"56 degrees Fahrenheit, a 6 mph tailwind - but 93% humidity"

Sunburned Sammy wrote:

It was my first Boston and I spent the last five months training in Michigan in temps generally below freezing and in the dark. I found it very warm and my body was not ready for it. I hit the Newton hills just as the sun came out and overheated, along with many other runners.

If I ran in those conditions in September after a summer of training I would probably have done better but it was pretty rough. Almost all runners I spoke with afterwards agreed, although they were also from cold climates.

I too am from Michigan and ran my first Boston in the heat of 2017. My time was only 5 minutes slower than my PR marathon time which was 5 months earlier on a flat course in temperatures that started in the high 30s and ended in the low 60s. Boston 2017 was much hotter than my PR marathon. One of the reasons I survived the heat at Boston in 2017 was I took water at every water stop except for maybe a few near the end. I also poured water on my head and down my back. I probably took some Gatorade at some early aid stations in the race but I cannot hold down much Gatorade so mix it with water when I take it and limit the amount. Thanks for the feedback. One very fast runner from Michigan that I follow on Strava had to stop at 24 miles due to a physical issue and was able to finish after a 10 minutes break.

Amazing that there are so many scientists on this website. Hard to believe it's free.

2017 2018 Boston Runner From MI wrote:

.... One of the reasons I survived the heat at Boston in 2017 was I took water at every water stop except for maybe a few near the end. I also poured water on my head and down my back.

LOL, once the sun came out I was doing the same thing on Monday;) Grabbing 3 cups of water, one to drink, two to pour over my head...

Actually, you don't need to know the dew point if you know the temperature and relative humidity. You can come up with an extremely accurate estimate with just two of those variables:

This is just not true for runners. If you have roughly 100% RH and temps in the 50s, you are going to suffer at race pace. That's what we saw on Monday. The athletes were absolutely soaked, which tells you all you need to know. An athlete who is untroubled by the weather conditions will not be wet.

Where I run, it's typically about 68 with a dew point of 68 in the morning. In the evening, it will be 88 with a dew point of 72. I actually find the latter to be subjectively more comfortable--regardless of whether it's faster. The lower relative humidity means that sweat actually does evaporate. I can really tell the difference by looking at my shoes. In the morning, it's like I've been running through puddles. In the evening, they're basically dry when I finish my run.

Many people are not aware that the online weather they look to, temperature, humidity and dew point, may not accurate. Some weather websites reply on private weather stations which can be completely inaccurate. Some stations are accurate. I have found that official airport weather is the best. Pilots need this vital information.

I live about 500 miles southwest of Boston and the dewpoint got up to like 63F here at the airport. That's in the "humid" range and will affect performance to a degree. That was probably the case in Boston. However, I believe the that dewpoints in the 50's have very little effect on performance. For me the higher the temperature the worst it feels at a humid dew point.

I've run Boston twice. 2018 and 2019. They were my 9th and 10th marathons. I've run in a variety of conditions. One year I did twin cities and it was 22 degrees at the start and 32 degrees at the finish. I ran Atlanta once when it started at 70 degrees and finished over 80 degrees. I ran Philly once when it was 30-40 mph gusts of wind. I'm usually a sub 3:00 runner unless I hit a wall. I broke 3 for both 2018 and 2019 but not 2:50. I do not make 150k nor is my wife a supermodel.

Boston on Monday was middle of the pack. It was certainly warm, but I wouldn't say hot. If you're going to say the heat/humidity/dew point/whatever wasn't a factor by reading weather reports, then you weren't paying attention. I certainly would have preferred cooler temperatures, but these temps were definitely good enough that if you adjust your pace properly you can run a good, but probably not great, race. I think that the main problem is it got very uncomfortable after over 2 hours of running. What I noticed was that it just felt muggy. When I was riding the bus from South St. lot (a much shorter ride than from downtown Boston) I noticed at the end the windows were all fogged up and it felt really muggy on the bus. Then I got off and it felt very pleasant in Hopkinton. I didn't shed my extra clothes until right before the start. But once we really got going after a few miles, it just felt muggy. I think the fact that I was in such a large crowd of people and the fact that we had a small tail wind were the main contributing factors here. There was just nothing to cool me off except pouring water on myself, which I did every chance I got. It just felt like I was in a sauna with everybody's body heat and sweat heating up the air around me. Maybe the temperature was pleasant in the surrounding areas. But on the roads where we were running, it got pretty warm. Thousands of moving bodies can do that. Also, it was sunny for a large chunk of the race. More cloud cover would have been nicer.

Sounds like from the previous posts that 2019 wasn't terrible but not ideal. For those that also ran in 2016 (my last Boston) and 2017, how did it compare? No idea on DP in 2019 vs those years, but I think it might have just been higher temps.

I ran in 2016 and it seemed that I was cooking on the course from the early miles and my goal pace obviously seemed to require more effort than it ever did in training. I blew up by the hills - 5 min pos split - but felt better coming into a cooler Boston and also finished in a higher overall position than people who ran 3-5 min faster in 2019. Makes me reconsider a future Boston appearance given the fickle NE weather, but perhaps if we anticipate and train more for humidity/heat we can adapt and still run pretty "well" overall. I saw one saying that simply adjusting a bit to the humidity - drinking earlier, running a bit more conservatively - likely helped prevent a total blow up for many runners in 2019.

I guess I mean average for Boston. I get your point about not being acclimated to heat and struggling, but when you have to be outside for two hours pre race at 8 am, you wont get great weather for the entirety of the time you need it.

I am interested to hear you say 20 mph winds were easier for you. I do think it depends. In large crowded races, wind isn't as much of a factor, and also in loop races where you get some wind at your back.

Were most of your other marathons major marathons? For me the biggest challenge of Boston or another big marathon compared to local marathons is getting up super early to drive out to Hopkinton and standing outside for two hours waiting to start.

My races with 20mph winds were easier despite being isolated a large period of time. They both had out and back components. They were major marathons, but the wait before the race still wasn't hours. One year when I was trying to BQ, I came up with an elaborate plan to start behind a slower pace group, catch them on the windiest section, and then propel forward later with the tailwind. It came close to working. You can work together to deal with those conditions.

The problem with humidity is that the only real solution is to slow down. I was probably wearing less clothing on the course than anybody else, and dumping cups on my head at every stop, but all it could do was minimize the damage. I will say this... it was very pleasant weather after I finished.

My take away from this thread is pretty well summed up in this post from 'Sunburned Sammy':

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"It was my first Boston and I spent the last five months training in Michigan in temps generally below freezing and in the dark. I found it very warm and my body was not ready for it. I hit the Newton hills just as the sun came out and overheated, along with many other runners.

If I ran in those conditions in September after a summer of training I would probably have done better but it was pretty rough. Almost all runners I spoke with afterwards agreed, although they were also from cold climates."

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Though all of the dew-point and related weather information is interesting—I ran a couple of times last summer, late in the day, with the dew point at 74/75 which led to crazy sweating—For me, it's all about what you're used to.

Like me, here in Ann Arbor, MI, . . . he's been doing most of his running in freezing weather in the dark. I know from experience what it's like to change that up dramatically from one day to the next (or next).

For many years, I ran a weekly 7-mile tempo run around a local state park called Brighton Recreation Area. Though hilly, I always ran hard, feeling like I was flattening the hills with hardly any effort . . . and never even thinking about stopping until I was done. One year, in February or March, we caught a day that reached into the low 80s, when we'd not been even close to that yet. That was a day I'd scheduled to head out to Brighton. About three miles in, I just stopped. It caught me off guard. I hadn't felt particularly awful, I just stopped. I started running again, and it happened again. I stopped. Again. And again. And again. Although I finally finished the run, I reckon I stopped upwards of 15 times. My body just wasn't ready to handle 80 degrees and full sun.

I've run Boston twice. The first year was hot and sunny. I was 21 and had qualified for Boston just a month before in West Bloomfield, Michigan . . . which I ran on a cool, overcast, drizzly morning in March. In Boston, a race official pulled me off the course around 10 miles, telling me that it looked like I was having trouble with the heat. He put me in a lawn chair in the shade, gave me a beer, and told me to watch for the bus coming by to pick up stragglers. I sat there, thinking 'I didn't come all the way to Boston to sit and drink a beer in the shade.' I got back on the course and managed to finish the race. Funny how memory can distort reality. For many years after, I recalled my experience as shuffling in, running maybe around four hours. Last year, I came across my finisher's certificate. I'd actually run 3:14 . . . even with my 'layover.' Youth can forgive much.

Two years later, Boston was cool, overcast, and drizzly. I was ready for that. :-) That's typical early-spring Michigan weather.

Good thread! Congratulations to all of you who ran Boston this year. :-)

I must enter a name. wrote:

My races with 20mph winds were easier despite being isolated a large period of time. They both had out and back components. They were major marathons, but the wait before the race still wasn't hours. One year when I was trying to BQ, I came up with an elaborate plan to start behind a slower pace group, catch them on the windiest section, and then propel forward later with the tailwind. It came close to working. You can work together to deal with those conditions.

The problem with humidity is that the only real solution is to slow down. I was probably wearing less clothing on the course than anybody else, and dumping cups on my head at every stop, but all it could do was minimize the damage. I will say this... it was very pleasant weather after I finished.

that's fair. I do think we all argue about whether it was a good day or a bad day, but some people run better in certain conditions than others. So while you may not be able to run well in humid weather, others can. Maybe I was biased as 9/12 people that I knew running ran their goal or better. I didn't think it was an awful day, but for some it could have been.

I think which wave you were in mattered a bit too. I was in Wave 3 and while I had a great race (PR by 4 minutes) I couldn't believe the number of people walking by Newton Hills and it got worse to the finish. For Wave 3 the sun was out the whole time - I got a sunburn. I tend to do well in the heat but most of the people I talked to after the race did not have a good race. I saw 7 people on the ground being attended to by medical personnel in the last miles.

I usually do well in the heat, but had no time to acclimate to it coming off such a harsh winter.

I was also surprised by how some people dressed - tights, long sleeves, etc. Lots of discarded clothes along the course for such a humid day, even stocking hats and gloves. I know we were getting mixed signals about the weather, but I thought it was fairly clear by early morning the late starters were going to run in the 60’s with humidity. What I didn’t expect was the lengthy amount of sunshine.

Discounting the rain, I'm not sure how much it really mattered which wave you were in. Sure, the sun was out longer, but the dew point at mile 4 registered at 59 for wave 1. I think the bigger issue is that those in later waves were running longer races, and being exposed to the elements for a longer period of time. I'm theorizing here, but perhaps them being older athletes also made it harder.

For me personally, I'm glad I had a goal of 3hrs. or bust. Once bust was evident, outside of a last ditch effort after Heartbreak, all I cared about was getting to the finish line in one piece.

Lol at all the hobby joggers complaining about weather..

They went out too hard - way above their fitness levels - and got punished for it.

Just calling a spade a spade.

How about instead of complaining about the weather - you don't write checks that your body can't cash?

That is a good point about the clothing - I noticed that too. As you say, tons of tights and long selves. I saw one guy at the end in tights but no shirt. I think I was lucky as well as I have already run at least 14 training days above 60, and 4 days above 70.

I also ran it in 2016 although I came in with very little training after a February injury. This year's weather was MUCH more conducive to running well.

Yes. Some people overdressed.

Funniest thing I saw on the course was watching middle aged drunk people go crazy and jump up and down to house of pain jump around. This occurred twice along the course.

Is this song popular in Boston? I hadn’t heard it in years. But drunk middle aged people were really into it at two places.

In Florida and Louisiana the dew point is 75+ everyday during the summer. Not that bad comsidering that they don't have to ever deal with ice and snow.