In the February 2010 Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, William Roberts reports on the Do Not Start temperature issue for starting a marathon. He analyzed the number of starters, finishers, and finish line medical encounters and this was plotted against the race start wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), and the WBGT level at which a mass casualty incident (MCI) occurred was used to calculate a “do not start” WBGT. The results showed: “A start WBGT of >21°C resulted in MCI or midrace cancellation in several races. Twin Cities Marathon data show a rapid increase in the rate of unsuccessful marathoner starters above a start WBGT of 13°C. The event experienced an area-wide MCI at a start WBGT of 22°C with an unsuccessful starter rate of 160 per 1000 finishers.” He concluded that the do not start WBGT for Twin Cities Marathon is 20.5°C on the basis of this model.
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