As climate change reshapes the way humans live outdoors, it’s affecting the way they play, too. That includes runners, who may find themselves in harm’s way on a warming planet.
They pursue a sport that esteems grit and suffering in pursuit of improvement. Experts told The Associated Press that can be a recipe for heatstroke as the frequency of dangerously hot days in the continental U.S. is expected to grow by roughly one-third by mid-century.
Here are some takeways from AP’s reporting on running, racing and the hazards of heat:
- Heatstroke is a dangerous illness
Exertional heatstroke happens during exercise when the body can’t properly cool, rising above 104 degrees and triggering a central nervous system problem such as fainting.
Muscles can break down, releasing proteins that damage kidneys. The lining of the digestive system may weaken and leak bacteria. Brain cells may die. It can damage organs and ultimately kill a victim.
- There’s an effective and simple treatment
When runners suffer heatstroke, getting them into a tub of ice water is the best way to quickly cool them. It needs to happen fast, with quick diagnoses to treat runners on the spot. Medical staff need rectal thermometers to gauge temperature when skin can be deceptively cool.
Douglas Casa is director of the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute, named for the Minnesota Vikings lineman who died of heatstroke during training camp in 2001. Casa has been researching athletes and exertional heatstroke for some three decades.
“Based on over 3,000 cases we’ve tracked, if someone’s temp gets under 104 within 30 minutes of the presentation of heatstroke, no one has ever died,” Casa said.
- How are races doing at protecting runners?
It’s a mixed bag that’s typically related to the size of a race and its resources. Casa said many races don’t have the resources or expertise to offer the right lifesaving care.
One that does is the Falmouth Road Race in Falmouth, Mass., a long-running event that’s run in August on the shore of Cape Cod. The summer setting and the 7-mile distance make Falmouth a magnet for heatstroke — it’s just long enough for runners to really heat up, and short enough that many of them are pushing hard.
But Falmouth has enough people, equipment and experience to handle lots of cases. The race’s medical director has documented nearly 500 of them over more than two decades.
