Temperature during race time was 81 degrees with 99% humidity. Which means feels like 94 degrees in the shade (Even hotter in the sun).
If you compare times of the D1 athletes from the 2013 Furman race to the 2014 Furman race, you'll find that they ran an average of 45 seconds slower. Some runners were as little as 20s slower, while others were as much as over 2:00 slower.
One example of many:
2013
24:10 Roland Hakes - Clemson
24:12 Dylan Lafond - Mount Olive
2014
24:52 Roland Hakes - Clemson
24:52 Austin Steagall - Mount Olive
If you factor the weather conditions into the times listed in an earlier post, you may begin to view things differently. Maybe you won't. Doesn't really matter. What matters is what happens on race day in December.
Am I the Mount Olive coach? Possibly, or I'm just someone who did their research. The above can all be found online.