(AmericanProsperity.com) – Many runners and other athletes have to deal with a lot as they prepare and train, but one thing that has become a huge strain has been the Air Quality Index. This measures the levels of pollution that affect air quality at any location or time.
Avery Collins, a professional ultra-marathoner who lives in Silverton, Colorado, said, “If you’re a mountain runner, you’re checking the AQI daily. Especially in the month of August.”
Denver is known as one of the best and healthiest places to live, and it attracts many athletes and runners from all over the country; however, Denver can also have the worst air quality. It often can be considered the most polluted of any international city in the world.
The city tends to be the unhealthiest in the summer mostly due to wildfires, but there is another phenomenon that causes heavy air pollution.
The “inversion effect” is where cold air gets trapped by warm air above it, which prevents air pollution from drifting into the sky and keeps it at ground level. Because of this, forest fire smoke also gets trapped at ground level and can cause extreme fog. Many residents of Denver have said that you can see the pollution in the air.
Some say that they rely on the air quality index to determine if they will run, while others say that they don’t let it stop them.
“In these times, you have to pick your poison,” says Kelly Waldo, who runs about twenty-five to thirty miles in Denver each week. “I am aware of the air pollution, but I still just put my shoes on and get after it.”
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