People don't seem to realize how bad the heat was at Chicago

The 100+ (supposedly 126 in places) temperatures in Kona didn't seem to affect Macca, Alexander and Carfrae over the weekend. I bet they were sweating too!

My goodness, what has the world come to?????

Seriously, come to Texas and wake up at 5:30 every morning and run. In the summer it is already in the mid 80's at that point. this entire world is full of trolls like you who are little girls and cant run in the heat.

No one in Texas would ever complain about this kind of thing. We would be celebrating the 70 degree weather

Seriously did some guy who probably ran a 3:30+ marathon call out Kevin Hanson??? And then bash a pro runner who DNF'ed?? That's some stones or a lack of brains!! Of course he's gonna gush (as you put it) over the race, it was a great race on a great course!

As for comparing this year to a few years ago when the temps and humidity were unreal is a joke! As for saying that Hartmann's 2:11 and change is as good as anything Ritz has done your a moron....Ritz ran 2:10 at NYC last fall...NYC is easily regarded as the hardest major marathon, so if you were to translate that to Chicago it would easily be faster.

No offense to Hartmann, who has had two back-to-back outstanding performances, but chill, he's not in Ritz's league just yet.

TEXAS TIGER wrote:

My goodness, what has the world come to?????

Seriously, come to Texas and wake up at 5:30 every morning and run. In the summer it is already in the mid 80's at that point. this entire world is full of trolls like you who are little girls and cant run in the heat.

No one in Texas would ever complain about this kind of thing. We would be celebrating the 70 degree weather

Texas is a great place to get used to running in any weather condition. Hills, cold, heat, humidity, flats, and beer.

Plus, you do have to run before 9am in the summer before it gets too hot(95).

x2 - there was an enormous difference between being in the shade and in the sun.

All the tough guys talking about how pleasant the weather was for the race obviously either weren't there or weren't racing. High 70's with a blaring sun and little shade is far from good conditions for a marathon.

No one cares that you've run marathons in hotter conditions. The point is that GIVEN the heat, the times were actually pretty solid, and the winning times were quite fast.

A LOT of people had subpar performances because of the warm temps.

Ritz hasn't run NYC since his debut in 2006. He ran 2:11 at the Trials in NYC (different course) in 2007. Are you thinking of Ryan Hall? Hall was fourth last year in NYC in 2:10:36.

Ritz is, however, entered to run NYC this coming November 7.

lol

RUN BAC wrote:

Ritz ran 2:10 at NYC last fall...NYC is easily regarded as the hardest major marathon, so if you were to translate that to Chicago it would easily be faster.

Ritz did not run 2:10 at NYC last fall. He did not run a marathon last fall - he did run 1:00:00 to medal at the World HM championships. He's only run 2:10 once, at London in the spring of '09. He debuted at NYCM in 2006 in 2:14, and he ran 2:11 on the Olympic Trials course in New York in 2007.

you folks obviously didn't run wrote:

All the tough guys talking about how pleasant the weather was for the race obviously either weren't there or weren't racing.

Did you read Kevin Hanson's post? I would say that he may have been in town and had a decent idea what the conditions were?

The people complaining about the heat are probably the ones who were training at 6am all summer, barechested! The ones who did the best, prepared the best. They know what it's like going from Washington or Colorado to high heat and humidity. You don't take it lightly and "hope" for a cool day-- not when you put so much time and effort into it. Rule #1 to marathoning: Always prepare for a hot marathon. This means training in the warmest part of the day (if you can), wearing layers (head to toe, I'm talking tights, long dri-fit, jacket, gloves, ball cap), training the gut to handle a lot of fluid spaced out at regular intervals. You want to be shivering when it's 70-90+ degrees. If you really want to go extreme, you'll get in a sauna. Benji Durden did it, training in Atlanta. Deena and Meb did it for Athens (picked up medals). Ron Daws did it to make the Olympic Team.

did you read this entire threa wrote:

you folks obviously didn't run wrote:

All the tough guys talking about how pleasant the weather was for the race obviously either weren't there or weren't racing.

Did you read Kevin Hanson's post? I would say that he may have been in town and had a decent idea what the conditions were?

Was he racing?

TEXAS TIGER wrote:

Texas is a great place to get used to running in any weather condition. Hills, cold, heat, humidity, flats, and beer.

Plus, you do have to run before 9am in the summer before it gets too hot(95).

No you don't. I got used to running every, single weekday over lunch (HiNoon for you East Coast sissies) in Austin, Texas. In my day we didn't care what the temperature was - we just ran. And we liked it that way.

There is a difference between "Too hot to run" and optimal temps for performance. When the top African men are running at least a minute slower than usual, you know something is up. For a big guy like Hartmann in particular, it is not too much to say his performance is worth 2:09 in cool conditions. Hell even DeReuck and Joanie were affected, and they are not newbies by any stretch.

Congrats to Kevin on Desi's fantastic year. We'll see how Flanagan does in NYCM, but for now she looks like #1.

I'm a girl who ran Chicago. No of course it wasn't Texas hot. It's ridiculous to even compare. If we wanted to run a marathon for the fun of it with no ambitions, we can go to Texas in the summertime. For those of us trying to run qualifying times, yes it was hot. My heart dropped a bit when a bank sign I saw read 71 degrees on the way to the start line (Yes, I am aware that is probably not accurate). Shade was very hard to find.

I am happy with my time, ran very well, but any marathoner knows that running very well when you only get 2, maybe 3, chances a year at this distance is frustrating. You want to run a PR race every time and on Sunday the conditions were not PR conducive.

Fact: Most people would run faster in 50 degrees than 70 degrees, no?

I ran Chicago on Sunday and finished around 2:35. I wanted to run close to 2:30, but I realized being the sweater that I am, I needed to readjust my goals. Hit the half in 1:17, and only slowed 90 seconds the latter half. Passed TONS of people who's gone out in the 1:14-1:16 range and were biting it hard. On a 40-50 degree day that probably wouldn't have happened.

If running in the heat wears one out for a 10 mile trainig run or a track 10K (all those complaints about USATF in Des Moines this year?) then you betcha anything slightly over optimal will have a HUGE impact in a 26.2 mile race.

Was it as bad as 2007 or 2008? No. Were 2006 and 2009 much better conditions? Yes.

It was too warm to run one's best. But racing is often about readjusting expectations and playing with the hand you're dealt.

RUN BAC wrote:

Seriously did some guy who probably ran a 3:30+ marathon call out Kevin Hanson??? And then bash a pro runner who DNF'ed?? That's some stones or a lack of brains!! Of course he's gonna gush (as you put it) over the race, it was a great race on a great course!

The only reason he, or anyone else got called out in this thread, is that he didn't run.

Anyone can be act like an expert and spit out web links like Malmo, but unless you were running, you really shouldn't be calling people out yourself, saying it wasn't hot.

Maybe you think the temperature wasn't bad, but I bet you'd have a different opinion if you were out there trying to deal with that sun.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next race for the people who did well in those conditions. Sometimes the punishment doesn't show up right away.

I hope they all recover well and kick ass their next start, but all of you Monday morning QB's should read what people who ran the race say, before pulling out your old war stories.

From someone who ran a 2:45 and got an OT qualifier:

I was at the two-mile mark when the men came through. There was already~200m of seperation between the african leaders/pacers pack and the chase pack (americans and others).

The top American men ran fabulous race for themselves at this point in their careers. If they never beat Sammy et. al. then OK. We are talking about the best the history of human evolution has to offer here vs. above average American talent.

Malmo is wrong on the weather. It was 67 at the start and by the time Sammy W finished it was 74. No one mentioned it was a clear sunny day versus overcast, which impacts heat storage.

I am not sure what Kevin Hanson's point was with saying marathons are not to be run in a bubble and nothing is perfect. Um, cool? Thanks for your wisdom Coach, I did not know that before.

I was in trying for a 2:17-2:18 and went down and ended up in the hospital. Am I sitting here crying? No, I actually flew back home and went to work Monday. That's what happens because you cannot control the weather. It's called a race for a reason. BUT, was the weather a factor? Yes, the weather was too warm but not horrible. I doubt I would have collapsed because of dehydration otherwise. I think every guy trying to qualify is relatively tough. Most guys in my position work 40 plus hours a week while running 120 miles because we are not that good and will never get sponsored. My point in bringing that up is myself and most guys I was with did not make any excuses..........BUT you can logically acknowledge that the weather was a negative factor Sunday. I think that was the reason for the post "people don't seem to realize how bad the weather was at chicago" If it was 88 and humid than it would be obivous, as someone else said on here it was "sneaky bad" Sunday.

It even hurt the Africians. Look at the lead group of Africans. They went out in 62:30ish and other than #1 and #2 guys, the rest were running huge positive splits.