If you have ever been in NYC during the summer, you know it can be brutally hot. And if you’ve gone into the subway tracks in those hot days you feel like you are on hell itself, the belly of the beat, hell’s kitchen proper. It’s inhumanly hot and nasty, unbreathable, mind-numbingly hot; science says it is 23 degrees hotter in there. Yuk, right?
Yesterday I was waiting for my transferring train, and as it was going to be a “longish” ride, I had a little jacket on (I usually freeze in the train). So, I was sitting in the track, in between trains, and figured why bother taking the jacket off, I’ll be on another freezing subway car soon. But, of course in the weekend it can be a bit more of a wait… sometimes it’s a long wait.  And I noticed, while I was waiting in around 110 degrees, that I was doing something I have been doing a lot lately. And you won’t believe I do this all the time.
Instead of taking the jacket off, getting my water bottle out, fanning myself, putting my hair up, throwing water on myself, and/or move to under a ventilation opening to cool down, I just sit there and not move at all. I don’t even read. I slow down my heart rate, I basically go on “survival mode”, I hit Pause, and not move or stress. I just STAY put and focus on not feeling the heat. Isn’t that strange?
And I do it ALL the time. Like it’s a mental game with the heat. My sister found me once, waiting in an insanely hot hall waiting for her, there was no air and I was just standing there. I had forgotten my key and it was too hot to call her or go upstairs, and as I knew she was coming down soon, I just stood there, shutting it all down. She thought I was mental or my brain had melted. Why would you just stand here, it’s soooo hot, you could have come upstairs, this is horrible, why didn’t you call me, are you crazy? you ‘re gonna die! 
Another time she mentioned it… we were travelling, everybody wanted coffee, I wanted to keep sleeping so I decided to stay in the car. As everyone got off, they turned the AC off and took the keys. It was very very hot in there, but I always feel it’s a great way to adjust to the heat, by shutting everything else and putting up with it (sounds like the marathon right?), instead of running from AC to AC.
On the other hand, I do really really well in the heat. Not only I do great in super hot days when I race, but I have been noticing it every day lately. Everywhere I go, people are complaining about the heat, and sometimes I think they’re mental. I don’t even feel it. I ask them to touch me and I am like an ice cube. And people say it’s because I have no fat on me. I don’t think so. My friend F and my sister are way skinnier than me and they die (and get in a really bad mood) two seconds after they are outside. You know this isn’t just a skinny runner thing. I think it’s more of a physical PLUS psychological adaptation. Who goes numb and shuts down to stay put int the heat? Of course if I wasn’t running in hot temperatures, I would have never pushed myself to learn how to deal with this. You know as soon as it was a bit hot, I was running at noon! Yeah, Badwater, here I come!!
I wasn’t always like this. I remember when, on hot days, my legs and feet would get super swollen and I couldn’t move as I would get so tired, and my blood pressure would drop, and I would get nasty headaches when I would go outside if it was hot! Yeah, you know it’s the running. Not sure what the logic is behind all of this science (or if I am crazy) but, this is some crazy adaptation for sure.

Some Kind Of Adaptation, or Crazy