Hope everyone's been getting out and enjoying this great weather! Watch
your inboxes for *big* news about your GMARA membership. (One of our
sponsors is being really good to us this year.)

In the meantime, here's a warning about what can happen if you take
hydration too seriously. (Although gaining 11 pounds of water during
the Boston Marathon *does* seem like an extreme case...)

Taken from http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/3540424?GT1=6428

Athletes warned to watch water intake
LINDA A. JOHNSON / Associated Press
Posted: 3 days ago

Runners, hikers, bikers, even soldiers on long maneuvers should think
twice before reaching for that water bottle: A study confirms that
drinking too much can be dangerous, even deadly, for endurance athletes.

Researchers who studied 488 runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon found
that 62, or more than one in eight, had a serious fluid and salt
imbalance from drinking too much water or sports drinks. Three of them
had extreme imbalances.

One 28-year-old woman died after the race from the condition, called
hyponatremia, in which the excess water dilutes the salt level in the
body too much.

"More is definitely not better when it comes to fluids, but it's a hard
message to get across," said Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition
at Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Endurance athletes have long been warned about getting dehydrated, and
many tend to drink more on race day than they do during training.

The study was reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers, led by Dr. Christopher Almond, a cardiologist at
Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, tested Boston
Marathon runners' blood after the race and collected information on
their condition, race time and liquid intake.

They found hyponatremia was most serious in runners who gained
substantial weight — 4½ pounds to 11 pounds — from drinking lots of
water along the route. Extremely thin runners also were at high risk.
Runners who drank sports drinks, which contain very little salt, were
not less likely to develop hyponatremia.

Bonci and Almond said a good way to prevent problems is for athletes to
weigh themselves before and after training sessions. If they gain
significant weight, they should cut back on water intake until they find
the right balance — long before race day.

The goal is simply to replace water lost to sweating.

Hyponatremia can begin with confusion and lethargy and progress rapidly
to twitching, seizures, stupor, coma and death.

Severe cases are believed to have become more common with the growing
popularity of endurance sports. In recent years, hyponatremia has killed
several amateur marathon runners, as well as competitors in the Marine
Corps Marathon.

This year's Boston Marathon will be on Monday.
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