Atlanta Track Club to deliver nearly 4,000 personal bottles at Olympic Trials

The Atlanta Track Club is hosting the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials, and part of hosting a trials is delivering the runner’s personal bottles. Past U.S Marathon Trials saw participation rates of under 400 people, but this year’s event is seeing just under 700 competitors.

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With that many competitors comes even more bottles. If each runner takes a personal drink at each of the six aid stations, then the race is giving roughly 4,000 bottles over the course of the 42.2K race. Most races offer personal bottle service to their elite athlete only, which would be roughly 30 bottles per aid station. However, every runner at the trials is offered access to personal bottles. Here’s how the Atlanta Track Club is going to safely and effectively hand out thousands of drinks to their corresponding runner.

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Long, flat area for tables

The race scouted out long and flat stretches of the (very hilly) course for their bottle stations. They need ample space, as their personal hydration stations are 100 tables long.

Bottle collection

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The personally decorated bottles will be collected the night before and refrigerated to, hopefully, be cold for runners the next morning. Decorating bottles has never been more important, because picking your drink out of 700 isn’t an easy task (especially by kilometre 30).

Volunteer training

Volunteers have been trained to handle hundreds of runners approaching their station at one time–especially at mile two when competitors will be densely packed.

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The race begins Saturday February 29 at 12:03 p.m. for the men and 12:13 p.m. for the women.