Anguished Runner Can't Remember How to Beat Heat
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A South Carolina man hasn't run in more than a week—not because he's injured, or unmotivated, or too busy, but because he can't remember how to beat the heat.
Glenn Frey, 28, said he was preparing for a five-mile run near his home in Columbia, the state capital, last Monday when the realization hit him.
"I'd checked the weather when I woke up," he said, "and saw it was already, like, 85 degrees and humid. So, pretty hot."
Frey said the trouble started when he entered his bedroom to put on running clothes.
“Should I wear a tank top, or a long-sleeve shirt? Shorts, or tights? Insulated vest? Jacket? I had no idea.”
"Suddenly, I froze," he said. "My mind was a total blank.
"Should I wear a tank top, or a long-sleeve shirt? Shorts, or tights? Insulated vest? Jacket? I had no idea what to wear to beat the heat."
The uncertainty, Frey said, was paralyzing—and scary.
Like most runners, Frey depends on local news outlets and national publications to tell him each summer how to beat the heat. So far this year, he said, he hasn't seen any.
"I know there's a lot going on in the world right now," he said, "but would it kill the folks at [local TV stations] WISTV or WACH to do at least one segment on beating the heat?"
"Cool ways" to beat the heat would be ideal, said Frey, but at this point he'd be happy with any sort of tips—cool or otherwise. Absent that, he said, he's lost in a sea of question marks.
"Would heading indoors to hit the 'dreadmill' be one way to beat the heat?" he asked rhetorically. "Should I stay hydrated, or not? Would running during the hottest part of the day be smart, or foolish? Should I seek shade, or avoid it?"
"I don't know!" he said, throwing up his hands. "All this heat... Won't somebody tell me how to beat it?"
With no relief in sight from the hot weather, Frey said, he may have to just stop running till fall.
"It's depressing," he said. "But what are you gonna do?"
