I run in Central Park, and every once in a while I find myself running alongside serious runners who are part of an organized race. There are a couple fluid stations set up along the route, with hundreds of cups of water on tables, along with plenty of trash cans.
But the majority of runners just down the water and toss the cups on the ground! Every time I see it I can’t believe it. Everywhere within a 50 foot radius of the fluid station is absolutely strewn with paper cups. Obviously there’s some sort of understanding that someone will be around to clean up the mess, but that wouldn’t be enough for me to ignore my ingrained belief that littering is bad, mmkay? And, as I emphasized above, THERE ARE PLENTY OF TRASH CANS! Some of these people are probably HOPING to litter, and they hit a trash can by mistake.
And we’re not talking about the Boston Marathon, where perhaps you’d get trampled if you even turned your head to scope out a receptacle. The runners are sparse, the fluid stations are easily accessible, and people can maintain their jog and whip the cup into one of the twelve giant trash cans at the end of the tables.
Or, I dunno, HOLD ON TO THE DAMN CUP UNTIL YOU SEE ANOTHER CAN! YOU’RE IN FREAKING CENTRAL PARK!!
So, were these people just raised differently than me? Do they litter in other situations? Is it some part of “serious runner” culture that an individual runner like me can’t grasp? Are they used to other people cleaning up their messes? I seriously don’t get it. Enlighten me, please, so I can avoid banking rage next time I see it.
So you’re pitting people in the middle of an athletic competition for not breaking their concentration in the middle of the competition to look for a trash barrel?
The trash barrels are RIGHT THERE! It takes less concentration than picking the cup off the table!
Maybe I’ll take a picture next time. They’re seriously hard to avoid. They seem to be placed strategically for people to use them. And yet people will throw down their cups right next to them.
Sorry to pile on, but that’s how racing is done; cleanup is for afterwards. You don’t – sorry, make that DON’T! fart around in the middle of a race looking for trash cans, holding onto cups, or anything else. Hell, those guys wouldn’t take the time to drink if they didn’t have to.
Granted, a lot of these clowns aren’t realistically competitive, but the race planners count on having to clean up discarded cups and bottles, because the front-runners will definitely need the edge.
Hmm, since both of you have used the phrase “look for,” I can only imagine I haven’t explained myself well: They don’t have to look. They’re there. Right at the end of the same table where they picked up the water. Perhaps 10 of them in a row. You can just hold out your left arm and let go.
But Nametag’s answer makes it sound like it’s in the “part of serious runner culture I don’t understand” realm. I’ll buy that.
Still, I hope to enter a race at some point, and even in that situation, I’m going to use the cans. I can’t litter. It’s not in me. Even if I was part of the crew who got to clean up afterward. Am I really the only one? Can you be competitive (although I’d really be doing it to challenge myself) and conscientious at the same time?
I used to live a couple blocks from the marathon course. Past the water stations, the street becomes more paper than asphalt, but it’s always cleaned up by the next day.
A little farther along, however, race volunteers were handing out big globs of Vaseline on popsicle sticks, so things could be worse than a few paper cups here and there.
The answer doesn’t hurt, but the situation might if one doesn’t use the Vaseline. It’s to prevent chafing. Have you ever seen a male runner with 2 bloody spots on his chest after a race? Bleeding nipples.
(Even typing that makes me cringe). Women, chafe, too, although generally in different places.
It’s a part of the macho mythology of some runners: I have to show how concentrated on running I am by dropping the cup just anywhere, rather than in the container that’s right there. And it’s mostly the wanna-be runners way back in the pack who do this; the real runners toward the front don’t need such pretenses.
Rather like competitive swimmers used to claim that they absolutely had to shave off every hair on their bodies, because the drag would slow them down in the water. That myth was exploded by Mark Spitz, who deliberately grew a big mustache, and still beat them all to win 7 Olympic swimming medals.
So don’t get too upset about this. The planners know about this, and just have people to clean up after these runners. And they need these wanna-be runners to participate; their entry fees are important to the race finances.
If the Vaseline is to prevent chafing, shouldn’t it be handed out before the start of the race? I mean, who’s going to apply the Vaseline while they’re running?
As a runner, I would never even take the water. I resented the volunteers holding the cups out. I resented the litter I had to run through, and you get enough little paper cups on the street and it can be slippery. The thing to do is be close enough to the front that you don’t get a real pile-up of cups.
As a volunteer I noticed that the front runners never take the water. (I was not a front runner despite not taking the water, I should add.) The second wave will take it and dump it over their heads and drop the cup. The third wave will drink it and drop the cup. The fourth wave will ask you how come you don’t have some sports drink, or Exceed, instead of plain water. These are the people who could take the time to drop their cups in the trash can without losing concentration. But they don’t.
But the concentration thing is not to be overlooked. You never know what someone is focusing on to get them through the race.
Yes, lots of times you’re past the tables before you finish drinking. This is just no big deal-- I’ve done a lot of these types of races, and everyone expects that runners are just going to dump the cups. You might as well complain about bars where people throw peanut shells on the floor.
Regarding the vaseline… male runners will also tell you that nipples aren’t the only thing that… erm… chafe.
cough
They tend to… erm… slather other sensitive zones before running, sometimes, just to avoid long-term friction. I’m told that butt-crack chaffing can be a real REAL pain in the ass.