Investigating Potential Risk of Thermal Hazards Along Race Routes of Taipei Marathon By Mobile Monitoring and Quantitative Analysis

In the recent years, the long-distance endurance running races, such as half-marathon or marathon, are becoming much more popular in Taiwan. However, due to the frequent hot and humid weather in this low-latitude country, runners in these races usually face the risk of thermal hazards. In order to analyze the heat stress for the runners in such environment, the main objectives of this study are to characterize the thermal environment in road race events and to quantify the risk of thermal hazard for athletes.

This study chose the route of half-marathon of Taipei Marathon, a World Athletics Elite Label race, as the research object.  The necessary environmental parameters for risk of thermal hazards along the route were collected by means of mobile monitoring, and the heat stress on the route was evaluated through the Heat Strain Decision Aid model (HSDA) and the thermal index, Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). To quantify the impact of heat stress on different groups from beginner to elite runners, the spatiotemporal variations of WBGT and body core temperature along the route were further estimated. The results from this study could help the race organizer to identify the high-risk areas during the race planning and help the participants to understand the potential risk of heat stress in the race.