The mayonnaise cup22
At the one-mile point in the Chico Marathon I heard the time: 7:46. I said to myself, “It’s too fast.” Then it went on, went on. At every mile when I heard my time, I felt it was too fast.I had told Sharon and Una to give me water and ERG every second mile, but twice it happened that I didn’t get it from them. At the two-mile mark the cup was very small. It was like the cups with mayonnaise or something that they give in restaurants. Instead of entering into my mouth, the water entered into my nose.
At the fourth mile Sharon didn’t come at all. Finally she came at four and a half miles to give me a tiny cup of water, but it didn’t quench my thirst. At the fifth mile I began screaming that I was dying of thirst. Then they brought the thermos cup, which is bigger. So I was satisfied. From then on I was drinking like anything, but for the first five or six miles I was quite thirsty.
ERG powder I took many times. It helped, but the best was water. As soon as I drank water, I got energy. Before the race I didn’t have to drink tea or coffee; water was enough.
RB 257. 8 March 1981↩
