Are you a Camel?

Sometime ago in the Sgrunners' forum, some bloke posted how he was going to dump the main bulk of his water after crossing the start line at the forthcoming TNF 100 Challenge. Of course, most of us old birds were a bit shocked and some of the more kapo one, including old uncle me joined in with; I am sure most unwanted advices and warning on the danger of doing so and how he will suffer in the run if he does so.

I still remember vividly my experience last year. Carrying a full 1.5ltr of water + stopping at every water point, of which there were 3, I still ran out of water and suffered tremendously during the last 5 km! 

But on hindsight, maybe this guy knows what he is talking about. He could be right in that he don't need to carry water.After all, he is younger, fitter and faster and only doing the 25km. He claimed he has been running in trails and only need a small quantity of water each time. Come to think of it, if the route for the TNF100 is the same as last year, there will be at least 3 water points at roughly 10km, 12km and 18 km. Beside that, there is the ranger station which is approximately 4 km from the start and end point making a total of 5 water points along the entire route. That could be more than adequate in a 25km race if one is fit enough. Or  is it?

Coincidentally, I have a colleague who is going to take part in the 50km duo for the first time. So he has been diligently training in the trails over the course of the past few weekends. Of course, old uncle me again got to give his 2 cents worth of advice to carry water and of course, he being younger, said he sees no need for it. Beside, he finds the hydration bag troublesome and heavy. But he being the good boy that he is,  listens to old uncle here and diligently carried his water-bag. Yesterday, he came up to me and told me that to get use to the later start time for the 50km duo, he started his last weekend run at 10am. And he confessed, he had to refill his 1.5ltr waterbag twice! So in the end, he ended up drinking almost 3ltr of water.

The moral of the story? Uncle eat more salt than young people eat rice so unless you are born a camel, go without water at your own peril!