Orlando is a warm place, even in February. Looking at the temperatures at 2 pm from the past seven years, the average is 72º. That’s not great! New York this year was 75º and I only fell apart at mile 12.

There is very real chance it could sneak into the low 80ºs, which of course would be dangerous. It’s also not unprecedented. Think back to 2012 in Boston, 2007 in Chicago, the 2019 World Championships in Doha, or the Beijing Olympics. At the 2016 Olympic Trials Marathon, the temperatures topped out at 73 degrees and there was some serious carnage on the roads with 75% of women finishing the race and only 64% of men.

I have mixed emotions. This being a qualifying race for the Olympics, the course and conditions should ideally mirror what might be expected in Paris. That’s a hillier course than basically anything possible in Orlando and with likely cooler temperatures. I’m not morally opposed to professional races being run in the heat if we’re trying to specifically determine who’s the best at racing in an inferno.

But it’s quite obvious that this is a TV decision so that the race can be broadcast live on NBC. The compromise of hosting it live on Peacock for the diehards, with a replay at noon on real NBC is not the worst. Though admittedly, this isn’t an NBA finals game in the 1980s – I ain’t watching that after it happens.

After complaining about the lack of live television coverage on basic cable during the US Outdoor Championships, I can acknowledge the irony here. Now athletes and fans are complaining that moves were made to accommodate TV.

My main issue is a lack of communication and transparency, not the decision itself. Anyone in Indiana should have been able to foresee that there would be immediate push-back from this announcement. That’s when we need leadership to get on stage for a press conference and answer some questions about why things are being done the way they are.

I have a very well-educated guess that there are contributing factors to this decision beyond the obvious “this will be on live television” element. Rather than letting a mob form that already has a longstanding distrust of bureaucracy, get out ahead of it and explain it to the organization’s membership so they don’t shout about incompetency.

And then follow it up with this statement: If in the days leading up to the race the weather forecast is predicting dangerously warm temperatures that may put the health of our athletes at risk, then the race will go off at an earlier time.

The challenge then is how do we convert this large television audience tuning in for one day of racing into more regular fans… maybe we’ll crack the code next newsletter.

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