What’s The Shortest Race In Which Drinking Is Beneficial?

It is well known that consuming a sports drink before and during longer running races enhances performance. It is also fairly well established that drinking during short races offers no benefit, and may even do more harm than good (by causing hyperventilation or GI distress). But where is the cutoff? What is the shortest race in which drinking is beneficial? We don’t know exactly, and the answer certainly also depends on the individual runner, but a new study by researchers at Loughborough University in England suggests that for moderately high-level runners, drinking a sports drink during a one-hour race is beneficial. Eight trained runners completed one-hour time trials on treadmills on three occasions. They drank flavored water before and during two of the trials and a sports drink during the other. On average, the runners were able to run 2.5 percent farther when they drank the sports drink. Interestingly, most elite male runners capable of running a half marathon under 65 minutes do not drink. They might be better off this way, however, because they are running at a very high percentage of their VO2max and would probably suffer hyperventilation or GI distress if they did try to drink at such high intensities.