Stay hydrated, runners!
But do it within the rules, or you may find yourself disqualified.
Esteban Prado, 24, crossed the finish line first, with a time of 2:24:54, at the Orange County Marathon on Sunday. But he was disqualified for a drinking-related infraction.
It turns out, race organizers said, that he had been given bottles of water during the race by two men on bicycles, one of whom was his father.
It was fine that he was drinking. But there were two problems: how he got the drinks and who gave them to him.
Rule 241 in the U.S.A. Track & Field rule book says only “authorized persons” at official stations located along the course can provide liquids.
It was a further violation that the liquid suppliers were on bikes. “No official shall under any circumstances move beside an athlete while he is taking refreshment or water,” the rules say.
And the penalties are laid out in black and white: “A competitor who collects refreshment from a place other than a refreshment station is liable to disqualification by the referee.”
The rules are in place to try to ensure that individual runners don’t gain an unfair advantage from assistance that is not available to others. There is also a concern than someone running or bicycling alongside the athlete will essentially help pace that runner along, or give them information about their race status or their competitors that is unavailable to others.
“We were forced to disqualify a participant after it was confirmed they received unauthorized assistance from an individual on a bicycle, in violation of U.S.A. Track & Field rules and our race regulations,” Gary Kutschar, the race director, said in a statement. “We take these rules seriously to ensure fairness and the integrity of our event for all competitors.”
Peter Wang, who was an official bicycle escort for the race, reported: “At Mile 15 was when I first noticed the lead male runner receiving assistance from two cyclists. One cyclist was riding a black e-bike and providing hydration and nutrition, and the other was riding a red road bike and providing updates on the location of lead male number two.”
Wang also provided GoPro video showing Prado getting water bottles from bicyclists multiple times; in one instance he is seen running past volunteers offering water, instead taking a bottle from a bicyclist.
It is not known what Prado was drinking, but most marathoners drink water or sports drinks.
The infraction was also reported by the runner-up, Jason Yang, who finished 17 seconds behind him, race organizers said. Yang was named the new winner after Prado’s disqualification.
Prado did not answer calls placed to multiple phone numbers seeking comment. He told race officials that he had drunk the liquid provided by the bicyclists because water stations had not been properly set up when he arrived. Race organizers disputed that.
“Because I was first place, a lot of the volunteers were just like scrambling,” Prado told the Los Angeles NBC affiliate. “By the time I got there, they were grabbing the water. So a lot of the time, the water stations, they really had nothing for me.” He said he did not know that it was against the rules to get water from someone else.
There was no prize money for the O.C. Marathon, and the winning times were not world class (the current world record for men is 2:00:35). But water bottle infractions can take place at much more important events.
At the Philadelphia Marathon in November, the sixth-place finisher, Ethan Hermann, thought he had run fast enough to qualify for the Olympic trials. He, too, was disqualified after his coach handed him a bottle.
Susan Beachy contributed reporting.
