Briefer Sightings

[Brian]

Great conversation! Lengthy cycling races like that must be characterised by the problem of how and when to pee on the way.

The fact that he held it for an hour and 45 minutes until he was "gagging for slash" and had to stop or he would have pissed himself - that's a pretty wonderful thing for him to tell you.

I've never been a racing cyclist but your account does remind me of a brief conversation I overheard during a marathon race (running). I suppose it would have been about an hour into the race. A guy running in my vicinity, wearing a white top and long dark blue running tights (it must have been during the cold season) clearly knew one of the bystanders we were running past. The bystander immediately started running along with us to encourage his friend and asked him how it was going. Dark blue tights guy replied, with an air of wanting to encourage sympathy from his friend: "I've got huge pressure on my bladder but I can't stop for a piss because I'll lose time." Evidently he intended to try to hold on for the entire marathon if he could. I've sometimes wondered if he eventually let go and wet his tights - I have on two occasions before seen a male runner who has wet himself at the finish of a race.

[googlism2008]

I think I mentioned it before, but have done a number of running races in a certain period of my life, I can say that race day hydration cum toilet planning can be challenging. For training runs, you can just tank up for some time before your run, go pee, and then run. But in a race with thousands of participants, the organizer will flag runners off in multiple waves with perhaps 10 or 15 minutes between waves. Often each wave has its own dedicated start pen and typically these pens get fulled up on a first come first serve basis - so you will want to secure your place in the appropriate start pen especially if you are gunning for a personal record. And then the wait inside the start pen can be as long as an hour, so you might want to bring in water to tank up while inside the pen. There's no toilets inside the pen, and people who leave their pen will need to rejoin the very last pen. Of course, there's always that issue of super long queues at the toilets at the race site, and the time taken to travel to the race venue, together with the consideration that eating and drinking is not allowed on public transport. Last but not least, it is common to see flag offs being delayed. So yeah, I have seen people heading off into the bushes almost immediately after passing the start line, and there was also once I was bursting myself at the start pen after waiting for one hour and had to water the plants several kilometers into the race. There was also one episode I arrived at the race venue with a rapidly filling bladder only to find a snaking long queue at the toilet. Had my legs tightly crossed while seeing others getting relief at the urinals because I needed the crapper. The worst part was the struggle of pulling my very snug pair of tights and underwear down without losing control - the seat of the bottoms was barely clear when I shoved my member down, plopped down onto the toilet seat and immediately peed like a racehorse with the upper part of my member still in contact with the fabric.

I suppose the logistics involved in cycling races aren't that different either.

[Def123]

Cycle races are similar at the beginning to a running race, although generally fewer racers.

In off road/gravel races and events there’s either a penned start or a starting mat, from which your time is taken. Stopping for a mechanical or a piss will mean that you get overtaken by loads of people and it’s then very difficult to pass them again.

In a road cycling race the issue is usually that if you stop you’ll loose contact with the peloton (group) and then you’re stuffed, it’s completely game over. I’ve been at a few road races (racing or helping etc), there’s quite often a few dozen cyclists taking an urgent piss after the finish.

The worst is probably a time trial, where you race on your own over a fixed distance (10, 25, 50, 100 miles etc). 10’s are no problem as that’s 21 minutes, 25 miles is more of a problem as it’s an hour racing plus some time before and after. Whilst a 50 is a good two hours.

Even if you’ve managed to have a piss 5 minutes before your start time, it could be 80 minutes before you’re finished and back at the start or carpark.

[Fred]

If you're well hydrated (as cyclists would be) it's not unusual to need to piss within an hour.

[Brian]

While I was waiting for a train this morning my attention was caught by a guy in his late twenties or early thirties standing on the platform waiting for the same train. He had light brown hair and was wearing a light green top and black shorts. The thing which was unusual and grabbed my attention was that he was holding a large bottle of water with both hands with the base of the bottle pushing into the crotch of his shorts. You can imagine the slightly obscene and suggestive nature of this posture. But I don't really think he meant it in that way. He didn't look the type to be showing off like that. The impression was more of a guy who was preoccupied with himself.

While I continued to watch, he kept the bottle there and started making strange movements around the platform where he was standing, as if he was dancing, but not in a fast or rhythmic way but more like a sort of yoga exercise or something.

Naturally as soon as the train arrived I followed him on board and got a seat in the group of seats next to his group of seats on the other side of the aisle!

My journey was only two stops, about ten minutes, but during that time I observed him continuing to press the water bottle into his groin with one hand (his other hand was operating his mobile phone). He was sitting with one ankle resting on his knee and from time to time kept swapping his legs so that the other ankle was resting on the other knee. It wasn't really a very obvious desperation motion, but the bottle which he kept pushing between his legs (expect when he occasionally swigged from it!) kept me very interested!

He remained on the train when I got off. I will add that it was a local stopping train with no toilets on board!

[bodgyuk]

If only you'd stayed on the train Brian, and see what unfolded, if anything.

[Fred]

I must start riding public transportation more often! If this lad was still drinking from his bottle, he must have confidence in his ability to hold, even if he had to press his member to reinforce it. Those who drink a lot of water get used to needing to pee, and they usually know how long they can hold it in. I will fantasize that he enjoys it!

[madius]

Is it just me or is this section repeated? I remember seeing it on another forum