What's Too Hot to Handle?

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It seems a little strange to most folks to consider extremely heated (literally) races, but yesterday's post in a Runner's World blog has got me thinking: What would you do if your big marathon was canceled due to hot temperatures?

Peak Performance: What's Too Hot to Handle?

In shorter races, it's easy - and it's been done - the race directors take a Web Bulb test about an hour prior and if it's at or above the threshold, they declare it a "fun run." The first time I saw this in play personally was in the mid-90s at a July night-time 8k in Rockville, Md. With heat and humidity, it was still near 100 degrees by 7 p.m. and four times the safe limit to race, so the competitive part was canceled and the race money given out by random drawing instead. The fastest runners were told to stay with or behind Jeff Galloway, who would be doing 7-minute miles.

The original Richmond Marathon was a different story. It used to be held much later in the day to accommodate Sunday church go-ers. And the first year I ran it, we were all sweating at the start on an unusually warm early fall day. It was a much harder course then, and drew a much smaller field. A perk was free ER services post-marathon at a local hospital. We laughed, but that evening, the ER was overwhelmed with runners. I know because I was at the first-aid area when officials realized they couldn't handle the hordes of swaggering runners and told late-comers to just head to the hospital.

Which brings me back to the RW post and the paper it's based on. Apparently when marathons are held in unseasonably warm weather, area residents risk not being treated in a timely manner because badly dehydrated runners overwhelm facilities. The bigger the race, the bigger (and more likely) the problem.

The author of the study advocates more race directors cancel marathons when it's 69 degrees or warmer at the start. But he also recognizes the reputation hit and anger such a move is likely to induce.

Read Here: Determining a 'Do Not Start' Temperature for a Marathon

What do you all think - should marathons be canceled when it's too hot, for their race participants' safety as well as the community hosting the run?

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