Impact of Weather on Marathon Performance

Abstract

Marathon running performance is impaired in warm weather conditions (Trapasso et al., International Journal of Biometeorology 33, 1989; Suping et al., International Journal of Biometeorology 36, 1992) but the quantitative impact of weather conditions has not been established. PURPOSE: To quantify the marathon performance decrement for different populations of runners based on weather conditions. METHODS: Marathon results were obtained for Boston, New York, Grandma's, and Twin Cities Marathon for 36, 35, 22, and 23 years, respectively. The race results were broken into quartiles based on the WBGT (Q1 5.1–10, Q210.1–15, Q315.1–20, Q4 20+). Analysis of the top three male and female finishers as well as the 25th, 50th, 100th, and 300th place finishers were compared to the current course record and then contrasted with weather. RESULTS: Marathon performances of top males relative to course record were slower (P <.005) when WBGT >20°C compared to a WBGT <15 °C (Q1 1.6%, Q2 2.6%, Q3 2.9%, Q4 4.5%). The top women followed a similar trend (Q1 2.5%, Q2 3.1%, Q3 3.5%, Q4 4.7%) but the results were not statistically significant. The 25th, 50th, 100th, and 300th place finishers slowed down a similar magnitude to top male finishers as WBGT increased. CONCLUSION: Finishing time for marathoners can be expected to be 2–3 % slower when WBGT exceeds 20°C. (Funded by MRMC PRMRP 033015)