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Pollution Solution

December 7, 2018 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Pollution levels have been crazy high all week; according to the readings at the US Embassy, Sarajevo had the worst air quality levels of any city on earth earlier this week. You could smell it everywhere, kinda like the smell of a heater that's going full blast, but it was harder to know whether or not you were seeing it, since the city was also enveloped for much of the week in a dense layer of fog. Today the rating was "Very Unhealthy", a fact that I'm glad I did not look up until I returned. I hadn't run in 2 days though and I figured the effects are mostly long-term anyways so one short run wasn't exactly dangerous for someone relatively healthy. I'd been wanting all week to revisit this abandoned road along my side of the mountain (which, by the ways, is the name of a pretty good book I read in Middle School) and headed off in that direction, despite that fact that the road was partly unlit and it was after dark. I was delighted to discover that both the sight and smell of the pollution soon cleared after only a mile once the side was out of side around the bend and I continued on down the trail feeling alive and free. I forced myself to turn around after 16 minutes since I was meeting friends for dinner; I'd have gone longer if I'd the time. The trail actually had some snow on it I believe though I could only feel it beneath my feet--there was no moon to light the way, though compared to downtown Sarajevo the starts were dazzling. I ran with a short choppy stride which made my legs tired but prepared my feet for any obstacles or uneven ground. Had there been a limb down or something big I was fairly confident I would have seen it, but high knees and stiff ankles guarded against smaller ruts and crevices. Coming back along the main road (Put Mladih Musliman) I got passed by another runner for the first time EVER in this country (aside from that race I did 2 months ago). You hardly ever see runners outside aside from on Wilson Promenade and Ambassadors Alley, both of which are closed to cars. Those that you do see tend to be casual joggers. I did eventually manage to match the guy's pace (probably sub-7) and close the gap, but then I arrived at my street. Really looking forward to being back in the US and being able to run with people who will actually push me to run at a decent speed... maybe with some of you?