Sustainability V Safety - Paris Marathon's Water Dilemma

Cari Brown is hooked connected marathons and is preparing to compete successful her 11th connected Sunday.

After learning of nan changes, she felt forced to wantonness her plans to tally a individual champion successful Paris and entered a different title to pursuit her goal.

"Unfortunately, it's not going to beryllium my extremity marathon. Any runner who has to extremity and commencement to get water, it's going to impact your clip and it's going to impact your cadence," Brown said.

Her biggest disappointment, though, is nan determination to let pre-filled individual h2o bottles connected nan people for runners targeting a clip nether 2 hours and 50 minutes.

It is simply a communal believe successful elite races to debar athletes losing clip astatine hydration stations, but mostly not a luxury extended to those successful nan wider event.

"That is simply a monolithic advantage to mostly younger antheral runners, arsenic connected mean their marathon times are quicker. It besides gives nickname to nan truth that it [stopping for water] does impact your time," Brown adds.

The IT head from Woking will beryllium moving nan streets of Paris pinch a hydration backpack. It is simply a tried-and-tested method for way runners, but is little acquainted for roadworthy runners who mostly for illustration to support their kit arsenic ray arsenic imaginable and trust connected h2o provided on nan course.

That causes interest for Brown who, while acknowledging integrative discarded is an issue, believes having nary h2o disposable astatine each successful single-use insubstantial cups connected a perchance lukewarm time is simply a large "risk factor", pinch runners apt to skip stations if they are engaged and put themselves astatine consequence of dehydration.

Organisers insist this will not beryllium nan case, pinch nan number of assistance stations accrued from 8 to 13 and h2o spray systems successful cognition successful lawsuit of basking weather.

Thomas Delpeuch, head of nan Paris Marathon, told BBC Sport that while nan strategy is simply a "significant change", it is "successful and efficient" aft a proceedings astatine nan city's half marathon past month.

Prompted by a city-wide prohibition 2 years agone connected single-use plastics astatine each Parisian races, it is hoped this alteration to nan marathon will destruct discarded balanced to 660,000 integrative bottles.

"Plastic is everyplace successful our life and we request beardown decisions to break free. Runners person appreciated bottles and cups for years for their practicality, but things are changing now," Delpeuch adds.