Faster Higher Hotter

Mid-February often gets too warm for roadracing here, but I signed up anyway for my third half marathon in six months, figuring “how bad can a little heat be?” I knew I had a couple of advantages going for me.

First was a rabbit. My friend Kip, who generally runs about 20% faster than I do, sacrificed his own finish time in order to goad me into lowering mine. We agreed he would be the only one wearing a watch. At the halfway point, he said we were on track for me to set a personal best (later I wondered if he had really been telling the truth). A few kilometers later he said, "We're still on the pace… when we get to 16 we'll have 5 to go... let's just keep up the same splits and we'll make it."

I started to fade. People began to pass us. Kip said, "Just keep up with that guy wearing the blue shirt." My redoubled effort only lasted a short while. Realizing it was time for a new mind game, he said, "OK, only eight minutes before we hit our target time. How about we give it what we've got for eight minutes? If we make it, we make it. C'mon..."

My second advantage was a week of running in thin air and chilly sunrise temperatures. Earlier this month, I took a work trip to East Africa. I got winded there after just a few minutes—Nairobi sits more than a mile above sea level, and Addis Ababa is Africa’s highest capital at 7800 feet—but it was inspiring to be among the world best long-distance runners. They charged up hills at me, moving about three times faster than I could run downhill.

I knew that many of those same runners have been sweeping the top places at Bangkok events for the past few years. What I didn’t realize is that some of them weren’t really ready for February. Because it turns out that a little heat can be pretty bad.

An acquaintance of mine who usually treats half marathons like a warmup jog told me that he has been feeling wiped out ever since last Sunday's race. Another guy I know collapsed at the finish line. When IV fluids at the med tent didn’t revive him fast enough, he was taken to a nearby hospital for further observation. He found that four or five other runners had been sent there ahead of him. Amazingly, they were all Africans!

In the end, I crossed the tape in almost exactly the same time I had run in December. I felt lucky to have done that well. There’s no telling where I would have ended up without my secret weapons.