Your race against time: How climate affects the marathon

The interactions between climate and a sport like long-distance running are only going to get more pronounced as the climate changes

If you are among the more than 50,000 people who will run the New York City Marathon on Sunday, you know that training, eating right and getting a good night’s sleep are some of the keys to setting a personal best. But an analysis of more than 4.7 million finishing times from 20 years of data on almost 900 marathons — including those in New York, London, Chicago, Boston, Berlin and the Olympics — shows how much your time can be affected by another factor: temperature.

The fastest times are run on days when the average outdoor temperature is in the