Official Tokyo Olympics Women's Marathon Thread

what about... wrote:

Athens 2004, women? Weather?

Deena bronze then, too

Looked it up. Athens was 95 degrees at the start, with 30% humidity. If memory serves, that race started in the evening, so temperatures and the sun dropped as the race progressed, which makes a bit of a difference.

LA84 was pretty brutal, too. Temps in the mid-80's, not sure of the humidity, and I don't remember a lot of shade on the course. Anyone alive who watched that race remembers Gabriela Andersen-Schiess finishing that race with extreme heat exhaustion.

6403 wrote:

Yes, Athens was scorching hot. Remember watching Deena and she had that same fierce, locked in look of determination. She had to overtake some people in the last 5k to get her medal I think, was never quite a threat to win like Molly was here, but was an inspiring run.

I just checked. It was comparable. 80s/70s

But that athens course was ⬆️ HILLY. I think the only saving grace was it was in the evening so it sorta got cooler as the race progressed

One of the best American running performances I was able to see in my lifetime (mid 30s.

I'd put this up there with Webbs HS mile. Solinsky 10k, etc.

ceccione wrote:

Humidity is a game changer. It's a different beast entirely.

That's true. Your body can cool in extreme heat that's low in humidity in the marathon. In high heat and high humidity, an overheated core compounded by dehydration is unavoidable.

Disko Eric wrote:

6403 wrote:

Yes, Athens was scorching hot. Remember watching Deena and she had that same fierce, locked in look of determination. She had to overtake some people in the last 5k to get her medal I think, was never quite a threat to win like Molly was here, but was an inspiring run.

I just checked. It was comparable. 80s/70s

But that athens course was ⬆️ HILLY. I think the only saving grace was it was in the evening so it sorta got cooler as the race progressed

Yes, I forgot about the hills. That was no "flat and fast" marathon by any means. And finishing at night must have helped, having the sun go down makes a ton of difference, you don't feel like you're baking alive.

ceccione wrote:

Humidity is a game changer. It's a different beast entirely.

It's a total wild card, even if you run in it and train in it, there are still days where your body just cant deal with it and you complete fall apart.

Another giver of +1 wrote:

Coureur des bois wrote:

What shoes were Molly wearing?

Puma super shoe?

Yes, saw shoes around neck there in gold silver bronze photo, well done Molly and Puma.

If you want to relive it, NBC replaying the last four miles now.

runnerdoc wrote:

ceccione wrote:

Humidity is a game changer. It's a different beast entirely.

That's true. Your body can cool in extreme heat that's low in humidity in the marathon. In high heat and high humidity, an overheated core compounded by dehydration is unavoidable.

Yes, obviously it's better to have "dry" conditions, but that's like that old joke about Arizona "but it's a "dry" heat", LOL!

It's still effin hot, try to run a marathon @ 105 in Phoenix and tell me how easy it is! Any marathon that's over 70 is rough, and when you get up to high eighties, ninety, forget about it, I don't care what the humidity is.

Well done Lord Coe for bringing start time forward one hour.

Can’t believe the Ethiopians put inexperienced Zeinaba before their 35k trial winner Tigist Girma. One would have at least finished

ceccione wrote:

I live in Tokyo. It's a death march every time I run outside. That's mid June - October every year. There are two seasons in Japan for runner, fast and slow. You are prisoner during slow season.

You are on point about core temps. Once you pop, you don't cool down. It's over. Even if you walk it in, you don't cool down. It takes me a cold shower then air conditioning post shower to cool my core, every time. EVERYTHING is soaked through with sweat and heavy. Shoes a sloshy mess.

Can attest to that. In HK, where dew point of 70-high is the norm here in Summer (right now it's 83F with 87% humidity), the only decent weather for running fast is a downpour.

Australia winning the team title with three in the top 26 led by 44 year old Sinead Driver. All coming through the field in the last 10km.

It wasn't an Olympic marathon or a major, but one of the last couple of world championship marathons, I think 2019 in Doha, was ungodly hot.

Doha was hot in 2019 not sure of humidity. According to Athletics Kenya, they say Ruth Chepngetich had been sick.

With this weather, it seems tailor made for Desi and Kawauchi. The latter didn't make the team, did he?