yeah absolute humidity is temperature dependent, the percentage reported is the "relative humidity" but dewpoint is a good indicator of absolute humidity. needless to say I am a little concerned and I might need to heat condition some. (since even here I tend to run early to avoid the 80-90 degree temperatures)I'm from MN and I've only done one Marathon Weekend (2023) but I have done several January WDW visits and weather is a total gamble. It's nothing like FL summer of course, but you can still have extremely sticky mornings and you can have relatively dry mornings. No matter what it will feel much stickier than you probably get in CA, but it can range from not a big deal to being sweatier than in your life between two days. Mainly I recommend hydrating as much as you can, I also like drinking electrolytes in the days leading up and during the longer races as well like nuun or tailwind or gatorade, etc. Slowing down too, I find the humidity makes it harder for me to breathe.
For MW this year the 5K was the most sweaty I have gotten on a run in my entire life! I want to say it was 70-80 but it was like 90-100% humidity (the early race starts mean peak humidity) and within a mile I was already drenched. My race photos are so funny because I look like I ran a marathon, and all I did was a slow 5k.
Meanwhile the marathon a few days later was quite dry and much cooler, no heavy/sticky feeling at all even at 3AM and I hardly broke a sweat during the entire race! I'll take a sticky, gross 5k any day for 2023 marathon weather again!
I will say I find temperature is a much bigger indicator of misery in FL than the actual humidity %, I think it was pretty humid during the half but because it was so cold (45-50), I didn't really notice it at all other than the fog. I'd say the high humidity only starts getting problematic when it gets closer to high 60s and up. People smarter than me can talk all about adding the dew point + temperature to better measure that but all I know is that anything over 70 degrees by 5AM gets me very nervous in FL, no matter the humidity %
This is where throw-away layers work well, and Disney launders and donates all clothing that is ditched along the course. I ran the first 7 or so miles of the marathon with a long-sleeve tee over my costume this year, and was sweating almost immediately in 2022.
I think you’re right about 2020. BB loop cut off for folks who hadn’t gotten there, IIRC around 11:00.I believe it was the 2020 marathon that was cut short. My memory sucks so don’t hold me to that
I live near WDW. Weather here can be 25 or 85 in January and it is humid year round. The races will start out cold & wet, warm & wet, hot & wet or any combination of the three. Watch the weather and pack for all temps.
I believe it was the 2020 marathon that was cut short. My memory sucks so don’t hold me to that
I live near WDW. Weather here can be 25 or 85 in January and it is humid year round. The races will start out cold & wet, warm & wet, hot & wet or any combination of the three. Watch the weather and pack for all temps.
I have a co-worker who has twice ended up in the medical tent in the last mile of an ironman. I feel for that lady too.
this is a very useful way to think about it, and I'd always looked at dewpoint as more intuitive for humidity because "relative" humidity is, well, relative, we'll be at 100% humidity here a bunch in the SF area but, always at the low end of the temperature scale.Old post, but relevant:
I use something like this to get a general view of what Orlando weather is like during the time and dates of Marathon Weekend.
The above system uses T+D which is Temperature + Dew Point. While not perfect, it is a good way to compare different conditions across different temps/humidity levels. The higher the T+D value, the worse the conditions. And the typical response is not linear. So a 160 is much worse than a 155 than a 110 vs 105.
And it agrees with the local FL residents. The weather tends to be very unpredictable in FL at this time of year. You have a nearly even chance of ideal, good, ok, not great, and bad weather. You can also see examples of weather turning from "ideal" to "bad" within a two-day span in a single year. So the 5k could have "ideal" weather and the half marathon "bad" weather and it wouldn't be all that surprising. The one trend I do see in the eleven years of data is that as it goes from Jan 6th to Jan 12th we see more "ideal" days shift to more "bad" days. Jan 6th has 7/11 ideal or good, Jan 8th has 5/10, Jan 10th has 4/11, and Jan 12th has 2/11. With the races occurring Jan 4th-7th in 2024, the chances are higher that there will be "ideal" conditions versus "bad". But that's only the chance and certainly not definitive. I haven't looked, but 2025 might shift to a later calendar with MLK Day on Jan 20th meaning worse average conditions.
This is really helpful!
I think the mental fitness is worthwhile. I certainly have overcome the "I can't go running it's 85 or 90 out" feeling and have learned to prepare/hydrate for warmer runs.
