August 1st 2020 – 05:00 Eidfjord – Norway
Loc: 60°28′36″N 7°2′19″E
Expected water-temp: 12°C to 16°C
News
Heat!
The reason for writing about heat in a research blog for Norseman Xtreme Triathlon is that my PhD has the main theme of temperaturephysiology. Hot and cold. And you might be surprised to discover that heat is also a word describing Norseman. The average human core temperature ranges within 36,0oC and 37,5oC. It varies throughout the day and is typically lowest in the late night/early morning (which match perfectly with Norseman athletes jumping from the ferry into the cold fjord at 0500..) In medical terms, we define the core temperature as “fever” when above 38,0oC, although there is not a particular agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature. Fever can be caused by numerous medical conditions reaching from non-serious to life-threatening.
Despite the medical limits for fever, athletes regularly get warmer than 38,0oC during activity. Some of you may know that we each year do core temperature measurements at Norseman, with athletes swallowing a core temperature pill. These pills measure the temperature every minute, and we can download the readings after the race. From these readings, we see that the athletes have temperatures well above 38,0oC in considerable sections of the race. This is entirely normal during racing and training.
But how high can the core temperature be during racing? There is a lot of discussion about this in the sports medicine communities around this now. The Olympics are coming up this season, and we know that the Tokyo Olympics possibly can be one of the hottest ever. Several of the events have been moved from its original arenas or rescheduled to cooler times of the day. By the way – did you know that Norwegian Triathletes now are among the favourites in the Olympic Triathlon?
There are a few studies that have published data from racing in hot and humid weather. In 2016 the UCI Road Cycling World Championships was held in Doha, Qatar. The scientist used the same technique as the Norseman Research team, letting world-class cyclist swallowing an ingestible temperature pill during the race. The environment temperature was 37,0oC but relatively dry. The athletes reached very high core temperature, with a “record” of 41,5oC. A very fascinating study with results that are exciting for all athletes.
We know that athletes that are not well prepared will perform worse in warm weather. We have been involved in studies with Norwegian Olympic athletes to see how they perform in warm environments. (Not published) Preparations are key. Several coping strategies will make them better prepared. Training in warmer climates, pre-cooling techniques, pacing strategies and more. ITU has recently presented guidelines for athletes preparing for racing in hot conditions.
We will probably never reach Tokyo or Doha temperatures at Norseman during race day. That being said, the valley from T2 to Zombie Hill can be pretty warm in the first weekend of August. With our calibrated weather instruments, we did measure temperatures as high as 27,7oC in T2 during Norseman in 2019. And again, for you science nerds, that is a wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 26,5. That is warmer than usual for Norseman, although we have had temperatures in that range before.
So – you should be prepared for both cold and warm weather at Norseman. This is why we call it an Extreme Triathlon.
By coincidence our good friends at ITU published their guide to managing the Tokyo heat today. ‘Beat the Heat’, a comprehensive guide for racing under extreme hot conditions can be found here.
Afterdrop
Strictly speaking, afterdrop is defined as a continued drop in core temperature after the human body has been removed from the cold environment. It is a feared condition in emergency medicine. The mechanisms behind afterdrop are not yet fully recognised, and both the significance and the pattern seem to vary within subjects exposed for hypothermia.
During our pilot study in Eidfjord in 2015 and our first controlled study later that same year, it grew several questions about afterdrop. We saw that the body temperature lowered on several individuals, even after they were out of the cold water. The study was published last year (Melau et al., 2019)
These findings were not an immense surprise to us. Afterdrop is a well-known effect in Emergency Medicine. I have been working 10 years a rescue paramedic in the Air Ambulance in the Arctic. When we pick up a victim from the open sea or doing a rescue in the snow, we see that hypothermic patients are prone to get an even lower body temperature after we have removed them from the cold. The specific physiological rationale for this phenomena is not fully recognised. But we believe the main reason is that colder blood from the arms and legs are starting to circulate in the core. And therefore lowering the core temperature.
Afterdrop observed in our study was on average 0.6 C and the lowest temperature was observed on average 25 min after the swim. Other studies have indicated an ever lower afterdrop after a cold swim. Afterdrop should be of interest to organizers, but even for athletes training in open water. It is valuable for triathlon organizers and triathletes to expect that temperature can drop in T1 and during the first part of the cycling. Our findings on afterdrop are in accordance with previously published studies.
When we are out swimming in colder waters, the blood vessels in our arms and legs are constricted. Our body does this to conserve the temperature in our core, where most of our vital organs are. When we come back to warmer environments, the blood vessels in our arms and legs dilate again, and the colder blood will circulate back to the core. But more importantly, the warmer blood in our core circulate out to our arms and legs to heat them up.
Afterdrop is a potential problem for everyone swimming in cold water. A study was conducted on Open Water swimmers in San Francisco, were the participants at New Year’s eve swam from the famous “Alcatraz” Island into Fishermans Warf. (Nuckton et al., 2000) It is a distance of approximately 3000 meters, and the water temperature was 11,7 degrees Celcius. The participant’s had no wetsuit and there were 6 men and 5 women in the trial. One of the participants got hypothermia (a core temperature below 35 degrees Celcius) But more interestingly, 10 out of 11 participants had an afterdrop.
I am at the moment sitting and writing a paper where I try to sum up three years of core temperature measurements on triathletes during Norseman. There are lots of findings in these data, one relevant finding is concerning afterdrop. Several athletes appear to be colder while in T1 and out on the bike. Expectedly, it will get published later this year.
In triathlon, the afterdrop effect is possibly worsened by the fact that triathletes are influenced by the wind chill factor during cycling. The wind chill factor might continue to cool your body when cycling at high speed. (Bluestein, 1998) The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has taken this into consideration, as they have incorporated both air temperature and water temperature into their competition rules. According to ITU competition rules, the swim can be shortened or cancelled according to combined water temperature and air temperature. There are also studies pointing in the degree of afterdrop is potentially worsened if you are physically active after the cold exposure. (Giesbrecht and Bristow, 1998) Probably because the blood is more rapidly distributed during activity. This is particularly of interest for a triathlon, as this is what we do.
It seems like you can’t do a whole lot to avoid further afterdrop if you have been cold during the swim. But eventually, your core temperature will rise again. It might help to try to reduce the wind chill factor, although we don´t know that for sure. Several companies (like HUUB) makes trisuits with wind-proof chest and torso panel to reduce the risk of wind chill after the swim.
To sum up – if you feel cold in T1, it might be due to afterdrop. And you probably will feel cold during the first part of the bike section of the race. How cold you get and for how long, is reliant on several factors that we do not understand sufficiently yet. But as researchers, we will continue to look more into this.
References – for the geeky readers
Bluestein, M., 1998. An evaluation of the wind chill factor: its development and applicability. Journal of biomechanical engineering 120, 255–8.
Giesbrecht, G.G., Bristow, G.K., 1998. The convective afterdrop component during hypothermic exercise decreases with delayed exercise onset. Aviat Space Environ Med 69, 17–22.
Melau, J., Mathiassen, M., Stensrud, T., Tipton, M., Hisdal, J., 2019. Core Temperature in Triathletes during Swimming with Wetsuit in 10 °C Cold Water. Sports 7, 130. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7060130
Nuckton, T.J., Claman, D.M., Goldreich, D., Wendt, F.C., Nuckton, J.G., 2000. Hypothermia and afterdrop following open water swimming: The Alcatraz/San Francisco swim study. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine 18, 703–707. https://doi.org/10.1053/ajem.2000.16313
Purity Sets Norseman Apart
On Monday we did the draw again, delighting some but disappointing the vast majority as a random name-picker selected those whose lives will be changed forever on August 1, 2020. The days and weeks leading up to the draw have been spent organising the move from the studio and office building that I previously shared with Spocks Family (and from which we broadcast the last two draws live online) to a new premises.
In the packing and unpacking, a lot of memories came floating up to the surface once more – accreditations from events I’ve covered, a USB stick shaped like Usain Bolt in his famous victory pose, and paper printouts of articles I wrote almost 20 years ago.
Among the artefacts of my career in sports journalism was a branded hat given to me by Dag Oliver, the man running the day to day operations behind the Matrix that is the Norseman race, and its place among all these World Cup and Olympic mementoes got me thinking.
I got involved in sport and sports journalism because I believed, and still believe, in the purity of competition and athletic endeavour. I care not for winning or losing; I care only for the thrill of the fight, the grind of the race, the grit of the game.
Money has never and will never motivate me – selfish as it may sound, I want the athletes to give me the best of themselves, their performances, their stories, their heroism. What I want when I travel the world is for my jaw to hit the floor having witnessed something that has never been seen or done or achieved before.
The Norseman does all these things, each and every year.
This year, I got to be on the ferry as the competitors dropped into the cold, dark waters of Eidfjord, and if I had not understood the appeal of this epic race before, I sure as hell understood it now. The courage it takes to go from having your name pulled out of the hat to dropping those few meters feet-first into the darkness and the longest day of your life is awesome. I have never done it and I never will, but I have come as close as anyone ever will to where it happens.
I have seen Usain Bolt run faster than any man alive. I have seen Lionel Messi score goals that bordered on the impossible. I have seen LeBron James soar and dunk a basketball as if the laws of physics did not apply to him, and all of those things are breath-taking in their own right.
But they do not have the purity of Norseman; they do not have the cold water, the fresh air, the rolling hills and changeable weather and the sheer scale of the challenge that it offers. They do not have the extremes of joy and pain that these athletes will be exposed to.
These global sporting events are now about money and politics and branding in a way that would have been unthinkable when human beings first organised an Olympiad, or a World Cup. Whether they like it or not, they are always in some way tainted by money, betrothed to it and dependent on it. Beauty takes a back seat to business.
In contrast, if every sponsor was to walk away and every entry fee to go unpaid, the Norseman would probably still happen.
For it was born out of a love of the land and water, and of competing and testing oneself in a local triathlon club a little over half-way between Bergen and Oslo.
It was forged in the camaraderie that can only be created in the loneliest circumstances out on that fabled track. It started as a tiny race for enthusiasts and has grown to one of the most sought-after start numbers in the world. It could go back again just as quickly, and these sanguine Norwegians would not utter a word. But it would keep going.
Their steadfast dedication to fairness and to putting on a race that is both safe and exhilarating at the same time is a sign of the generosity of the wonderful people that put this event together. Few are paid, none handsomely; on the day itself many who would otherwise hope to compete pull on a race sweatshirt and give their time over to ensuring that others who have travelled from all over the world get the best experience possible.
Much like the live draw, it can be rough and ready, but that is the charm, and Norwegians are nothing if not pragmatic, organised and unafraid of the weather. These three characteristics do not ensure that nothing will ever go wrong – but they do guarantee that whatever they undertake will most likely be a success, no matter how crooked the path that leads up whatever mountain they choose to climb.
Now, the class of 2020 has been drawn. Their dream begins. All eyes are on August 1 next year, and that pre-dawn ferry where their destiny awaits, four meters down.
The draw done, I went back to unpacking the last of the boxes at the new premises, but I couldn’t shake the thought of those whose names were picked out. For some it will be the first time to take on the course, or indeed any course. For others it will be a return to savour, to maybe go one better than they did last time out.
Nor can I forget how disappointed the overwhelming majority who watched our broadcast will have been after waiting and waiting, only to hear their names go uncalled.
Sport is cruel like that. We don’t always get what we want, or to where we want to be, and sometimes it takes longer than expected, but the size of the race and the place ensure that not a single extra athlete can be squeezed in without risking the safety of all the others.
The limit has been reached, and there is no more to be said – now, for the athletes and the organisers and the TV crews and the marshals, it is all about the doing.
And that is what makes Norseman so special – from the very first race with only a handful of competitors to last year’s epic event featuring hundreds of athletes stretched out across miles and miles of beautiful countryside, it remains pure in a way that few other sports can manage.
Preserving that purity of spirit is the key to the continued success of the Norseman – it’s why the disappointment of not making it to the start is so great, and why the joy of making it to the finish is something that cannot be beaten in sport, anywhere in the world.
2020 Starts Now
By the time we closed registration for our draw at 18:00 Sunday November 3. 5025 people residing in 94 countries had applied. For a small sports club organising a tiny race, almost entirely run by volunteers, this is simply mind-boggling. It also makes us feel like a truly global happening
To all that have applied. Thank you for telling us that it is a good idea to keep Norseman running. Also, thank you for being generous, before christmas a check of around USD 38 000 will be on it´s way to our charity partner Médecins Sans Frontières from all of you.
Next step
Monday November 11. from 13:00 we will run the 2020 draw live on YouTube. The process for the draw is described here.
Supernatural – Norseman 2019
In our 17th year, suddenly the sun was shining. All day (almost). It´s not supposed to do that. The cold, the wind and the rain everyone was so prepared for never materialized. But the heat did. Hardly anyone is ever prepared for a heat stroke at Norseman.
Welcome to our Norseman film 2019.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel here.
SOUNDTRACK:
0:07 – HELL OR HIGH WATER by CELLDWELLER
0:30 – HEARTBEAT THEME by REX BANNER
0:56 – ABANDON by ROARY
2:12 – SUPERNATURAL by TRIBAL BLOOD
4:10 – ILLIUMINATION by BRADFORD NYGHT
4:57 – TANGLE by NICK BOX
7:36 – MOMENTS CAPSULED IN TIME by BENJAMIN GUSTAFSSON
