One of my associates from the early 1980s, Alan Titchenal, was an experienced and wily marathoner. On the occasional days when the Honolulu Marathon was run in particularly hot and humid conditions, Alan would start the race at a deliberately slow pace, letting most of the crowd dash ahead as they usually do.
In Honolulu, the race begins at five o’clock in the morning, and conditions then can feel deceivingly comfortable. Even runners who realize how hot it is will go out too fast in a vein attempt to “take advantage” of the relatively cool conditions in the early darkness. Attuned to subtle differences in heat and humidity, Alan understood the toll an extra five degrees and 25% more-than-average humidity takes on the body through eighteen miles.
He knew when the sun rose into a clear sky at 7 a.m. that most athletes—especially the ones who went too fast would wilt. And by 30K, Alan would be passing them even at his original, held-back pace. His secret, besides the slower-than-usual pace, was a training base of weekly heat acclimation workouts. He and his training partner, Tommy Holmes, would start a weekend morning run in Waikiki, meander through the parks towards downtown Honolulu, and then wander back along the Ala Wai, where the sun would hit them like a double whammy, directly from the sky and reflected off the water.
Alan and I used to talk about how much running in the heat was necessary to reduce the debilitating effects of heat on marathon performance. The running literature indicated that the greatest gains in heat acclimation occurred rapidly, within a week or two. But Alan trained at least once a week in the heat as a matter of course, not so he could run as fast as usual in the heat, but to avoid a crashing slowdown because of it. And in the final couple weeks before the marathon he and Tommy would layer their running clothes during evening runs for extra acclimation.
“The running literature indicated that the greatest gains in heat acclimation occurred rapidly, within a week or two. But Alan trained at least once a week in the heat as a matter of course.”
The trick was to never let such evening acclimation runs become uncomfortably hot. So, they’d disrobe as they ran, tying shirts around their waist to avoid the dangers of too much heat on the body. It was obvious to any observant racer that heat exhaustion was as much a peril in training as it was in Honolulu’s marathon. On hot days, ambulances, their sirens blaring, would roar up and down the highway between 15- and 22-miles taking heat-injured athletes to the hospital. In extreme cases, athletes would become disoriented and delirious, suffering severe cramps and requiring urgent medical attention, including infusions of saline solution and layered ice packs.
Alan and Tommy usually ran together through most of the race, as they did in training. They empathized with their racing brethren, but they knew the race was theirs to savor, thanks to wise and careful preparation and sustainable pacing. Where others complained about the heat, Alan and Tommy noticed it, but never found it uncomfortable.