a good habit, but at times impossible. But the days leading up to race day make an exaggerated effort. Drink, drink, and drink. Plain old water will do but if you want to drink a sports drink dilute it, most of them are extremely high in sugars and you don’t need that. I dilute mine about 2:1 water to sports drink. So leading up to the race who do I know if I have enough water on board, well your urine should be clear.

Drinking during the race is a smart thing to do also especially if it is a hot day. Here is a tip for you point or make eye contact with volunteer whose water you’re going to grad. Squeeze the top of the cup so that the opening is small and take your drink. If you do the squeeze trick your shoes stay dry and that leads to happy feet, no blisters. Always say thank you to the volunteers without them there would be NO race.