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How Many Times Do You Stop to Pee During a Marathon? (Read 402 times)

Julia1971


    I've never had to stop.  That includes the year that I used the bathroom before leaving home but arrived at the race site 5 minutes before the start and didn't get to use the port-a-pottys.  Sad  I think I was so focused I didn't even think about it.  I think you might be right about hydration.  I don't drink extra fluids leading up to the race.  I pretty much drink to thirst unless it's super hot out.

    joescott


      (PS -- *discreet. Pee is not discrete unless you are talking kidney stones.)

       

      Indeed!  LOL!  Although.... it depends on how finely you examine it.  Seems that I recall Feynman once won a bet with some mathematicians having to do with whether or not you could infinitely divide an orange.  (Thanks, Bob).

      - Joe

      We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.

      tinman11


        If you have to make a stop, go early in the race.

         

        I once stopped around mile 22.

         

        After standing still for about 90 seconds in the luxurious Greenway restroom, my legs decided they didn't want to work so well for 4.2 more miles.  This was a rookie mistake............

          In 20 marathons, 0 pee stops.

           

          Mikey already said it, don't overhydrate.  In big races where they trap you in a big corral 20 minutes before the start and you have no hope of getting to the porta-john I take with me a 32 oz empty gatorade bottle.  Under a trash bag, this is very discrete.  Little harder to be discrete without a trash bag, but you can use your imagination that it's possible with your running shorts as cover and male anatomy to also pull this off without getting arrested.  A 24 oz bottle is insufficient I discovered empirically at the 2004 Boston Marathon.  Shocked

           

          Running the Marine Corps Marathon in 2007 I got caught in no-mans-land with before the start and without my trusty gatorade bottle and had to pee the entire race.  Very very uncomfortable and nearly disastrous at the end hobbling around the finish area in search of a porta john.  By far this was my closest call.

           

          ---Still trying to figure out if this is actually a true story, or made up.  I am thinking the latter, and I hope so.   Because what runs through my mind is "what if every dude did that"?  Man, all those recycling folks taking the lids off of bottles and pouring out the leftover 'gatorade'... And I hope a thirsty trash-can diving homeless man does not run across that 'gatorade' bottle you left in there for him to find......   ( Shocked Indeed! )

          .

          The Plan '15 →   ///    "Run Hard, Live Easy."   ∞

          monkkey


            No pee stops in 12 marathons.  Once for number two, there was no way I was going to risk not stopping for that one.

               

              ---Still trying to figure out if this is actually a true story, or made up.  I am thinking the latter, and I hope so.   Because what runs through my mind is "what if every dude did that"?  Man, all those recycling folks taking the lids off of bottles and pouring out the leftover 'gatorade'... And I hope a thirsty trash-can diving homeless man does not run across that 'gatorade' bottle you left in there for him to find......   ( Shocked Indeed! )

              .

              How many marathons have you run?

               

              Somewhere there's a picture of me at the start of the Austin Marathon using the gatorade bottle method, no trash bag.

              Get off my porch

              joescott


                 ---Still trying to figure out if this is actually a true story, or made up.  I am thinking the latter, and I hope so.   

                .

                 

                Well if you don't believe the 20 marathons, you can check my training log, with a little research cross check Athlinks and race websites, and verify it for yourself, although there is probably at least one little po-dunk marathon that won't show up on Athlinks or any website.

                 

                If you don't believe the story because you think it shouldn't be true then okay, I'm a big boy and I can handle your disapproval.

                 

                Don't know what experience you have with this sort of thing, but for me personally a marathon is kind of a big deal and I don't like to take any risks that jeopardize me running it as well as I can on that given day.

                - Joe

                We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.

                  To OldMan, I have run Three.   --But I am just getting started.  Only been running 2 years and kicking into full gear now.

                   

                  To JoeScott, no ill will or judgment intended.  I never questioned the # of marathons you have run, only was thinking you may have been joking with your gatorade comment and I was joking back about who might run across it and be thirsty...  The joke fell flat, Okay.  That is common for me.  :-)

                   

                  Okay, so some folks take a leak in bottles,  That's fine, I don't disapprove.  I've traveled far and wide, and some one taking a leak in a bottle at this point in my life won't even draw a second glance from me.  Well, unless it is a 24-ouncer and somehow it is overflowing then I might look twice...

                  .

                  The Plan '15 →   ///    "Run Hard, Live Easy."   ∞

                    PISSING CONTEST!!!

                     

                     


                    Dream Maker

                      In 60 marathons,

                      usually 0

                      if I ever stop more than once, peeing is not the need.  thats when the astronomical number of stops have showed up

                       

                      I will say since having my child, I normally feel like I need to pee during a marathon but by risking it realized if I keep going I will not pee myself.

                       

                      I finally think I got the hydration right at my last marathon, but I had to stop a couple of times, which may or may not have had anything to do with missing my goal by 1:51 (took me a bit to settle back into my pace after each stop).  Wondering if this is something that is commonly avoided, and if so, how.

                       

                      MTA: Somehow my last choice, "6 or more," didn't make it into the poll, so if that's you, just mention it in a post.  And maybe get your prostate checked. (I keed, I keed)

                       

                       


                      Dream Maker

                        probably because I am female, but I ran in to some technical difficulties peeing into a bottle when I was sleeping in my car in a parking garage pre marathon.  I went into the stair well so no one could see me.

                         

                        Atlanta stairwells always smell like piss.

                        the Roanoke stairwells were so clean... Until someone from Atlanta got there.

                         

                         

                        Mysecondnewname


                           

                          ---Still trying to figure out if this is actually a true story, or made up.  I am thinking the latter, and I hope so.   Because what runs through my mind is "what if every dude did that"?  Man, all those recycling folks taking the lids off of bottles and pouring out the leftover 'gatorade'... And I hope a thirsty trash-can diving homeless man does not run across that 'gatorade' bottle you left in there for him to find......   ( Shocked Indeed! )

                          .

                           

                          The Gatorade bottle/garbage bag strategy JoeScott was referring to is a common one--he's telling the truth.

                          Mysecondnewname


                             

                            Ah, yes, I understand the issue of conscience.  Usually they have trash bags lining the sides of the corrals in these kinds of situations.  You cap the bottle tightly and put it gently in the available trash bag or trash can.  Often a volunteer will give you one of those, "I know what you are doing" looks, but it's usually a look of "understanding" not "judgment", and all is well.  Sometimes I will take the extra step of affirmatively informing the volunteer that "this is not Gatorade.... it needs to go in the trash," because I want to confirm that the trash bag I'm putting it in is not intended to be filled with abandoned clothing destined for a charity.  Hey, it still beats ducking down and just urinating right there on the pavement in the corral, which I have seen done many times by persons of both genders.

                             

                            Unfortunately, as I found out at Lincoln, not any more.   They removed all trash cans near the corrals as a security precaution after the Boston attack.

                             

                            I'm surprised that some volunteers give you the "look"--sometimes discreet voiding is part of running or as Paula put it, "an embarrassing necessity".

                              In 60 marathons,

                              usually 0

                              if I ever stop more than once, peeing is not the need.  thats when the astronomical number of stops have showed up

                               

                              I will say since having my child, I normally feel like I need to pee during a marathon but by risking it realized if I keep going I will not pee myself.

                               

                               

                              Weird.  They very first marathon after my child was born, I had to stop to pee and I had never, in all my years of marathoning, had to stop to pee.  It's all coming together.

                              "If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus

                              GC100k


                                We were living in an apartment across from a park where a Renaissance fair was going on.  I heard something by our front door and looked through the peephole to see a young lady squat and pee right in the stairwell right in front of our door.  After a minute of "what the..." inaction, I went over to the park, found her, and asked her in front of her friends if she would come and clean up her pee.  She said "of course" and I escorted her back and gave her some paper towels to do it.

                                 

                                probably because I am female, but I ran in to some technical difficulties peeing into a bottle when I was sleeping in my car in a parking garage pre marathon.  I went into the stair well so no one could see me.

                                 

                                Atlanta stairwells always smell like piss.

                                the Roanoke stairwells were so clean... Until someone from Atlanta got there.

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