On a Monday with a high of 99 degrees, the LSU cross country team arrived at Highland Road Park for a typical 6 p.m. practice.
“Normally we would be at 1:30 in the afternoon when it was 80 degrees,” said LSU coach Mark Elliott. “Now we have to practice at 6 o’clock at night, which is only a slight difference, but you’ve got to practice track.”
According to Accuweather, Baton Rouge has recorded an average daily high of 96 degrees this August.
Based on a 2001 study conducted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climactic Data Center, Louisiana, as a state, had the highest average temperature for August in the nation from 1971 to 2000.
“You worry, even if they’re from here,” Elliott said. “In my 26 years being here as a former athlete and coach, it’s been the hottest it has ever rep.”
Elliott said a good cross country runner needs two runs a day, which can be hard to accomplish with the sun draining a runner’s energy.
“You have to either wake up really early or run at nine at night,” Goodman said. “There’s no running at 2 p.m. like in cold.”
Fisher and Thurn both run middle distance during track season, and deal with pulling muscles more than the typical cross country runner because they sprint more. But they said coping with the adverse heat makes them tougher runners, and because they’re used to the hottest conditions, they can handle any environment.
“Overall, it’s definitely better because anywhere we go in the country, it’s easier to run there,” Fisher said. “Training’s harder and more difficult than almost anywhere else in the country but overall it just helps