Core Temperature Response During the Marathon Portion of the Ironman World Championship (Kona-Hawaii) The Ironman Triathlon consists of 3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42.195 km. Thermoregulation reactions play an important role in performance optimization and prevention of injuries. Factors such as environmental conditions such as heat and moisture, training level of the athlete and renative duration can influence thermoregulation.Hyperthermia then occurs when the body core temperature rises above 38.5 ° C. The present study aimed to examine the body core temperature for first-class and well-trained age group triathlets during the Marathon of the Ironman World Cup 2014 at ‘Ironman Hawaii’ under thermal stress conditions. The body core temperature of 15 triathlets (age 36.11 ± 7.36 years, body mass 71.14 7.12 kg, size 179 ± 0.04 cm and fat percentage 8.48 ± 0.85) classified for the Ironman World Cupwas measured with a telemetry system for removable pills before the competition, during the marathon and 60 minutes after completion of the race.The average temperature during the marathon was 24.66 ° C (range 22.44-28.50 ° C). The Body Mass Index (BMI) and the perceived effort (Borg Scale and Visual Analog Scale Pain) were determined before the race and 60 minutes after the event. The times were extracted from their official competition time and in the meantime.The closing time was 10: 06: 56 ± 0: 48: 30 h: min: s. The body core temperature was initially 36.62 ± 0.17 ° C, rose at the end of the competition (38.55 ± 0.64 ° C) and remained increased 60 minutes after the competition (38.65 ± 0.41 ° C). The BMI decreased significantly after the competition (22.85 ± 1.11 compared to 21.73 ± 1.36), while both the perceived effort \ [Borg scale (10.2 ± 1.64 compared to 18.60 ± 1, 67 ] as well as the perceived muscle pain \ [VAS (2.75 ± 1.59 compared to 9.08 ± 1,13 ] after the competition significantly increases. The body core temperature during the competition correlated negative with ranking in the age group, but not with the competition time. High-ranking age group triathlets, which went to the ‘Ironman Hawaii’ under thermal stress conditions, reached a state of hyperthermia during the marathon.After 60 minutes recovery, hyperthermia remained.
Strategies to support the cooling and recovery after the race should be considered in order to avoid the potentially dangerous harmful impact of hyperthermia. The whole study can be found under https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31849714/