How I Deal With Running In The Heat And Humidity

Running slower

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

I went to Alabama last week to visit family, coming from the Mid-Atlantic. As a marathon runner, I expected runs to feel like I was burning, given it’s the summer and the South in America is known for its heat relative to other parts of the country.

While hot weather might be nice for being outside and not doing anything too physically strenuous, while running, heat tends to make each mile very, very difficult. Some people can thrive and be largely unaffected by the heat, but I am unfortunately not one of those people.

I’m not going to sit here and say it was cool. It wasn’t. Most days, the highs still got into the mid 90 degrees Fahrenheit. But traveling from where I live in the Baltimore suburbs to Alabama made running quite significantly easier. Even on days I was lazy and didn’t wake up early to run, most of my runs in Alabama were easier and less physically strenuous from a weather perspective than my runs in Baltimore. I realize it was because during the week I was in Alabama, it was hotter, but less humid than when I ran in Baltimore.

When I returned to Baltimore, I was hit by what felt like a swamp and rainforest again. Because of the humidity, every run felt like I was going to die, even on runs where I attempted to “beat the heat” by waking up to run…