Ankor Wat Half Marathon Summary

The last few hot weather races in Korea I wore the loose Sleeveless Under Armour T-shirt and experienced no problems (I don't like the feel of their tight version). Today for some reason I went with the sleeveless Nike Dri-fit. Big mistake.

Looking at the 2 shirts now, I realize the Underarmour is thinner and much lighter, crucial when running in warm, humid temperatures. This morning once my Dri Fit got wet, it felt uncomfortably heavy and never lived up to it's name.

Hoping to stay cool and feeling strong, I went out at around 6:15 per mile, but I could tell early that this was going to be a tough day. I began pouring water over my head at every water station, but all that seemed to do was weigh down my shirt, and I noticed the skin on my face and arms was soon bone dry- and that's a problem. Was pouring water somehow inhibiting my sweat response (to be honest, I am going to have to do some reaearch on that one)? A more likely explanation was my failure to acclimatize sufficiently.

Thinking I might begin to sweat, I abandoned that strategy and slowed the pace to avoid a major blow-up. While I did take water early on, after half I didn't drink much since my gut felt full. I began feeling better and while I wasn't going to get back down to 6:15s, I did hold a steady pace sub 7 to finish in 1:26 something, or a 6:30 per mile ave according to my GPS-and my Dri-fit was still soaking wet (I am not positive but pretty sure I finished 18th or 19th).

This one could have ended up much, much worse. Right now, about 11 hours after we started, the temperature in Siem Reap sits at 29 C or 84 F with 66% humidity and the sun is down.

I wasn't ready for these conditions.