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Climate change raises concerns for future of marathons and runner safety
- jfengel 3y agoMarathons are usually held in the autumn, for exactly this reason. The "record heat" they mention for the New York Marathon is in the 70s (F). That doesn't sound dangerous, but the rule of thumb is that running adds about 20F to the apparent temperature. When the temperature reaches 80, it's like being out in 100F temperatures. Not usually enough to kill, but when there are tens of thousands of people pushing their limits, it can push some of them past it. Anecdotally, it feels like somebody dies about every 5 years in the marathons I do. That matches what I read elsewhere, that about 1 in 100,000 people die in marathons.