BT Forum

Not right off hand.  It was just something that was talked about after the Chicago marathon fiasco and some of the resident physiologists chimed in on it and said that.  Logically it makes total sense as you will have created another layer of substance on your body besides your sweat that then has to be evaporated off.  Think of the thin layer of water that is trapped by a wetsuit that helps to actually insulate and warm you up when you are wearing one.

(Oh, as an aside, I'm really thinking about doing Savageman this year!)

The majority of the bike course is open with only some portions going through some lightly wooded areas.  Any trees that might have been blown over would be easy to clean up.  And since the area is always hit with constant winds, the trees are pretty much used to it.

Last year at Chessieman there was a brush fire that ended up shutting off about 7 miles of the course after they re-routed the field (except for the leaders who had to actually ride through it ... see Joel's race report) and a few people like myself who got stuck in no man's land and made it past the new re-routing before they turned me around and I had to go back ..... so that would be more of a worry then downed trees!

I wouldn't worry about the bike course.  I'd worry about what all the rain and debris does to the Choptank.

You know, it SEEMS like I should be comforted by this sentance, but I'm... not.

For those of you heading out to Eagleman today and need to take 50:

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1416766

An 8 mile stretch of 50 is barricaded and closed for "something" going on in a home.

Sorry, missed this thread for a while.

First, congrats to all the racers who endured that weather!  I was white water rafting in WV getting soaked by cool mountain water, and even that was HOT.  I can only imagine...

Back to dumping/cooling.  The primary way your body cools itself is by sweat evaporating, which draws heat away.  Unless my logic is wrong, dumping cold water on yourself accelerates the process (it doesn't need to cool through evaporation, just draws heat out of your body) and then evaporates just like your sweat would (drawing more heat away)... and for most of you, the rate at which you can dump water on yourself exceeds the rate at which you can sweat (debateable for me).

Think about it like this.  When someone needs to have their body cooled fast for medical purposes, they don't say "don't touch let the sweat do it's job"... rather, they dump cold water on them (or immerse them in it, but the principle should be the same).