PBP 23 Slowness due to weather conditions?

[Ivo]

In 2015 there was extra time allowed due to the long lines at the finish. It was also the only time that the St. Quentin velodrome was used.

[LateStarter]

Strangely, according to PBP Results site, the average finish time for 2023 was 78:57 which is 32 minutes less than 79:29 in 2019.

2015 average was 78:19 and had 5-10kms more than 2023 (depending on which version of the route you use) so a good deal faster?

[Lightning Phil]

I didn't know the latin name, but I already knew the principle. That's why I intuitively tried to force-drink while at a staffed control in a town, so help would be at hand.

Hyponoeutria is where you’ve drunk too much, compared to salt intake.  Thus the answer is not to force more water down, but to get salts on board.   I’ve also been there during my travails in the heat. 

Having said the above I’ve still suffered from heat exhaustion when I’ve done everything right with drinking and salt replacement etc.  Some of us, and I count myself among them, just aren’t built for prolonged exercise in the heat.  The only answer is to stop exercising and get out the heat as best possible.  Sometimes that means abandoning events for the sake of your health. 

The cold and wet on the other hand, I deal with very well, and these conditions have never been a cause of concern for me, or resulted in a DNF.

[Phil21]

Simply because I couldn't even drink anymore due to the heat. (I would vomit immediately).

I know you are an experienced audaxer, so I may teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but...

That is a symptom of hyponatremia (low salt levels). When you sweat you excrete salts. If you don't replace it, the level of salt in your body diminishes. Drinking more dilutes it even further. It's an extremely dangerous condition (can be fatal) so the body has a defense mechanism that makes you vomit up even plain water. I discovered this on the Spurn Head 400 on a very hot summer day about 10 years ago, since then I always take a salt replacement tablet in my water.

I think I nursemaided you around that one...

Good memory! We got together at the cafe at Spurn Head. It was a beautiful summer's day, not a cloud in the sky and I remember the yellow fields of rape in Holdernesse. Strangely I didn't feel bad...until I did. Came on very sudden as the evening wore on. I remember us (there was one other rider with us) stopping while I ignominiously vomited under a tree and you tried to get me to eat a banana, but it was no good. You two went on and I managed to find a hotel for the night. After breakfast the next morning I felt a lot better and managed to get to Chris Crossland's house where he told me about the importance of replenishing salt levels.

Strange how the bad rides stick in the memory.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I did take and use some electrolyte tablets (for the first time in a couple of years).  I also added salt to my food at the controls, which I don't normally do, and thought about naturally salty foods - ham, cheese, crisps when I was eating at the controls.  It's something I learnt after finishing the Kernow & SW in hot weather and then feeling utterly weird until I was 'rescued' by a large packet of salt & vinegar crisps.

[Wycombewheeler]

I did take and use some electrolyte tablets (for the first time in a couple of years).  I also added salt to my food at the controls, which I don't normally do, and thought about naturally salty foods - ham, cheese, crisps when I was eating at the controls.  It's something I learnt after finishing the Kernow & SW in hot weather and then feeling utterly weird until I was 'rescued' by a large packet of salt & vinegar crisps.

I'm fairly regular in S&V crisps, coke and ice cream at UK free controls, when I have to use a co-op or a petrol station.

[mike]

I added electrolyte tablets into my grazing menu for long triathlon training days and it felt quite effective, they pretty much eliminated cramp and settled my stomach when I'm relying on gels for energy. I use the cheap ones from Decathlon which seem to have similar ingredients to much more expensive options available elsewhere - they're 100 pills for a tenner.  Would recommend.

[cygnet]

Strangely, according to PBP Results site, the average finish time for 2023 was 78:57 which is 32 minutes less than 79:29 in 2019.

Thinking out loud, in previous years was the published time based on brevet card rather than chip timings?
……Also a few mins on average at the start, from the official start gun to getting over the timing mat.

Since electronic timing from 2011 maybe not, each riders start time reflects their time rolling over the start timing point, some up to 10 minutes after the “wave start time” and at the finish no-one has mentioned any computer or even bit of paper for recording a time, just a flick through the card to see if most stamps are there and hand back the card with the medal an off the rider goes.

The medal-handing-over only started in 2019. Before that you simply handed over your raison d'êtra for the previous 4 days and hoped something would turn up in December. If the brevet card is handed back now, how do they compensate those who e.g. assisted other riders in distress?

The over-hydration thing is how Leah Betts died isn't it?

[ruffstuff]

Thanks for all your stories.. looking back also about hydration and salt .. having slightly raised blood pressure .. taking losartan .. they say donot take salt substitutes or anything high in Potassium ? Energy drinks ??  Worse in hot weather? 
 Anyone else has these symtoms .. or thoughts?