If you were a participant in an official race, would you expect to be handed water in a cup that had already been used by someone else? Probably not.
However, this was the very real situation experienced by runners at this year’s Brighton Half Marathon on Sunday 2 March, where participants were given reused paper cups at water stations Runners World US.
Following the event, the race organisers – who clearly didn’t intend for things to go this way – apologised in a statement and vowed to do better next time.
‘Towards the end of the race, one of our water stations ran out of paper cups for a short period of time and, under pressure, made an error of judgement to wash and reuse cups to meet demand from runners for water,’ wrote the race organisers.
‘Runners were told that the cups were being reused at the time,’ they continued.
When interviewed by the BBC, virologist Sarah Pitt said that the risk of passing on germs through the reuse of cups was ‘very low’ – and that ‘the only thing you can really catch is coughs and colds’. Still, on principle, it’s a bit odious to hydrate from a cup that’s already been supped upon by the mouth of a stranger.
‘We do not condone any sharing or reusing of cups,’ added the race organisers. ‘We take this very seriously and will now be speaking to our teams post-race to strengthen our processes for the future.’
You could argue that this whole communion cup-debacle could have been avoided with better planning. That said, it’s worth noting that reusable water cups already exist at some races – and when hydration stations are set up with the intention of being sustainable, there’s nothing icky about it.
Hiccup, a reusable cup service in the US, was started by Kristina Smithe in 2020 to help offset the waste and environmental impact of running events. The company provides event organisers with small silicone cups, then washes and sanitises them for the next race. Although it’s still a relatively fledgling concept, Hiccup has already been used for some big-hitting events like the Chicago Marathon, as well as races put on by one of New York City’s biggest race operators, NYCRUNS.
There isn’t yet an equivalent service in the UK. However, over the past few years, increasingly more races in the UK have been asking runners to supply their own water bottle or cup, or for aid stations to stock only compostable cups.
Sifan Hassan will run the 2025 Sydney Marathon London Marathon and the Oxford Half Marathon, for instance, use 100% recyclable cups, with the former also offering several water refill stations Runners World US and at the start area to enable runners to top up their own drinking vessel. In addition, various UK races now provide finisher medals made of recycled materials, plus the option to forgo a finisher T-shirt and plant a tree or donate to charity instead.
Perhaps next year’s Brighton Half Marathon will make headlines for offering reusable cups deliberately, for all the right reasons.
