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When John Pitzel started the 2025 Tokyo Marathon, he knew that it was going to be hot. Tokyo is typically 50 degrees in early March, but on March 2, the temperature hit 68 degrees—perfect weather for a stroll but very warm for a marathon, especially for athletes who had trained through the winter to be there.

The 62-year-old isn’t a stranger to heat. He has run 13 full marathons and 199 half-marathons in all kinds of weather and has led pace groups in some of those marathons for the past five years. He knew that he could finish if he just ran a bit slower than normal. But he didn’t expect for the race’s aid stations to stop handing out water, especially because th

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