Is it cheating ?

135

Comments

  • I read they don't suit everyone. They're apparently better for heel strikers.

  • Pinch the cup closed at the top to create a thin spout. Saves it splashing all over your face and up your nose. Take a small mouthful then chuck the rest over your head. 

  • think I will stick to the run walk in training as i am sure it helps stay injury free as well, especially for me lugging my 15st frame around, and run fully in the races. but interesting to see everyones take on it.

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    Ugh, plastic cups!  I pride myself on having completed the Beachy Head marathon running all the way, with two exceptions: climbing over stiles, and drinking orange squash from plastic cups!

  • Climbing over stiles? That's definitely cheating.

    You must hurdle them. 

  • I'm with the "it doesn't matter if you run or walk , the aim is to cover the distance in the fastest time possible" crowd. i posted a reasonable 2:33 on a 20 mile race using it as a pacing run for Ironman, walked the drinks stations and had a lovely time. For ultra distance it's a common strategy. 

  • I'm doing NY Marathon next.  It is cups all the way for water and gatorade (yuck) which need to be picked off tables. I can just imagine the carnage at the tables with a mixture of runners, walkers, and the walking dead. Potential for non compliance to Mr A's rules on a mass scale

  • Controversially, I quite like drinking from cups and am happy to do so while still running.

    Edit: those bloody pouches, on the other hand... image

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭

    I wouldn't say that walking through drinks stations really counts as a run-walk-run strategy...  And anyway, I thought that in the DF3 rule book (which I believe has since been adopted by UKA) that is allowed image

  • Dont agree with a PRE PLANNED walk/run strategy (apart from the obvious injured/poo stop walkie bits). Try running a half all the way quicker or train better for the marathon.

    No Tom...walk/run 4 hours isn't more of an achievement than running it all the way in 5 hours i'm afraid

  • so Simon..... if someone ran / walked a world championship race and won......but a few other ran it all but came further done the field.......

    you would think that the guy in 5th who ran it all was worthier of the gold medal than the guy who whipped his ass and came first

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭

    Let's be honest seren nos, the chances of that happening are...  NIL...

  • TD.....there must be some races ultra world chakpionship races out there.......

    i do not believe in the UTMB ets that the first guys runs every step including the aid stations.......and all the hills........

    so I think the distance is immaterial.its first past teh post

  • But we all know a walk/run philosophy is inherently flawed. If you need to walk/run (ie you set out with that goal) then you have ..... in the words of Stevie G ..... 'massively undertrained'

    Oh and on the other issue of cups ..... why do organisers never seem to think 'Do you know what, Im going to put a sign on the table saying 'bin 500 metres down the road' ...... but no they would rather spend their time walking up and down the road for several hundred metres picking up empty cups here there and everywhere.

    Oh and the other benefit is that if people know there is somewhere to dispose of the cup they might actually hold onto the cup and use its contents rather than thinking 'Oh Ive got to quickly drink as much as I can and toss the rest out before I get too far away from where all the marshall are picking the cups up.'

    But maybe thats just me ........

     

  •  

     

    Mr A Nonymous wrote (see)

    But we all know a walk/run philosophy is inherently flawed. If you need to walk/run (ie you set out with that goal) then you have ..... in the words of Stevie G ..... 'massively undertrained'

     

     

    But maybe thats just me ........

     


    Garbage. All you have done is choose a strategy, practice it and use it.

    If your strategy was to run all the way and you didn't manage it that might point to being massively undertrained - although not necessarily.

  • skottyskotty ✭✭✭

    You can walk 0.02% of total race distance and still count it as running the race. 

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭

    Mr A -- I totally agree with the "Bin in 500 metres" (or the like) sign at drinks stations idea...  At a recent event I did the first 100 metres past the drinks station the ground was littered with plastic cups...  Another few hundred metres down the road there was a bin with a few plastic cups in the bottom...  I expect it's the same every year.

  • agree with the bin thing Mr A....image

  • NayanNayan ✭✭✭

    Its a little known fact that when Pheidippides stumbled heaving into Athens after the Battle of Marathon 490BC, the court did ask him whether he had run all the way or incorporated any walk breaks.

    Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't exhaustion that killed him, but rather that his heart broke when, on learning that he had slowed to a walk a couple of times and his PB was in fact void.

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭

    Mr A -- You should start a campaign to get such signage introduced...  That could be you major contribution to running image

  • you mean his only contribution to running........image

  • Nayan wrote (see)

    Its a little known fact that when Pheidippides stumbled heaving into Athens after the Battle of Marathon 490BC, the court did ask him whether he had run all the way or incorporated any walk breaks.

    Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't exhaustion that killed him, but rather that his heart broke when, on learning that he had slowed to a walk a couple of times and his PB was in fact void.

    image

  • I carried a plastic cup for 4miles once. I may even have walked up a hill carrying it. 

  • with Guto Nyth Brân it was always said that it was a celebratory slap on his back that killed him.......now I know it was the disqualification for the walking through cowshit lane

  • Guto nyth bran, probably the greatest Welsh runner ever, never to win a medal.

  • DeanR7DeanR7 ✭✭✭

    ignoring the outliers such as hilly ultra fell type races... if i had to walk any section in a race i would consider it less of an achievement personally than if i had run the whole way round.  it would indicate i got something wrong either on the day or in my training.

    if others trained for a run / walk strategy and then delivered on it , i say good on them.  it certainly isnt cheating.  but i imagine every single one of them would rather have been able to have run the whole way round. 

  • I imagine you imagine wrong ↑

  • A run is a run, its called running because there's no walking involved. If you find a pace that your body is comfortable with you shouldn't need to walk.

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