Much respect to the officer who died trying.

And yeah it is very weak of the officials to call a race because of 90 degree heat. I ran plenty of 15+ milers in 100+ Fahrenheit heat and smog. The Africans were probably shivering. The marathon used to be thought of as an extreme test of the human body. It's not that way anymore.

A lot of people run marathons for the heck of it. They're often under trained and they drop out at the first sign of adversity. That's fine. The same goes for triathlons. Many aren't racing or even trying for personal bests. They're doing it as a social thing or whatever. That's fine. No one cares if someone's 250 pound grandma dropped out at mile 20 of a mountainous marathon because her shoes were soaked in blood from blisters gone bad. Actually most people would be proud of such a person.

A lot of people use these harsh opportunities to prove they can overcome the elements, fatigue, getting shelled, injury. It just looks a lot better when a person sticks it out and finishes then if they wimp out as a liberal surrender monkey who can't stay the course. Americans like a quitter as much as they like grown men crying in a European soccer match.

Eurosport lovers rationalize this by saying it's tactical so his team can rest or whatever. Still, the guy crying doesn't need to forfeit every last shred of dignity. He could just fall down and act like he's paralyzed or had the wind knocked out of him. It shouldn't be about crying and making girlish faces.

In cycling, sure you have go out and lead another team into over expense for the benefit of your own team, but you should still finish easy.