Saturday, April 17, 2010

Dirty Running

Something I noticed today while walking back to the house after my half-marathon run: how dirty my chest and arms were. I ran shirtless again - not to impress the suburban, overweight, married women, but to simply try to manage the sweat - and when I was done I had all this grit on my chest and arms. Some of it appeared to be small insects, but some was just dirt-like.

Where does it come from? I was never behind anybody, or a bicycle for that matter. I was never along a road since I was running on the Kingwood greenbelts. I just don't know.

But something I have wondered about for a while. What kind of junk, physical junk - not the invisible soot and oilfield garbage in our air here - are we distance runners inhaling every time we take a run? And how does that particulate matter affect our breathing, since we have to be losing some capacity if our lungs get partially coated with junk?

I have no idea, and don't think I want to know, but it's a real question in light of all the stuff stuck to the outside of my body today.

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