When the Biofreeze San Francisco Marathon established in 1977, fewer than 900 competed. When the marathon celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017, there were 27,500 in participation.
Human waste has always been a problem at marathons; the Biofreeze is no different. If the average person poops at least once a day, it shouldn’t come to anyone’s surprise if the urge to poop came mid-run. After all, not all runners are finely tuned machines who can time their bathroom breaks precisely. Even runners who train extensively and know what they should and shouldn’t eat on marathon day find themselves leaving the course and lining up at the porta-potties.
The urge to poop can hit runners when they least expect it because even anxiety has the power to impact bowels, causing unwanted diarrhea. Even if only a fraction of the thousands of runners used the porta-potties, that still means hundreds of people are making deposits in the porta-potties. You have to remember that runners aren’t the only ones who show up marathon day; thousands of spectators and supporters do too.
As porta-potties have long been a part of the marathon culture; no one questions if there are alternatives, despite the fact that there are better solutions which are not only more cost-efficient but more environmentally-friendly.
Porta-Potties vs. Personal Lavatory Systems
It costs marathon organizers thousands of dollars to rent the hundreds of porta-potties required to accommodate the bathroom needs of all the runners and supporters. For a fraction of those costs, portable lavatory systems, also known as pop-up commode shelters, could serve the same number of people but without the same health risks that porta-potties pose.
The Restop Pop-Up Commode Shelter comes with a privacy shelter, commode, and supply of waste bags. Waste Bag is an industry standard term that stands for ‘Waste Alleviation and Gelling’ Bag. RESTOP waste bags are easy-to-use and provide a sanitary bathroom solution when you’re on the go. Both RESTOP RS1 and RS2 waste bags are odor-free, spill-proof, and puncture resistant.
With RESTOP waste bags, clean up is also more comfortable. There’s no need to bring in trucks to take away gallons of sewage for treatment. Because RESTOP waste bags are non-toxic and landfill-safe, they can be thrown away in any regular trash can. You dispose of the used waste bags with the rest of the garbage left behind on marathon day.
The RESTOP Personal Lavatory System takes up less space than a porta-potty. To purchase one, it will cost almost as much as renting a porta-potty for a single event. This means marathon organizers only have to invest in the privacy shelters and commode systems once and can then use them every year after that, saving them thousands of dollars in the long term.