Heat, humidity tax marathon runners

McALLEN — As the mercury creeped toward 90 degrees, Westley Keating willed his legs to keep moving.

He had run 25 miles in the last 2½ hours and had the sweat-drenched clothes to prove it.

“I had to work a lot harder than usual today,” he said Sunday, after finishing second in McAllen’s Fiesta Marathon and Relay. “I don’t do as well in heat.”

Keating, 25, of Edinburg, and 86 other marathon runners pushed through unseasonably high temperatures and oppressive humidity to complete the second annual race.

And while the event drew competitors from as far as California and Mexico City, local runners proved best equipped to handle the Rio Grande Valley’s extreme conditions.

Benny Rodriguez, 31, of Laredo finished first with a time of two hours and 39 minutes.

“I am extremely happy with this outcome,” he said in an e-mail written after the race. “(It) got me motivated to start training with the same intensity that I did for all my other marathons.”

Keating followed right behind, finishing after two hours and 43 minutes. The former Pharr-San Juan-Alamo North High School and University of Texas-Pan American track standout has run all over the country and just finished training for the 10,000-meter Olympic trials.

Still, he found Sunday’s heat taxing.

“Ideally, you start running when the sun’s not out or when its 40 to 50 degrees,” he said. “I think we started a little too late today.”

As the runners set out just after 7 a.m., the temperature had already reached 74 degrees. By the time the last marathoner finished the 26.2-mile course — which took them from the McAllen Convention Center to Granjeno, and then through Anzalduas Park and back to McAllen - heat levels had climbed to near record highs.

Even with water stations every few miles, the conditions proved to be too much for some racers, who dropped out from heat exhaustion and dehydration before finishing. Others were hospitalized after crossing the finish line.

Gauging weather conditions can be difficult in planning such a massive event, organizer Veronica Galligan said. Runners found nearly perfect marathon weather in last year’s race when temperature hovered around 50 degrees.

“Even with the weather we had grate numbers today,” Galligan said. “For the second year, it shows that the Valley embraces an event like this.”

In all, just over 1,000 athletes participated in the shorter, less-demanding relay marathon, half marathon, five-kilometer run and one-mile children’s race. Hundreds more cheering spectators lined the overlapping routes.

Among them, Bill Glass, a 68-year-old runner from Harlingen with 66 marathons under his belt. Glass, who is certified by the USA Track & Field to plot marathon routes, laid out this year’s course over five days, meticulously measuring the length on a bike and with steel tape.

And although he didn’t run the marathon Sunday, the senior statesman of the Valley’s running community said he still has a few good races left in him.

After starting his marathon career at 40, he hopes to complete a race in every state before hanging up his running shoes.

“I’m older and slower now,” he said. “But I’ve still got some of the northwestern states and Alaska and Hawaii to go.”