Sunday, January 6, 2008

Sunday the 13th Better NOT Be Like Sunday the 6th

We're still a ways out from the Houston Marathon, but I enjoy tracking the forecast. Today was proof that weather can make an enormous difference in race performance. Just a nice short 13 miles proved incredibly tough with the temperature at 76*F, dewpoint in the mid-60s and a strong Gulf breeze. Just a couple of days ago I was running 6:30 pace easily. Today, I was struggling to maintain 7mpm.

Marathon Day is now on the NWS forecast:
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 40.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 63.

The 8-day model forecast now includes marathon morning. Conditions still look really good, with temperature in the low 40s and a light wind [the graph is in UTC, six hours ahead of Houston]. The NWS forecast discussion indicates there's quite a bit of uncertainty from Thursday on.



The Weather Channel tends to weight their long term predictions with seasonal averages. For Saturday night they show:
Overnight Low 40°F
Precip 10%
Wind: N 5 mph
Max. Humidity: 71%

For Sunday they show:
High 53°F
Precip 10%
Wind: NNE 10 mph
Max. Humidity: 58%
UV Index: 4 Moderate
Sunrise: 7:18 AM CT



AccuWeather now has Saturday night and Sunday on their 6 to 10 day forecast. They predict:

Saturday Night, Jan 12
Low: 42 °F RealFeel®: 36 °F
Mainly clear

Sunday, Jan 13
High: 60 °F RealFeel®: 60 °F
Mostly sunny

1 comment:

Chris Field said...

It is miserable here in College Station today and I am sure even more humid there.

Lets hope and pray that cold front gets here before Sunday or else its going to be a long morning for both of us.

Keep the taper up.