Any weird running-in-the heat anecdotes from the scorched Southwest?

I'm from NH. I live in Texas now.

If you want to get some heat experience run the "Running with the Devil" marathon near Las Vegas this weekend. I ran it several years back when it started around high noon and temps were near 110. Good times.

Also, many knuckleheads here in southern TX consider 75 to be cold. It's hard not to laugh.

Live in AZ and this is nothing new. Actually the month of June has had more days with highs under 100 than usual. Sure, we had a few hot days earlier this week, but still 4 degrees shy of the all time record high...anyway, I run in the early morning, its hot but bearable. Do have to watch out for critters if you're running on the trails in the hills...I see people out running in the afternoon, when its smoking hot and the sun is unbearable, not sure how they do that.

I am about to go running and it is 82. Doing easy runs in the heat should not be a problem if you are acclimatized.

I'm usually out around 6pm. This heat is nothing compared to summers in the Midwest.

At 6pm today it will be 109 degrees in Phoenix. I don't understand how this could be comfortable at all even if humidity is under 10%. Is the key to run in the shade or something? Curious because I may be living in the Phoenix area next summer and there's no way I'm running at 4am.

New to PHX wrote:

I'm usually out around 6pm. This heat is nothing compared to summers in the Midwest.

I briefly went to Tucson in May and the temperature was exactly 100 with near zero humidity. I had ran in 100 degrees before so I figured I was ok for a light jog.

I didn't make it more than about 800 meters before I was hopelessly dehydrated, nearly crawling toward a water fountain like in the cartoons. With the freaking cactuses standing around too. That low humidity will kill you.

Bad Wigins wrote:

I briefly went to Tucson in May and the temperature was exactly 100 with near zero humidity. I had ran in 100 degrees before so I figured I was ok for a light jog.

I didn't make it more than about 800 meters before I was hopelessly dehydrated, nearly crawling toward a water fountain like in the cartoons. With the freaking cactuses standing around too. That low humidity will kill you.

I lived in Tucson for 4 years and would sometimes run with guys at noon break. It wasn't so bad. I would totally wet a tshirt and the evaporative cooling helped. Monsoon season (around late july and august) was hell though because it would also be humid. I live in Seattle now and I would take running in a dry 95 Tucson over running in an 80 degree Seattle day. Seattle in the 90's is unbearable (and there was a lot of that last year). I have heard the South East part of the country is the worst to run in with high temps and high humidity.

I was curious about this as SW seemed extreme. I've lived Kodiak Ak, Seattle, Aspen, NYC, Joisey, Boston But the absolute worst was Washington DC. In summer.

I guess no place perfect, but Palm Springs at 116 the other day, sheesh.

I think it's a matter of being acclimated to low humidity. I was used to high humidity so I may have been geared toward sweating way too fast.

The winner of the 2015 worlds marathon was from hot, dry Eritrea, and I knew he was gonna win by the way he held his hands open flat so heat could conduct from his palms to the air effectively. The Kenyans kept their hands closed which holds in heat.

I used to live in Phoenix. During the summers I ran before dawn. Usually, just as I was finishing, the sun was coming up. Also, I found the one outdoors chilled water fountain and arranged various loops that started and ended at that water fountain. The non-chilled water fountains didn't help, because the ground water was so hot. Sometimes I'd freeze a water bottle solid and drink it as it thawed, which only took a few minutes. Then I'd refill it at that water fountain.

Bad Wigins wrote:

I think it's a matter of being acclimated to low humidity. I was used to high humidity so I may have been geared toward sweating way too fast.

The winner of the 2015 worlds marathon was from hot, dry Eritrea, and I knew he was gonna win by the way he held his hands open flat so heat could conduct from his palms to the air effectively. The Kenyans kept their hands closed which holds in heat.

Wondered about how to cope when I saw the late Sammy Wajiri ? Take off in Beijing marathon in 90s by 90s heat in 2008.bet he,d never finish.lost $$

Insert joke here...

legalize it wrote:

I lived in Tucson for 4 years and would sometimes run with guys at noon break. It wasn't so bad. I would totally wet a tshirt and the evaporative cooling helped. Monsoon season (around late july and august) was hell though because it would also be humid. I live in Seattle now and I would take running in a dry 95 Tucson over running in an 80 degree Seattle day. Seattle in the 90's is unbearable (and there was a lot of that last year). I have heard the South East part of the country is the worst to run in with high temps and high humidity.

Seattle isn't even that humid in the summer. Try Midwest, Southeast, or East Coast and the summer is WAY worse.

HardLoper wrote:

legalize it wrote:

I lived in Tucson for 4 years and would sometimes run with guys at noon break. It wasn't so bad. I would totally wet a tshirt and the evaporative cooling helped. Monsoon season (around late july and august) was hell though because it would also be humid. I live in Seattle now and I would take running in a dry 95 Tucson over running in an 80 degree Seattle day. Seattle in the 90's is unbearable (and there was a lot of that last year). I have heard the South East part of the country is the worst to run in with high temps and high humidity.

Seattle isn't even that humid in the summer. Try Midwest, Southeast, or East Coast and the summer is WAY worse.

Yeah I ran with Seattle Track Club for years and it was Nirvana .

(Don't respond gf says same thing you would).

Most often I'll beat the heat by starting my runs 30-40 minutes before sunrise. I also found out that I can run under a piece of elevated freeway without the police saying anything. I have a 3.5 km loop all in the shade. Have been waiting all year for a chance to run under there when it is raining (maybe once a month unless it's July) or snowing (maybe once a year if we're lucky). If I run inside on a treadmill, I can't do it without a big fan blowing on me. I don't see how people can run on a treadmill without some air moving over them.

The great George Young ran out of Casa Grande AZ.

Don't know how. Tuff as. Nails.