I have occasional exercise induced asthma and suffer from seasonal allergies, however I can relate to the concept of a sore throat from a really hard effort. After this Year's San Bruno hill climb, essentially 20mins (for me) all out effort, I was suffering "throat burn" at the summit for a good 5-10mins and had a sore/tickly throat for the next 1-2 days. I put that solely down to really hard mouth breathing, with no liquid intake to help stop my throat from drying out. I don't experience that in other situations where I have free access to water/sports drink.