Ratio of Port-o-Potties

[thekl0wn]

Does anyone have a good rule of thumb for the ratio of port-o-potties to participants for race start/finish?

[elfscore]

It can depend on the ratio of males and females. For an all-female event, 1 can service about 60 people at most. For a 50-50 mix, 1 can service about 75 people at most. For, say, 900 people, you would need in the neighborhood of 12-15 units.

[Runners Edge]

I agree with elfscore, I have always used a rule of thumb of 1 port-o-pottie for every 75 runners, pre-race use.

[JamesM]

It also depends on the length of your race, the distance people come and the start time. If you have an very early morning start time, with people traveling for more than 30 minutes to get to the race, more of them will need to go.

If it's just a 5K people will not feel they have to go before the race, but if it's a marathon everyone will want to go.

Most people need a good dump in the morning before they are ready to race, but if it's an early start, for a long race, and they did not go before they left home then expect them to spend longer in the john. If they traveled a while to get to the race then expect more of them to have to go after the trip.

If you have a marathon where most people arrive the day before and stay near the start in hotels, ready to pop out just prior to the race, then they are more likely to have used the facilities before heading out the door and may just need a quick piddle before the start.

On the other hand, if your long distance race draws lots of people who drive in, who left home in the early AM before the normal daily cycle kicks in, then more will arrive fully loaded and need to spend more time in the john.

A 10am start will have shorter lines than a 6am start. Your mileage may vary.

Watch your port-a-potty contract. I have seen races who signed standard contracts that are setup with the vendor planing to clean and service the units prior to the working day. So at 6am, when the units were just staring to be used, the vendor turns up and starts hosing down the insides. This may work for a building site but for the race it was just the wrong thing to do at that point in the morning.

It does not hurt to pay someone to hose down, re-equip or do what is necessary to keep them all functioning at full speed. Especially if your start is also by your finish, as most races are. They get used at the start, then there is a pause while people run, followed by a swarm when they return. During that pause it does not hurt to clean and service them. But work out the logistics with the vendor or you will have the worker closing the units for service just when you need them most.

We find that useful signs to nearby "real facilities". Most runners don't mind jogging 1/4 to 1/2 a mile to find a bathroom without a line. If there is a park pavilion, mall or other building with bathrooms near the start think about working out an arrangement so that it will be open and the bathrooms avalible. This can help if the lines get too long.

Running a little way for a real bathroom, with lights and running hot water is an attractive option to most. You may also have a disabled athletes who really need to go find a proper ADA complaint bathroom.

There is nothing I like better than a large sign by the port-a-potties saying, "Real bathrooms 2,000 feet -> this way"

[thekl0wn]

Sounds like I'm in good shape. For port-o-pots alone, I should have about a 60-to-1 ratio at the start/finish alone (numbers are for race participants only... fans will raise that number, I know). There are also three other dedicated restroom buildings with real sitters, standers, and sinks (3-4 holes per gender) within 1,200' of the start, as well as the bathrooms inside our staging buildings for volunteers. There will also be 4-5 located near the beer garden.

This is for a marathon. We have at least one pot located every 2-3 miles along both our half and full courses. The shared routes have 2-3, whereas the full course only has 1 every two miles or so.

Thanks for everyone's help!

[joeconn4]

Tradition has been 1 porto per 100 runners, but as noted above that is not close to enough. The marathon I work for is about 1 to every 40 (runners only) at the start, but only 1 to every 300 (runners plus spectators) at the finish. These ratios seem to work fine for us, although you can always use more at the start.

~4000 runners on the course at any given time. Out on the course we have at least 2 portos every 1.5 miles at the aid stations, other than the last 6 miles when runners are more spread out we only have 1. Last year we added 2 banks of 6 portos at miles 4.5 and 10.5 away from the aid stations and that proved to be a huge help to mitigate lines where we only had 1 or 2.

[JimG]

Something I saw at the Prague Half Marathon last month was free-standing urinals. Basically a 3-sided pedestal about 5-6 ft. high, w/ urinal fitting on each side. There were small "wings" to provide a little privacy, but that's less of an issue in Europe. I took a photo that I'll try to post.

I wish U.S. companies carried them - it would probably reduce the Porta-John lines by 30-50% (and indeed the lines were a lot shorter for those in Prague).

Of course nothing beats the London Marathon - they wheel up trailers the size of construction offices that have half a dozen toilets on one side and a long trough urinal on the other. With these, people can really get "going."

[JimG]

This is a brilliant idea, IMHO. In the space of one PortaPottie you have a structure that will accommodate 4 times as many runners (if they're men) to do their "business." Cuts down on the lines for the regular units, meaning you'd need less of them, and keeps the local shubbery from being killed
Has anyone seen these in the U.S.? If not, I think I've found my next business opportunity.