From the August 2004 issue of Runner's World
So dominant was the question of the heat in Athens that the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) convened an unprecedented summit in May 2004 to brief marathoners on the latest findings in heat-performance research. Ever since a physician with the Marine Corps first observed more northern recruits collapsing in the heat of boot camp than those from the steamy south in 1957, researchers suspected that the body adapts to heat through exposure over time. But more specifically, experts have learned that gradually building your training time in the heat results in bodily adaptations ranging from decreased heart rate, to decreased core temperature and perception of effort, to increases in your sweat output and blood volume. Most of the changes take place as early as three to four days into a slow heat acclimatization process, but they can require as many as 14 days to fully develop.
The role that hydration plays in hot-weather running has also been clarified since the time of Randy Brown's meltdown in Kansas. "The body cools itself through the evaporation of sweat," says exercise physiologist and heat expert David Martin, Ph.D., who took part in the USOC summit. "Where does that sweat come from? It comes from the bloodstream. Where does the bloodstream get its fluids? Through the gastrointestinal system by drinking. So you have to drink enough fluid to match your sweat loss."
Drinking to replace what you lose through sweat also keeps your blood volume constant, which keeps your working muscles happy, as blood can easily get to and from the legs. But if your fluid levels dip due to inadequate intake, your blood volume will start to decrease. "Sooner or later your body reaches a point where it says there's not enough blood to deliver to the muscles for working and to the skin for cooling, and the body will make a choice," says Martin. "It will choose to save your life, delivering blood to the skin and not to the muscles. So you slow down."
In preparing Kastor for the extreme heat of Athens, Vigil began putting her through heat acclimatization on the paved roads outside of Mammoth Lakes, California, during the early summer of 2004, when temps creeped into the 80s. "We were doing 26-mile runs on Sundays in the hills at about 8,000 feet," he says, "and putting on extra layers." Kastor remembers those runs well. "I was training in thin black tights," says Kastor, "and thin long sleeves on some of my longer runs. On shorter runs, I would wear some thicker, more winter-like materials. It was not a comfortable way to train, but I eventually got used to it."
During the same period, Kastor doubled her fluid intake during her runs. She used a drink with electrolytes and a carbohydrate-to-protein ratio of four-to-one (Cytomax Peachy Keen), and she drank eight ounces every five kilometers. This strategy was a pillar of what Martin and other experts preached during the USOC heat summit. It meant learning to run like a person perpetually working her way through a cold one. "The athletes' mantra became sip and carry, sip and carry, rather than sip and toss," says Martin.
Three and half weeks before the Olympic Marathon, Kastor and many other runners decamped to the Mediterranean island of Crete, where, to acclimatize Kastor even more, Vigil scheduled workouts later and later in the day. "We usually have practice at eight o'clock sharp every morning," Kastor says. "Instead we were having practices at 10 o'clock, so we were running into the noon hour." If you've never been in Crete at noon in July, well, it's hot. But Kastor was ready.
The olympic marathon was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. By the time the runners arrived in Marathon around four o'clock, it was sweltering and business as usual for the locals. "It seemed like the people in the area were just small families going about their day," says Kastor. "Our three buses were carrying probably the most fit women in the world, and here were these two older men sitting outside a café having coffee and smoking cigarettes while it was 101 degrees outside."
In the moments just before the race, Kastor and the other Americans, Jen Rhines and Colleen De Reuck, spent the warmup period sitting in specially designed ice-jackets. Other runners had the Nike-designed vests too, including the British favorite Paula Radcliffe, but inexplicably they chose to go through a standard warmup while wearing the jackets rather than just sitting and literally chillin'. "Your body enzymes for metabolizing fuel work best at about 100 degrees," says Martin. "Your body temperature is about 98 degrees." So all you need to do to run well is raise your core temperature a bit--which was already happening. "You're going to be at 100 degrees just by standing around in that weather," he says. "You don't need to warm up. In fact, you need to cool down so you won't be as hot as you would otherwise be."
Listening to Kastor describe the ensuing two hours and 27 minutes--a picture perfect performance for her--it's clear her heat preparation allowed her to do what so many other elite women couldn't do on that broiling course. "There wasn't a single point when I felt like I was cramping or thirsty," she recalls. Kastor split her time between making sure she made her bottle pick-ups and setting her sights on catching the next runner in front of her. She systematically moved from 29th to third position, and finished with a bronze, the first Olympic Marathon medal for an American woman in two decades.
The accomplishment becomes even more impressive when you consider what the heat did to some of the most talented women in the sport. "The first runner I saw drop out was at the 10-K mark, and she was throwing up on the side of the road," says Kastor. "She did not look good at all. Each woman I passed looked considerably worse. Margaret Okayo, one of the great all-time marathoners, was staggering down the street in front of me. Luckily, my suffering occurred on the roads here at home in the months prior to the race."
Coach Vigil agrees that Kastor's preparation was key. "Everybody called me afterward and said, 'Why didn't you have her run faster to begin with?'" he says. "Well, a few seconds faster in the beginning might have wiped her out. We wanted to run conservatively. Her last 5-K was 16:07. Everybody else was slowing down. I think we did everything right." What a difference 27 years and a few scientific breakthroughs can make.
