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Jaydale Hansen

Ms. Butterfield

English 2010

10 February 2023

Smogy Running

Last year, it was nearing the end of the cross-country season, this meant that

coach Mackay was only making our workouts harder. The much anticipated

region race was coming up and for the first time in several years we had a

chance to win it this time. As my fellow runners and I were getting ready, we were

a little rowdy like usual in the locker room, but we eventually found our way

toward our coach's room where we usually met for practice, my fellow teammates

and I found spots at the desks where we would wait for the Teren to arrive and

give us instructions when he finally came in he had a grim look on his face. This

man was a legend, he was super hardworking, and it showed. So what could

make him give us a look like that? Well, we soon found out. He went up to the

front of the classroom and leaned back against the table and took a deep breath,

well he said, “I don't know if today is the best day for a run.” Silence. Never

before had anyone heard these words from his mouth, this man was the most

dedicated person ever. He would have us run in the hottest of temperatures and

the coldest, it didn't matter if it was raining or snowing. Glances were shot from

classmate to classmate, trying to see if anyone knew what was going on, no one

did. Teren soon explained, “there is a lot of pollution and smog right now.” This
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made me chuckle to myself. We went on a 10-mile run last week in freezing

weather, and now we were going to stop because of a little pollution. This idea

seemed so silly to me. Seeing the look on our faces made our coach raise his

hands in defense. “Hey, you guys can still run if you want, it just won't be very

good.” With that, our cross-country team split into two groups: those who were

going to go run in the cold and pollution and those who would go upstairs to the

fitness room to bike. I of course chose to go outside. I was not afraid of a little

smog. As we did our warm-ups inside like we normally do, I couldn't help but

notice the cloudy sky, but it wasn't clouds, what looked like the bushy vapors of

water was instead a sea of yellowish smog that covered as far as you could see.

When we finally finished warming up and said goodbye to the other group, we

went outside, and the first thing we noticed was that we couldn't see the

mountains. The looming blue giants that lined our valley were hidden by the

pollution. This didn't stop us for long, though, because we soon started our

six-mile run. Going at a slower than usual pace we soon passed the football field,

but we could already feel it. Our lungs were soon straining for oxygen which was

usually plentiful, but as we continued our run it became harder and harder.

Although our long runs were typically chatty, we soon found we were running in

silence except for the noise of all gasping for air and the occasional cough. This

was bad, we may have been some of the fittest people in the entire school, but

that day made us feel like a child trying to swim across the ocean. When we

finally made it back to the schools we were in terrible shape. Not only had that
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run been unsuccessful at making us better runners, but we found ourselves

having a hard time breathing throughout the next week even after the smog had

finally left. Pollution affects not only runners and other athletes who want to get a

good workout but mostly affects people who are sensitive to poor air quality such

as elderly, children, and people with heart and lung disease. According to IQ air,

“the Salt Lake City area, which includes Provo and Orem, ranked 7th out of 217

metropolitan areas for worst 24-hour particle pollution, and 11th out of 228

metropolitan areas for worst ozone pollution.” (Dano) As you can see, our

pollution levels are out of hand in the salt lake valley.

Work Cited

Dano, Clout. “Salt Lake City Air Quality Index (AQI) and Utah Air Pollution.”

IQAir, 28 January 2023, https://www.iqair.com/us/usa/utah/salt-lake-city.

Accessed 13 February 2023.