Marathon pee

[Sunway]

Has anyone been watching this morning's, London Marathon?

If you missed it, Paula Radcliffe was leading by a distance, around the twenty mile mark, when she suddenly stopped. The commentators were surprised and wondered what had happened.

A few minutes later, a close-up replay was shown, and we saw Paula stop at the side of the road, squat down with legs spread wide, for about ten seconds.

Commentator, Steve Cram said it was a delicate situation, but later on, Brendan Foster wasn't so discreet, saying that she seemed more relaxed after her toilet break and relieving herself. Paula even mentioned it herself in her interview afterwards.

Perhaps Skymouse should get in touch with her as she didn't seem to concerned about peeing in front of hundreds of spectators, or millions of people watching on televison.

[Holly]

I thinks she's incredible. I didn't see it but I think that's a far better idea to do that, rather than wet herself and run in front of the cameras showing a wet patch!

She deserves lot's of praise for the way she has come back after Athens.

Holly x :)

[aquarian]

What Holly said!

Aquarian

[Ooze]

Though I only caught the end of the conversation, Ebony said that see would be participating in the run. Has anybody seen her wetting her merry way through the streets of London?

[Ape]

I thinks she's incredible. I didn't see it but I think that's a far better idea to do that, rather than wet herself and run in front of the cameras showing a wet patch!

She deserves lot's of praise for the way she has come back after Athens.

Why? She was a world class athlete who either had a stomach bug (the official explanation) and therefore through no fault of her own had a temporary inability to compete at the highest level

or

she's so focussed on winning that any chance she will come second or worse and she gives up like a spoilt brat. I am sure such singleminded determination is needed to be the world class athlete that she is, but it will inevitably have side effects (like an inability to accept second place).

In either scenario, she has done nothing extra special to come back after Athens, just continued with the same thing she was doing before.

It's not like she's been struggling against the odds - she always was the favourite, and is the world record holder.

As for her pee stop - did she pull everything aside to let herself go, or were there any dribbles into her pants/costume? Anyone see the detail?

[Sunway]

No! There was no pulling asisde.

She went through her shorts, although you couldn't see anything afterwards. Being a warm morning and as she was running, they probably dried pretty quickly and the cameras didn't pick it up.

Incidently, there is a highlights programme on BBC2 at 6.30pm tonight, so there's a slight possibility we'll get to see it again. Or maybe not!

[bspider]

As the saying goes, "I saw that, and thought of you" - in this case the plural form meaning the whole board. Can't honestly say I found it arousing in any way though - but Paula did seem a bit happier afterwards!

Boris.

[Crazyhorse]

I think Apes alternatives could be summed up more concisely as

a) you believe what Paula says.

b) you believe the shit put out by tabloids.

And anyway, it is her life. If she wants to drop out of a marathon that is her decision. I would not dream of commenting on her judgement until I had run a marathon myself.

[Ape]

I think Apes alternatives could be summed up more concisely as

a) you believe what Paula says.

b) you believe the shit put out by tabloids.

And anyway, it is her life. If she wants to drop out of a marathon that is her decision. I would not dream of commenting on her judgement until I had run a marathon myself.

I was thinking it at the time she pulled out in Athens. I think the tabloids have been mostly in support of her (after all, classic chance of being jingoistic - plucky lady struggles back from adversity etc...) It is her life, Crazyhorse, and therefore I am sure, in line with that philosophy, you have never ever commented on anyone else's life or choices. Yeah, right!

[Crazyhorse]

Look. Just read carefully what I wrote before indulging personal point scoring.

I wont comment on why someone gives up 3/4 of the way through a marathon whilst in fourth place, but running in the sun with a temperature of 35 C, because I have never attempted to run anywhere in those temperatures, let alone over 26 miles.

It was you who used phrases like spoilt brat, to describe one of the most successful British athletes of all time. And the thing that seemed to wind you up was the suggestion that she desrved a lot of praise. The cheap jibes about an inability to accept second place is straight out of the little englander attitude fostered by cheap tabloid newspapers and you seem to have swallowed their propaganda hook, line and sinker.

I can comment on anyones life or choices, because I have had a life and I have made many millions of choices. I just haven't dropped out of a marathon, have you?

[WT]

Returning to the topic, the BBC just showed the stopping incident again. She went over to the side of the road by a barrier where nobody was around and squatted down without pulling aside. The commentators were referring to Athens when the director cut away; he or she clearly had a better idea what was happening.

Afterwards, when interviewed, Paula was quite at ease about it. From her comment I doubt whether she is one of us: 'I apologise to the nation, but I needed to go!'

As said eleswhere, whetever her shorts were made of, they didn't show the stain even immediately afterwards.

I think that portaloos are provided along the route but I guess that Paula couldn't afford that long and keep to schedule - she finished in the 3rd fastest women's time ever.

To me, the surprising and quite encouraging aspect of our Paula's "golden moment" is the apparent lack of response from the sphincter police. I am expecting the Daily Mail headline tomorrow "Radcliffe arrested for public indecency" or something.

Her own and the commentary team's frank, open treatment of that which could not be disguised was very refreshing. Imagine if this had happened when Mary Whitehouse was alive. I think there may be hope for us yet!

[WT]

Given the lack of alternatives, I think that she may get away with it. I'm waiting for the court case where someone given an on-the-spot fine for peeing in public on a Friday or Saturday night, under the new UK legislation, appeals and says, "I did it your honour, but so did Paula Radcliff and nobody gave her a fine!"

[Val]

I reckoned she handled it in the interview the best way possible, just straight upfront so that if anybody wanted to make something of it it would make them look immature. I guess this sort of thing happens quite often to long-distance athletes. I'm certain cyclists don't waste time stopping! I wouldn't be surprised if the Sun comes up with some groanful pun though.

All the same, the occasional pee-dance is one thing but I'm not overly happy about drunks of either sex peeing anywhere they feel like. Part of that is that it's transgressive, so it gives the idea that if you don't have a bit of discretion about it, pretty soon you don't bother about anything else either and before you know it you're back to the old days of brawls and unsafe after dark even in the middle of town.

[~*~ k a t e ~*~]

it is unsafe after dark in the middle of town! Where on earth do you live where that situation is a hark back to the old days?? I've had to run quite a few times just to escape screaming yobs and the hail of their Budweiser bottles a few times this year when I'm on my way to the taxi-rank in Leeds city centre.

[Ape]

It was you who used phrases like spoilt brat, to describe one of the most successful British athletes of all time. And the thing that seemed to wind you up was the suggestion that she desrved a lot of praise. The cheap jibes about an inability to accept second place is straight out of the little englander attitude fostered by cheap tabloid newspapers and you seem to have swallowed their propaganda hook, line and sinker.

No, what wound me up was the suggestion that she deserved loads of praise for coming back after Athens. Like I said, there was nothing plucky about her return - and if anyone is exhibiting a little Englander mentality, it is those who wish to ascribe sainthood to her just for doing what she does best (which is the actual tabloid attitude). The English lurve an underdawg, and so they had to cast her in that role, when she was no such thing. That does wind me up!

[Dryden]

For what little it is worth, I did suggest during Ebony's webcam on Saturday night that people should watch for Paula Radcliffe to wet herself in the London marathon. That was not great foresight on my part, but was based upon having read her autobiography. She admits to having dumped in her shorts in Athens and refers also to them being wet. The fact is that the athletes (as opposed to the "fun" runners) do not have time to stop and queue at the portaloos. Again, according to P.R. in her book, she is not the only British female marathon runner to have dumped solids in her shorts.

I am sorry that Ape and Crazyhorse have quarrelled about Paula. There is much that I could write, having read her autobiography. The fact is that as regards the marathon (leaving aside other failures) Athens is to date her only failure. Given (1) the medical problems which she had in the days before that marathon and (2) that she is a fair-skinned North European, it was clearly foreseeable that she would not be able to run a marathon in temperatures nudging 100 Fahrenheit. At least one expert here in England wrote in strong terms that she should NOT run the marathon in Athens. Sadly P.R. ignored all the medical evidence and paid a bitter price.

As to Paula's comment, yes, better to be upfront and not to make a big issue about it. With all due respect to WT, here in England it is almost always men who are prosecuted for urinating in the street; probably because they remove their equipment from their trousers to do so. I have never heard or read of anyone, male or female being prosecuted for peeing in their trousers, shorts or other clothing.

Finally, although Ebony did say something during her excellent webcam about running in the marathon, that was after my suggestion that Paula Radcliffe would wet herself. I did not understand Ebony to mean the London marathon a few hours later, but rather that she hopes to run in A marathon. Good luck to her.

There was a court case in Newcastle UK some while ago now when a "young woman" was prosecuted for urinating in an elevator at Gateshead metro station. It started a row about the lack of public facilities - something the urban and district councils in UK have succeeded in ignoring quite successfully for a while now.

Thing is, as I understood it, the case was brought on circumstantial evidence: i.e. at platform level, desperate "young woman" enters dry lift; at surface level, relieved "young woman" exits lift with puddle in it!

All of which has only a very tenuous link to Paula Radcliffe, I suppose. Sorry!

[Ooze]

Have a look at this connection on the subject of marathons and peeing.

www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum6/HTML/013626.shtml

or this on cycling

www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/coachcorn/evacuation.html

[Adrian]

What's amazed me has been the sheer amount of public coverage given to Paula's 'pit stop.' I was surprised first thing this morning to see that the London Times was even reporting on it, albeit mostly on the back page. Spurred on by the fact that it had received coverage in the 'Thunderer' I dashed out to buy a copy of the Daily Sport, fully expecting it to be on the front page. Alas, it hadn't made the front page but the Sport nevertheless did run a spead on the middle pages and even published a slightly out of focus photo of her doing the deed. Later on I saw a copy of the Daily Mail and, guess what, even they'd reported on it. Much to my astonishment Paula's 'pit stop' even got a mention on Classic FM news. Apparently, she'd felt it necessary to 'apologise' to the nation, although I can't imagine why! It's not rocket science working out that runners have to drink plenty and that when you've gotta pee you've gotta pee. I'd be prepared to bet that she wasn't the only runner in that Marathon who peed, although she may have been alone in stopping to do it.

:o

[lycrapisser]

<<Apparently, she'd felt it necessary to 'apologise' to the nation, >>

As she said it, the apology was for wasting 10 seconds.

And talking of apologies, sorry for starting another thread on this unnecessarily. Why I didn't spot this one I can't imagine - I put it down to too much work today!

[Beagle79]

Well,I actually noticed your thread which was actually titled properly,when I saw this thread I thought maybe it was someone telling of thier "marathon pee" lol,like they had just peed longer than they ever had :lol:

[markbono]

You will find the clip here

http://rapidshare.de/files/1306802/4602s_london_pee_0001.wmv.html

[Lloyd]

Sunway, Paula did most definitely pull aside - from the back, not the front. I guess this is the way she has figured out to do it most discretely while on the run. What amuses or perhaps more correctly bemuses me is that she would have drawn less attention to herself just by leaking, just like most runners do and would not have attracted any attention from the pee police. Perhaps she has a personal issue with this, in which case I would question her choice of sport, as peeing on the go in a marathon or triathlon is almost a skill requirement to participate.

I also wonder whether her past failures from "cramps" as she calls them, were from this same aversion. Apparently the last one was actually a bowel problem, but there have been others, and I think this may be the reason for at least a few of them. If she actually has such an aversion to peeing during a race, then what she did was personally very brave. But I still think that she's being somewhat delicate in a race that is so physically messy, to not just leak rather than make such a scene.

JMHO,
Lloyd.

[Ooze]

On viewing the clip I was disappointed to discover that she pulled the gusset to one side. This shows us that things are better left to the imagination!

[Sunway]

Interesting to read your comments Ooze & lloyd.

As I haven't seen the video clip and only saw what the television showed, I can't comment on that.

However, looking at the picture in this morning's paper, which is the clearest of all those I've seen, I'm still not convinced that she did pull aside her gusset, judging that her right hand is almost halfway down her thigh while her left had is steading herself.

Maybe it's all in our own minds, exactly what she did.

[lycrapisser]

looking at the picture in this morning's paper,

Which paper????

[WT]

Just before I go out, here's the picture. Decide for yourself, but I don't think she was pulling aside, just steadying herself while her other hand was on the barrier. It wouldn't have been too easy anyway because, as is her normal habit, she was wearing gloves.

http://www.katykins.com/images/Paula_400x200.jpg

[Edited by WT: Thanks to Kate for hosting the picture, so I've removed the note about bandwidth. I'll ask her to host a larger image of Abi Titmuss on the toilet too! :P ]

[~*~ k a t e ~*~]

I've made a busybody of myself and put the image on my server to save your bandwidth, WT, hope you don't mind.

About the picture, though: I don't think it proves that she didn't pull her shorts aside, just that whoever snapped that picture did so either before or after she pulled them aside. I saw the actual moving picture on the TV and it looked to me like she was definitely pulling them to the side, from behind. Not that I aprove of these types of threads that over-analyse something as seemingly trivial as this, but I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon regardless ;)

[bobbyjo]

hmmmm. a little disappointing really....considering what it COULD have been!

i like to think that she chose not to embarrass herself by peeing by the roadside... Instead she carried on running getting more and more desperate, until when she was going round the final few bends, she was running with her legs really tight together and a gorgeous scrunched-up look on her face.. As she gets to the finish, shes struggling to even walk properly, keeping her thighs tight together, absolutely bursting for the loo. Once she's crossed the line, and stops,,, she starts doing a really severe pee-pee dance, scissoring her legs, knotting her thighs... the television microphone overhears her say to another one of the runners "god, i need to go so bad"..

Then the cameraman rushes in ( as they do ) to interview her.
While she's talking, she's bouncing up and down on the spot, jiggling around, and then starts really squirming and pressing her thighs together hard.. Suddenly in between her words, you hear a quiet but orgasmic little moan, and gradually an embarrassing wet patch starts to form on the front of her pants. Slowly it grows, and then you can see pee start to trickle out of the side of her pants, and dribble slowly down her leg... more and more pee dribbling down, and a bit dribbling down the other leg too... and in time, its really gushing out, gushing down both legs, and making the hugest wet patch on the front of her pants. Naughty Paula!

oh well, maybe i got carried away there.
it was still fun seeing a story about pee in all the papers. Sorry if i've put a dampener on things.
A dampener hahaha sorry i'm going now

[Holly]

I can remember a funny picture circulating by email round our office last year at the time of Athens when Paula Radcliffe dropped out of the Olympic Marathon.

To get this you have to remember that there used to be a chocolate bar called 'Marathon' and that was replaced by a bar called 'Snickers' which was exactly the same thing but just rebranded in a smaller form!

So this picture had Paula running with a bar of 'Snickers' in her arms. The caption underneath said:
" Snickers........... for when a full Marathon is just too much" :lol:

[WT]

Thanks, Kate, you're an angel! I'll e-mail you a larger version of Abi Titmuss on the toilet if you'd be prepared to host that too. Thanks! :D :wink:

You're wicked(ly funny), Holly! :lol:

[Ooze]

Well Holly, taking into consideration Paula's own admissions concerning the Athens marathon, you would have to check carefully before taking a bite from anything looking like chocolate that she was handling during that race!!

By the way the stills will not help anyone decide on the gusset issue. Look at the clip posted earlier on this thread. I think it shows clearly that Paula pulled the gusset to one side.

Ooze.

[Frodo]

The Bostom Marathon is perhaps one of the biggest in the US, and that was run on Monday. It starts in a smallish town, and although they set up 500 portapotties it's not near enough for all of the thousands of contenstants to have a final pee just before the race begins. On the news last night was a woman complaining that "hundreds" of runners relieved themselves in her yard. She took a whole roll of film, and they showed a couple of pix of rear views of groups of men obviously peeing. Another neighbor near the starting line says she opens her bathroom to runners and has no problem with them using her yard.

Although her pictures didn't show any, it's apparently the female runners that leave more tangible residue - the complainant mentioned finding tampons and soiled panties.

If I lived there, I'd just accept the situation and post signs directing women to one side of the house and men to the other...

[Crazyhorse]

Oh dont start me off again.

Why, in this country, by this person, is dropping out of an Olympic event so criminal?

She didn't kill anyone. She hasn't declared war on Iraq.

Are you people so taken in by tv hype which has a program before every international sporting event that says "we'll put the 'great' back into Britain"?

Oh God. Leaving aside the fact that the 'great' actually refers to the greater islands that make up Britain (i.e. the larger) and NOT great in the sense of brilliant, whatever the BNP would like you to believe.

Then why would a person dropping out of an Olympic event be such a dramatic event to anyone but the competitor? I can only be reminded of Jessie Owens and his humiliation of Europe in the 1936 Olympics.
Coincidence?

You decide.

[Ape]

Then why would a person dropping out of an Olympic event be such a dramatic event to anyone but the competitor?.

And even more than that, why would a professional marathon runner partaking in a marathon she has previously won in world record time be such a dramatic event to anyone other than the competitor?? If anyone is falling for the tabloid line, it is those who want us to bow down and herald the comeback of Paula the Great!!

She ran a marathon in Greece, had a stomach bug or balked at coming second, and dropped out. Now we are expected to worship at her altar because she has returned to the fray! If she had lost an arm wrestling a lion in the Greek stadiums, I might consider her feat impressive, but I cannot understand the hype around a professional athlete doing her job!

Classic tedious tabloid hype!

[~*~ k a t e ~*~]

If she had lost an arm wrestling a lion in the Greek stadiums, I might consider her feat impressive...

...unless she was a professional lion wrestler, in which case she'd simply be doing her job, right? HAHAHA!!

[Ape]

If she had lost an arm wrestling a lion in the Greek stadiums, I might consider her feat impressive...

...unless she was a professional lion wrestler, in which case she'd simply be doing her job, right? HAHAHA!!

It was not the lion wrestling that impressed me, merely the running of a marathon afterwards! Come on, keep up!

:wink:

[Val]

Come on, it's so rare the Brits get anywhere in anything, especially to their ultimate chagrin, sports like Cricket and Soccer they taught the world so it could hammer them, that of course Paula actually winning a home event has to be top news! 8) Anyway, in the Iraq-invasion event, Tony came 2nd. :wink:

[~*~ k a t e ~*~]

Come on, keep up!

Haha! "keep up"; nice marathon reference.

[Indigo]

Oh I get it.

When I go to the theatre and see a really impressive production, I shouldn't applaud at the end because it's "just professional actors doing their job".

Ditto the opera. "Just professional singers doing their job".

Michael Schumaker's driving? "Just a professional driver doing his job".

I could go on, but there's no point. I'm a lawyer. It's be "just a professional goer-on doing his job".

I don't care what nationality Paula Radcliffe is. She's a truly great athlete, and her achievements are awe-inspiring. She moved up from 10,000 metres to marathon, no easy feat in itself, and went out and wiped the floor with everyone at the first time of asking. Then she came back and did it again. And once, things went wrong for her. So what? I seem to remember Red Rum being beaten by Ragtrade in the Grand National. Does that mean Red Rum wasn't one of the greatest racehorses that ever set hoof on turf? Course it doesn't. And the same is true of Paula Radcliffe.

And speaking as a former athlete who has been there (but not at that level, or that distance), believe me, pulling up in Athens was NOT the easy option. The easy option woudl have been to continue regardless, going backwards. But that would not have been the right thing to do.

So let's all stop this character assassination and focus on the positive aspect of all this, eh? A story about peeing on the front pages of the national press is not something you see all that often. (I seem to remember the Sun once ran the banner headline "The Royal Wee" when Princess Eugenie wet herself on an aeroplane heading for a wedding where she and her sister were to be bridesmaids - but the poor girl was only two at the time, so it hardly counts.)

[Ape]

Oh I get it.

When I go to the theatre and see a really impressive production, I shouldn't applaud at the end because it's "just professional actors doing their job".

No-one is saying anything about Radcliffe's achievements, merely that there was nothing great in her coming back after Athens. The two are completely different.

One is professional athlete doing her job, the other is praising her like she was NOT a professional athlete and suddenly became this world beater. It's one thing to value the underdog, quite another to claim that a worldbeater suddenly BECOMES an underdog simply because she had a dodgy time in Athens!

Capiche?

[Steel City Cowboy]

Just tipical, the first time in twenty-five years I've not watched the marathon on t.v. and one of my most favourite female athletes stops and pees' for the world to see. Never mind got the picture from the SUN history paper, which clearly shows her pulling to one side and not peeing though.

I had a desperation and wetting sighting the other day that I will post as soon as I have more time.

See you all soon, I hope.

Happy Wettings - Steel City Cowboy :shock:

[WT]

You must get a better (for naughty pics) newspaper than I do, Steel City Cowboy. I also bow to Kate's sighting in the original BBC coverage: in all the highlights, the deed was edited out: you saw her squat then get up again, both with clothing untouched.

If you scan and e-mail me the picture Steel CIty Cowboy, I'll update my more anodyne version. Thanks.

[Indigo]

Yeah - I understand you, Ape.

Pity you don't understand athletics, innit?