Is LA air safe to run in?

Kate, Please post a pic...thanks

Up to par with Gary, Indiana maybe. I just got back from my first trip out there, and I was NOT impressed. Even at night the smog was a thick cloud visible hanging over the city. I ran on the beach with the wind blowing off the ocean the first day, and still the smog aggravated my athletic-induced asthma and made it a bad run. The second day I ran in the city and it was even worse. You couldn't pay me enough to live out there.

I've had success running early and running late. LA's a big place -- it depends where you're headed.

If you are west of the 405 (San Diego) freeway, the air quality is generally good. Most coastal areas in L.A. and Orange counties are great places to train. If possible, avoid the San Fernando Valley and the Inland Empire areas of the basin. That's where the smog and allergens are worst.

Thanks for the info fellas.

Yes -- the Inland Empire is the Smog Empire.

I ran the LA Marathon this year and it was hotter than hell with no wind....perfect smog conditions.

Although I ran like crap, I didn't have any noticable respiratory problems or after effects. You should be fine.

You must have gone for a helluva run AH. You ran from Gary Indiana to the ocean? Damn!

As others have said, I have also seen (in my limited experience) that air conditions are generally pretty good near the coast. Head inland toward San Bernadino, and you may as well break out the Marlboros.

I have been running in LA since '99. Air quality, in general, is much better in the morning than the evening, and much better at the beach than in the valleys.

I run most often first thing in the morning, and have not had problems then; the 2 or 3 times I have had problems with air quality were all in the afternoon.

LA is a great place to train: 300 days a year of 80 degrees and sunny.

Train anywhere near the beach and you'll be fine. There are also loads of trails in the mountains that surround LA, most people not from here don't even know they exist. From the beach to the mountains...less than one hour (given no traffic screw-ups and not at rush hour). Big Bear is less than 1.5 hours away and you can get to altitude there. Don't live in the Valley, anywhere near Downtown, Pasedena, Riverside area (dreaded and mocked 909). Only problem is that house prices are shocking...my 1800 sq ft townhome, center unit, no garden, 2.5miles from beach, just got appraised at $600,000

You think that's shocking, I lived in 1200 square foot shack in Palo Alto that sold for $750,000

I don't know about the air, but if you're looking for safety in your running, I recommend running in the South Central area. If you focus most of your runs in Compton, you will have nothing to worry about.

South Central is now called South LA; the idiot city council thought it would change it's image and stop the residents shooting each other. A thought though; if you did your sessions on Martin Luther King Blvd. in Compton you could take Chris Rock's advice and "just %@#&ing run, run fast now"!

I live in South Pasadena (San Gabriel Valley, just east of LA), and I'm about to step out for ten miles right now. It's a little before five, about seventy degrees, and the sky's bright blue--same as it was in December ... same as it was in February.

It's amazing how much better the smog's gotten out here over the past thirty years (though the current Administration would like to see that trend reversed).

And I don't know any runners along the coast who consider smog at all when planning their runs (okay, I fess up, there are a few days every year when you don't want to go out after 10AM or before 5PM ... can you handle that?).

Best of luck wherever you end up!!

I grew up in Compton and you had to run with your head on a swivel 35 years ago. It's way worse now. I once set some kind of a PR when I came out of the Lueders Park gym and a car full of brothers pulled up and told me to get my white ass off the street. I ran all the way to Lynwood.

I have bad luck with LA weather. Every time I go down there it rains or is cold and foggy....except for the marathon when it was freakin boiling.

I was down there last weekend and damn near froze my ass off at Venice Beach on Saturday.

I lived in LA (Westwood, relatively close to the beach) and ran every day for 6 years and had no problems with air quality except when I raced XC in Riverside or somewhere inland. Near the beach air quality is absolutely fine, and by "near" I just mean with maybe a 20 mile wide corridor inland from the ocean. There is nowhere to run downtown anyway. Stick to the roads and especially the hilly trails in Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Westwood, etc. and you'll be fine.

If you are even semi-competitive, consider joining one of the many training groups out there. For women See Jane Run (aka The Janes) is a great group... check out their website at

http://www.thejanes.net

.