Originally Posted by 'nother
That sounds like an awful lot of water to consume. I can barely keep up getting 8 every couple of hours. Is this really a danger to the average non-fanatical person? I'm skeptical.
It was the non-elite athletes that got this condition, the ones who (perhaps) weren't fanatical but who were slow enough to stop at the water stations, and, perhaps, were more likely to be unaware of the dangers of drinking too much water.
For me, a desert dweller who commutes in the summer, the lesson is to be cautious about how I hydrate and what I hydrate with, and to make sure I'm getting most electrolytes back in after/during long rides.