By By Arthur McLean Editor
April 19 in Boston Mass. was hot. Even for an Alabama athlete it was downright smoldering. But Atmore's Temple Hayles pushed through and managed to finish in the one of the hottest Boston Marathons on record.
Not only did she finish, but the Atmore native did better than half the field on a day when temperatures neared 90 degrees and had many runners seeking medical attention.
"The day before and the day after the race, the temperatures were in the 60s. It was a freakish day," Hayles said.
"Even for me it was hot," Hayles, the marketing director for United Bank said. "I was told that more than 500 people went to the hospital from the race."
The race was won by two Kenyans, a regular occurrence in modern marathon running, but even the winning Kenyans felt the heat at the end of the 26-mile run.
"They had I.V.'s like crazy at the finish for all the runners," Hayles said. "I wore red running shorts, and they were caked with salt from sweat. I had salt caked on my eyelids."
Hayles was offered an I.V. to recuperate, but all she needed was water and rest.
Back at work Wednesday, Hayles said she was still feeling the effects of the run. "My quads are really sore. It's up and down, very hilly in the Boston Marathon. We don't have anything like that in Alabama," said Hayles, who now lives in Orange Beach.
More than 20,000 people qualified and entered the race. Hayles finish in the top half, bettering her time from a year ago, the first time she ran the grandaddy of American marathons.
"From mile 16, I just felt my body going down, but I was determined to finish," she said. "I could just feel the support of everyone back home and at United Bank, it was nice to know I had the support of everyone there."
While running is "like an addiction," Hayles said, marathon racing takes a toll on the body. "I think I'm done with running marathons for a while," she said.
So now Hayles said she plans to concentrate on something less strenuous – triathalons.