Do Runners From Warm Climates Do Better in Hot, Spring Marathons?

An analysis of the 2024 Boston Marathon splits and weather data

Photo courtesy of the Boston Athletic Association

The 2024 Boston Marathon was warm.

It wasn’t crazy hot. But it was in the high 50s or low 60s when runners started in Hopkinton, and temperatures rose to the high 60s before the finishers reached Copley Square in downtown Boston.

While there have certainly been years with far worse weather, this year’s race was warm enough to have a negative impact on finishers. If you talked to runners, read their race reports, or just took a look at the finish times, that’s pretty clear.

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The 2024 Boston Marathon By the Numbers

But in discussions around this race, I heard multiple people make a claim that piqued my interest:

The warm weather was so disastrous because many runners were coming out of winter. The logical corollary to that claim is that runners from warmer climates…