Hot and Cold: A Tropical Runner in the New York City Marathon
Posted on 06. Nov, 2009 by Roman Espejo in Barbara Raab, General, International
Bathan completed her fifth marathon (four in one year) here in New York City.
Filipina runner Bernadette “Bards” Bathan ran in this year’s New York City Marathon for the first time. Back home in Manila, Bathan, 36, often trains in heat and pollution, around snarled traffic and on uneven pavement. (When she’s not running, she blogs about it.)
Bathan said she’s a stronger competitor because of trying conditions and embraces running in her country. “I still say if it’s your first marathon, do it in the Philippines, ’cause you’re going to be stronger when you go overseas,” Bathan said days before the race.
Maybe she has a point. In Lore of Running, exercise expert and marathon veteran Timothy Noakes writes that “in competition in the heat, the heat-acclimatized athlete will always have an ‘edge’ over an equally fit, but unacclimatized opponent.” And, yes, after 27 years, the New York City Marathon finally has an American champion. But that’s another debate.
On Sunday, Bathan ran her personal best: 4 hours, 39 minutes and 32 seconds. “I wasn’t heating up—that’s part of the problem when you run in the tropics,” she said after the marathon. “‘You just need to be not afraid to run faster,’ that’s what I kept telling myself.” In this case, she took advantage of the fall chill in North America. “The goal is still to do a 4:30. So, it will happen, maybe in a colder climate, maybe Antarctica,” Bathan said.
I’m not exactly warming up the treadmill, but talking with Bathan has piqued my curiosity about long-distance running Please share your insights and fill me in.
