I often get ragged on by my running friends for not carrying enough—or any—water.
Now look, this is not advice. In fact, it’s probably bad advice. This is me. This is twenty years of knowing myself and my own hydration needs. This is tolerance and personal. You figure out you.
But here’s the thing.
I never carry water on anything less than ten klicks.
I carry safety water on longer runs, but unless it’s hella hot, it usually makes it all the way back to the shed and goes down the sink when I get back home.
It’s just how I’ve always operated, and the problem has never been lack of thirst or that I’m some kind of half-man half-camel creature. I get dried out, but also water sloshing around in my hand, or on my hip, or worse, in my stomach seems like a terrible trade off for a little bit of discomfort.
I should drink more water. I admit that.
I’ve got twenty years of bad habit to break though.
Many people need the water. I know a lot of people always run with water, and even in the middle of a rain storm when it’s literally falling from the sky they’ll be dedicatedly sipping from their bottles.
I get a little chuckle when I go do a five klick fun run and there is a water station two klicks in handing out full-sized bottles of water and people are lined up, chugging and gasping, as if they have just crossed the desert and were not still in sight of their cars in the parking lot.
But I get it.
Water need is a personal thing. And again, don’t take my advice, but I will definitely be writing about this topic more here.
Definitions
- advice
- This is NOT an advice site. I write for entertainment only. Please see my note on advice in my page called "Some Notes" in the menu at the top of each page.
- hydration
- The human body is approximately sixty percent water. It's kinda important. And we runners loose it faster than average when we sweat. Not having enough water will sideline you faster than you realize.
- klick
- As a Canadian I run in metric. As a writer, I find the word kilometre clunky and clinical. I'll usually use the colloquial "klick" or "klicks" to substitute in for this.
- october
- Fully into autumn, October is a month of shifting seasons, short days, long shadows, and gorgeous sunsets. The cobwebs are hung on the eaves in preparation for halloween, and here in Canada we're running off Thanksgiving dinner for a couple weeks after a proper good meal mid-month.
- september
- The days are noticeably shorter when we realize that September is upon us. The post-summer routine kicks in and people are back to regular work schedules and kids are back in school. It can still be warm, but the hottest days are behind us and most of the biggest races of the year are in the rear view. We savour September knowing winter is too soon to come.
- the shed
- Clint hasn't run with us in a while, but all the credit for him for referring to our home base, a municipal community recreation centre (with a fitness area, swimming pool, ice rink, coffee shop, and smoothie bar located in the south west part of the city) the shed. I don't know if it's completely stuck, but I kinda like the term.
