Hydration: Science, coachspeak, or my own intuition

After last Saturday's group run, the Luke's Locker people put on a little symposium about hydration.

The speaker was a Dr. Robert Vaughan, assistant cross country coach at the University of North Texas.

Vaughan had spent 16 years as an exercise physiologist at the Tom Landry Sports Center and Research Center. He has also coached numerous elite athletes including five-time Olympian Francie Larrieu Smith.

A real live expert. Somebody to tell me why I cramped so bad in my last (and only) two marathons. To tell me exactly how much and what to drink on long runs and races.

But I left the symposium a little underwhelmed. Vaughan said a lot of stuff I already knew. And he said something I totally disagreed with: That on long runs and races you should drink a set amount of fluids every 15 or so minutes, and not wait until you are thirsty.

That goes totally against what the bloggers over at the Science of Sport say. In one of their posts, titled, Why waiting until you are thirsty is NOT too late, they argue that thirst is a deep-seated psychological desire for water and when you drink too thirst your thirst will always keep you from drinking too little or too much.

In both of my marathons, I drank a set amount of water or Gatorade on schedules. And bombed both times. My head got fuzzy, my stomach sloshy, and in the last few miles I had to pee every other mile.

Here is something else the Sports Scientists say: If animals can run and run and run all day long and survive by drinking (or maiming other animals to eat) only when thirsty (or hungry), then humans, with their sophisticated makeups can do the same thing.

I know that there is no one answer fits all when it comes to how much and what to consume during long runs and long races. I know that running is an experiment of one. But I believe more in the scientists than good old Dr. Vaughan.