Weather Likely to Affect Boston Marathon
BOSTON – The elite runners aren’t likely to set any records in the 108th Boston Marathon, experts say. And the rank-and-file participants can probably forget about establishing personal bests.
With afternoon temperatures expected to peak in the mid-80s for Monday’s race, the focus for most runners this year will be on getting to the finish line.
“The heat is never an advantage in terms of performance,” said Dr. Jim Barahal, president of the Honolulu Marathon, where it gets so hot and humid in early December that the race starts at 5 a.m.
Even for the elite runners used to training in extremely hot weather, “it will slow times.” he said. “The heat will slow you down no matter how tough you are mentally.”
The average maximum for Boston on April 19 is 57, according to the National Weather Service. The good news, if there is any, is that there will be some cloud cover and the expected 20 to 30 mph sustained winds will be at the backs of the runners.
Organizers were “ramped up and ready” for the heat, Boston Athletic Association spokesman Jack Fleming said. “With 107 years behind us we’ve had everything. We’ve had snow, sleet, ice, high cloud cover, low cloud cover, driving rain.”
The water stations at every mile will have additional water supplies, and extra medical personnel will be stationed along the route and at the finish line, Fleming said.
The field of 20,400 official entrants is the second largest in the 108-year history of the event, second only to the 100th anniversary field of more than 38,000 in 1996.
The top three men’s finishers from a year ago are back, including Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, who won in two hours, 10 minutes, 11 seconds. He beat out fellow Kenyans Benjamin Kosgei Kimutai and Martin Lel. A Kenyan has won the men’s race in the 12 of the past 13 years.
Some of the other top men include Mohamed Ouaadi of France, Hailu Negussie of Ethiopia and Daniele Caimmi of Italy.
Two-time winner Catherine Ndereba leads the women’s field in the absence of defending champion Svetlana Zakharova of Russia, who won last year in 2:25:20.
Ndereba, who won in Boston in 2000 and 2001 but did not run last year, is the reigning world champion and the second-fastest woman in the history of the distance. Her top competitors are Elfenesh Alemu of Ethiopia, who won in Tokyo last year, two-time Olympian Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia and Lyubov Denisova, a Russian who placed second in Boston last year.
This year’s race is a watershed for the women, who for the first time in Boston Marathon history, will leave the Hopkinton starting line at 11:31 a.m., 29 minutes before the men’s field and the horde of recreational runners.
Even with temperatures in the 80s, Monday’s race will not approach the brutal conditions Jack Fultz won under in 1976 when the temperature at the start line was 96 degrees. That year, Fultz developed his own way to stay cool.
“I laid around the shade and then soaked before the race started,” said Fultz, who now coaches the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team, which has about 500 runners entered in Monday’s race.
David Rosenberger has been through this before, and it’s not fun. The Eau Claire, Wis., resident, who was running his first Boston Marathon, seventh overall, ran a marathon in Milwaukee in 80-degree temperatures a few years back.
“I have put so much time training that I hate to change my strategy, but you have to go by how you feel,” he said. “I wanted to run in the 2:40s, but I may just be happy to break three hours.”
Not all runners are letting the forecast affect their plans. Sharon Jenkins of Colorado Springs, Colo., is running Boston for the first time and is determined to finish in the 3:40 range. She may wear lighter clothing, but other than that, she is not changing her race strategy.
“The faster I run it, the faster I get it done. That’s my strategy,” said Jenkins, who was in Boston with her husband, Chris, and son, Nicholas, 5. “If I am not going to the emergency room, I am finishing, no matter what.”