Bad story out of Milwaukee from last weekend. The Summerfest Rock n' Soul Half Marathon and 10k started in high temps and ended with runners collapsing from the heat and reported lack of water on the course. Check the story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel right here.
Hey, it's summer time now. It's going to get hot. And to me, it sounds like there's plenty of blame to spread around in this one. First, the organizers just have to be prepared. No excuses. It's July - there's absolutely no reason to not have enough water on a Half Marathon course. Some runners are spending between two and three hours running in the heat. You've got to have enough water.
But the runners don't get a free ride here. If you're running on an extremely hot day, no shade and you hit a water stop or two that are out of water, do you just keep running? It's just a race. There's another one next week. You don't risk dying from heat stroke just so you can say you finished a Half.
Everybody has to be responsible in a situation like this. I have no doubt the race organizers will learn from this, but I hope some of the runners look at themselves and ask if they should have done something different as well.
Be smart out there.
Photo by Mike De Sisti
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