CONFIRMED!

On St. Paddy's Day 2012, one of my favorite days of the year, before attending a rousing party, I set out on a 20-mile run, with my training partner, Matt Tonitis. We were both training for the Boston Marathon. For me, it would be my 15th visit to Hopkinton, for Matt, his first. The mid-March temperature here in northeast Pennsylvania rose into the 60s at 10:00 a.m. I struggled through 18 miles, bailing out on the last 2 scorching miles. Matt was nowhere to be found. The temperature approached 80 degrees, and my last few miles ballooned from a low 7-minute per mile pace to a near 9-minute crawl.
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A month later, it got worse. As we watched the weather forecast the week prior to the race, temperatures climbed in New England, and as the gun sounded and the journey to Boston began, temperatures boiled into the high 80s.
Matt folded up his race at 15 miles, and I hung in until 18.

As 2012 progressed, it seemed that nearly every race, and most training runs, were impeded by oppressive heat and humidity.

Is this what happens when you become an aging runner? Does one have less heat tolerance?

NO!

Today, The Weather Channel confirmed what we, as runners, suffered through last year.

The article reads:

If you thought 2012 was unusually warm where you live in the U.S., your suspicions have been confirmed.

According to the U.S. "State of the Climate" report released Thursday by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, 2012 was the warmest year on record in the contiguous U.S. (Lower 48 states), in records dating to 1895.

 

The average temperature for the Lower 48 States in 2012 (55.3 deg. F) bested the previous record warm year, 1998, by a full degree Fahrenheit, and was 3.2 degrees F above the long-term average in the 20th century.

Nineteen states had a record warm year in 2012. Click through the slideshow above for the full list of these states. Another 26 states had at least a top 10 warmest year in 2012. Every state in the Lower 48 States had at least above-average warmth in 2012. Only Alaska was cooler than average in 2012.

So, there it is. Unless you live in Alaska, you made it through the warmest year on record.

Things have got to be better this year!

I just checked the weather. Saturday's high temperature is supposed to be 57 degrees.

Check out the chapter, entitled, 'Seasons.' www.runningshortsbook.com.

                                                                My wife's first race
                                                   July 2012-88 Degrees, 90% Humidity