I realize 13 days is a long time and weather forecasting is a crap shoot, but here’s the latest forecast for Ironman Louisville on Sunday August 24th. I’m glad they put the “very hot” part in there because 99 degrees would have never tipped me.
The funny thing is, on some level this really pumps me up. Ironman is a big deal and why not make it bigger with legendarily difficult conditions? It would be the opposite of last year’s Tahoe and definitely go down in the annals of Ironman lore as one of those “remember 2014 in Louisville?”
Badwater describes itself as “The world’s toughest foot race” and often clocks in around 120 degrees in the shade. They literally have to run on the white lines on the road or their shoes will melt. Think about that one for a second.
So, if you get your head right, 99 degrees should technically feel like a cool and crisp Fall morning.
Start hydrating now. Maybe you should sleep outside to try to acclimate 😉
haha… good idea! I’ll keep that in mind for the future.
The silver lining to the heat is, every athlete will sweat by the buckets. If you find yourself needing fluids/sodium, you can just lick another athlete to hydrate. It’s sort of like licking those frogs to get high, but just without frogs or the high.
You’ll rock it Mike! Don’t worry.
– Chris
Thanks, Chris! Never thought of it that way… reminds me of my dog licking me after runs… we will all certainly be dogs by the end of that thing… ha
Seriously though, I received some of the best advice ever in combating heat stress at IM 70.3 Racine two years ago. There’s a guy named Shane Niemeyer who has a unique story. You should look him up on YouTube. He was my transition neighbor for the Racine 70.3. The heat index was over 100 degrees that day. I’ve had heat stroke 3x, and severely at that. I actually knocked out my front tooth due to going down. I was super nervous about the heat that day. He said, “Chris, every chance you get today, take as much ice as possible. Put it in you crotch, your mouth and hold it in your hands. Do this and you’ll be just fine.” So, I religiously, took ice. I even put it in my shirt and my hat too. My hand essentially became a heat sink. I was getting to aid stations and my hands were actually ice cold with remnants of ice still in them. Ambulances were racing up and down the race course tending to heat stressed/stroked athletes while I kept on going. Incidentally, Crowie was racing that day too. He finished 11th I believe. If the defending world champion takes a hit like that, it must’ve been tough!