Menemsha
SPORTS
Runners are used to toughing it out. A warming climate can make that deadly
Carolyn Baker, clad in a neon pink top and matching sunglasses, smiled as she ran the Falmouth Road Race on the shore of Cape Cod, looking around for friends as she neared the end of a race she’d completed more than a dozen times before. Suddenly, Baker collapsed, as her exertion on a sunny August day sent her internal temperature soaring. As medical volunteers rushed to her aid by plunging her into a tub filled with ice water, they measured it at nearly 107 degrees (41.6 Celsius). For family members, the first sign of trouble was when their tracking app showed Baker moving backward on the course — as she was taken to the medical tent. Her husband, catching up with friends after finishing earlier, blurted “Oh my god,” after his daughter called to alert him, then rushed to the tent. The heatstroke that felled Baker last year is a deadly illness associated with extreme heat, and climate change is worsening the risk. In the continental U.S., the frequency of dangerously hot days is expected to grow by roughly one-third by mid-century.
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