Originally Posted by
Elite_Pie
Because of brown envelopes under the 6* hotel room door, simple as that.
I offered that as a comparison mainly because it was recent and local. How about this comparison from the Marathon Des Sables website:
"The glaring sun. The heat (up to 50°C). The sand – lots of it. These will be your constant companions, alongside 1,000 other runners from across the globe, spanning cultures and physical abilities – but united by the quest for adventure and to achieve something different from the crowd. It will be hard. Your feet will swell. They will crack. They will bleed, as you cross the world’s largest hot desert. The Fourth Day will take you out of the Saharan morning into dusk, dark and beyond as you cover more than 80kms (52 miles) in one relentless stage of running. But you will find the strength to power onwards like those who have run before you, to the exhilaration and joy of the finish line".
That makes 90 minutes of football at Boreham Wood look like a gentle stroll on a warm day. It's an extreme example, but it shows what a physically fit human body is capable of. I can also offer a very tame personal example, because when I was 55 and on holiday in Egypt the temperature regularly hit 40 degrees C. The perverse side of my nature made me choose to run around 10K when the heat was at it's peak just to see what it was like. It was bloody hard, and I was 5 minutes slower than I would normally take, but I survived. I've watched a football match in Portugal in around 35 degree temperatures and it was quite normal for them. It's a lot of fuss about nothing.
Next thing we'll be hearing players can't be expected to play twice a week!