Until December 2013, California鈥檚 , which started in Death Valley and ended at the Mount Whitney Portal, was considered the ultimate endurance test in an extreme heat environment.

That鈥檚 when聽.聽Obviously, the announcement threw a wrench in this summer鈥檚 37th聽edition of Badwater, scheduled to take place July 21 through 23. But you can鈥檛 just axe the world鈥檚 toughest footrace, so race organizers revised the route, which now incorporates more than 17,000 feet of elevation gain between Lone Pine and Whitney Portal. Although temperatures might not reach 125 degrees, the 97 brave souls who toe the line will likely still be treated to triple-digit temps.

And although some runners will incorporate special clothing and aid-station ice baths into ther races, other runners will have a more natural advantage: their body size.

While running in hot weather, an athlete鈥檚 primary goal鈥攂esides winning鈥攕hould be to maintain a constant core temperature by balancing heat production and heat loss. Exercise itself creates internal heat. In fact, 80 percent of energy produced by exercising skeletal muscle becomes heat (the other 20 percent generates adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to power the muscle. Extremely hot environments can also cause athletes to take in heat, just as cold environments cause us to lose heat. 聽

Runners also battle heat externally via hot weather and humidity, both of which make running more difficult. Hot temperatures cause heat to transfer from the environment to the body, while humidity makes evaporative heat loss more difficult. In comfortable environments, to get rid of excess heat, blood is shunted to the skin, where warmed blood can lose heat through evaporation (sweating) or convection (if skin temperature is greater than the environmental temperature). Both evaporation and convection depend on the skin’s surface area鈥攖he larger surface area, the better the heat loss. 聽

So, bigger runners should be better at cooling off, right?

Wrong.

Surface area and body mass (that is, muscle mass) are not at a one-to-one relationship鈥攆or every unit of body mass you increase, you聽don’t聽get an equivalent relative increase in surface area. Smaller runners actually have more surface area relative to body mass, which gives them聽.

According to a聽, this 鈥渄istinct thermal advantage鈥� corresponds with speed. Because lighter runners produce and store less heat than heavier runners at the same pace, they can run faster or farther. This difference was most striking in hot, humid conditions (95 degrees, greater than 60 percent humidity) and essentially absent in cool conditions (59 degrees).

Indeed, in 2004, exercise physiologist Tim Noakes聽聽finding that African runners ran faster in the heat than their Caucasian peers. 鈥淟arger Caucasians reduce their running speed to ensure an optimal rate of heat storage without developing dangerous hyperthermia [heatstroke],鈥� the study reports. 鈥淎ccording to this model, the superior running performance in the heat of these African runners can be partly attributed to their smaller size and hence their capacity to run faster in the heat while storing heat at the same rate as heavier Caucasian runners.鈥澛�

In this study, the heavier Caucasian runners (169 pounds) ran approximately 10 percent slower during 30 minutes of exercise in hot conditions (95 degrees, 60 percent humidity) compared to the lighter Africans (131 pounds). The difference is dramatic when considering both groups ran the same time in the exercise test conducted in cool conditions (59 degrees).聽聽

In other words, a slower but smaller runner has a substantially better shot at beating a faster but larger runner if the temperature is high enough.

Although many other factors can help regulate core temperature (clothing, heat adaptation, genetics, age, etc.), the bottom line is that the smaller you are, the better you should be able to handle the heat. So although the Badwater 135 might not reach 130 degrees this year, the soaring temps should be sufficient to give an advantage to the slight of frame.

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The best way to follow runners across the Sierra during the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run is to . But this year, after a lingering hamstring injury left me unable to race the legendary ultramarathon from Squaw Valley to Auburn, I chose to spectate in person, focusing on how the race unfolded at the front and supporting my Marin, California鈥揵ased training partners and friends in any way possible.

Runners start at 5 a.m. in the darkness of Squaw Ski Resort: 100 miles鈥攊ncluding 18,000 feet of vertical ascent and 22,000 feet of descent鈥攖hat will test their physical and mental prowess in as few as 15 hours or as many 30.

Far less rigorous, my spectating schedule included following the top 10 men through the aid stations of Michigan Bluff (mile 55.7), Foresthill (mile 62), Green Gate (mile 79.8), and No Hands Bridge (mile 96.8).

Reaching Green Gate required a 1.5-mile hike down a hot and dusty fire road鈥攏ot exactly a trivial distance when a crew (that has already been operating for 12-plus hours) needs to bring enough ice, food, drink, clothes, and meds for its runner. Crews feel the immense pressure of meeting the runner鈥檚 every need in the precious few minutes they interact. Combine that with physical exertion and lack of sleep and crewing Western States might just be more difficult than running it.

The race played out as many expected: The 眉ber-talented 100-mile debutant Max King built an early lead. By Foresthill, Rob Krar (second place in 2013) had made up 5 minutes in the previous 6 miles, closing the gap to 90 seconds. Krar eventually passed King, built a lead of nearly 20 minutes, and did not surrender. He went on to win in 14:53, the second-fastest time in race history.

On the women鈥檚 side, Stephanie Howe, in her first 100-mile race, had built a 20-minute lead by Foresthill but seemed to be struggling with an altered gait. I thought for sure the relaxed and fluid Larisa Dannis in second would catch up. I was wrong. Howe was having a bad patch, not a bad race, and won in 18:01, the fourth-fastest women鈥檚 time in race history. (This is the danger of predicting a 100-miler when you only see snapshots from a few aid stations.)

Throughout the day, I witnessed my friends running smart, patient, beautiful races. Dylan Bowman moved up consistently and ended on the podium in third place, a personal best. Alex Varner, in his debut, finished seventh in just under 16 hours. Brett Rivers executed flawlessly to take 1 hour 20 minutes off his best WS100 time, placing ninth in 16:20 and garnering one of the coveted top-10 spots that guarantee a place in next year鈥檚 event.

When it was all said and done, four of the top nine men were runners from the Bay Area who run together several times a week, trading inspiration and advice. Their times are representative of the sport’s growing competitiveness (and the value of talented training partners).

Prior to 2014, only nine times had a runner gone under 16 hours; six of those occurred in the abnormally cold 2012 race. This year, the first eight finishers went sub-16 in warm conditions鈥攖he high in Auburn was 89 degrees.

Forty meters past the finish line, the tremendous effort that the top guys put in was apparent. Bowman, covered in blankets, gazed back at the course with a thousand-yard stare, as if he鈥檇 left some part of himself back there. King, who ended up fourth, lay on his side and told me never to do this to myself. And Ian Sharman, who was sixth鈥攚ell, Ian looked okay, which is maybe not surprising from the guy who last year.

The next day, the sub-24-hour finishers and the top 10 were all honored in an awards ceremony. I decided not to attend. After all, I need to save some surprises for next year.

In February, Matthew Laye won the Rocky Raccoon 100 in Huntsville, Texas鈥攈is first hundred-miler.

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