Abstract
This study investigated the effects of weather conditions on male performance during the Boston Marathon from 1897 to 2018. A total of 383,982 observations from 244,642 different finishers were analysed using Generalized Additive Mixed Models. All runners, annual top 100 finishers and annual top ten finishers were considered. Weather conditions, on race day, were: average air temperature (°C), precipitations (mm), wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) (°C), wind speed (km/h), wind direction (N, S, W, E) and pressure (hPa). These effects were examined in multi-variable models with spline smooth terms in function of calendar year. Temperature, when increasing by 1 °C, was related to worsened performance for all groups (i.e., by 00:01:53 h:min:sec for all finishers, p < 0.001). Wind coming from the West, compared to wind coming from other directions, was the most favourable for performance of all groups of finishers. Increasing precipitations worsened performances of top 100 (estimate 00:00:04 h:min:sec, p < 0.001) and top 10 finishers (estimate 00:00:05 h:min:sec, p < 0.001). Wind speed, when increasing by 1 km/h, was related to worsened performance for all finishers (estimate 00:00:19 h:min:sec, p < 0.001), but not for top 100 group, where performances were 00:00:09 h:min:sec faster, p < 0.001. Pressure and WBGT were examined in uni-variable models: overall, performances worsened as pressure and WBGT increased. Our findings contributed to the knowledge about the effect of weather conditions on performance level in male marathon runners.
Highlights
IntroductionEnvironmental conditions seem to have an important effect on marathon running performance
Environmental conditions seem to have an important effect on marathon running performance.Temperature, humidity and wind could influence the thermoregulatory anticipation to the increased heat gained during a marathon race [1]
In the all finishers group, the fastest average performance (03:11:14 ± 00:11:11 h:min:sec) was observed when temperature was in the range 24–30 ◦ C. This value was the mean of only 20 observations, the only ones recorded in 1909, where participation was low and the average temperature, 28 ◦ C, was the highest, compared to the temperature observed in other years
Summary
Environmental conditions seem to have an important effect on marathon running performance. Temperature, humidity and wind could influence the thermoregulatory anticipation to the increased heat gained during a marathon race [1]. An ambient temperature higher than 35 ◦ C and a humidity higher than 60% would be detrimental for thermoregulation independent of heat acclimation and optimal nutrition [2]. A high temperature and a high humidity might increase the risk for hyponatraemia, [3] rhabdomyolysis [4] and the percentage of non-finishers [5]. In addition to the abovementioned health implications of weather conditions during a marathon race, temperature, humidity and wind have been identified as factors of performance in this sport [6,7,8] considering. Public Health 2019, 16, 614; doi:10.3390/ijerph16040614 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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