Breakfast Club: Wet-Bulb Hot American Summer
breakfast club
weekly running roundups
Smoke on the horizon above Mammoth Lakes. Photo: Jim O'Dea.
I was in the best shape of my life in September of 2005.
At my collegiate season opener, a hilly cross-country course along the dikes of Lake Hartwell at the edges of Clemson University's campus, I powered through the field. I finished well, mixing it up at the front among ACC runners with much stronger résumés.
I'd been singularly devoted to training during the summer build-up, logging 95-100 miles per week for months. I was fit, focused, and ready to grab some laurels after devoting myself to the sport since high school.
But something was off.
It had been a warm summer, even for Carolina standards. Persistent bouts of nausea and dizziness had disrupted my runs through the heat and humidity.
The air stagnates by mid summer in the Carolina Piedmont, a belt of hills and mill towns in the center of the state where I grew up. Relative humidity climbs to 85-95% and combines with high temperature…
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