Smoke puts damper on summer

Joy Keith, 35, has spent much of the year training for the Donner Lake Triathlon. Her normal route is to ride up Kings Canyon to prepare for the biking portion of the race up Donner Summit.

"It has such a hard climb on the biking section you have to train pretty hard," she said.

But because of the smoke, she hasn't been able to keep up her training regimen and was considering pulling out of the race. But she found out Thursday night she didn't have to.

For the first time in the 26 years since it started, the Donner Lake Triathlon, scheduled for today, was canceled because of the smoke and ash drifting in from the unprecedented number of wildfires burning in California.

David Miramontes, president of A Change of Pace, the company that puts on the triathlon, said it was not an easy call.

In an e-mail to participants, he wrote: "This has been an agonizing decision for us to

make. The health and safety of our participants is the paramount factor in every decision and we truly feel it is in your best interest to cancel the triathlon."

He said his event management production company staff closely monitored weather

conditions in Truckee, Calif., for several days. He said that at the beginning of the week, smoke was typically clearing out in the morning hours then settling in during the afternoon.

On Thursday, however, the weather pattern shifted, trapping smoke and ash in the air in the morning. He said health officials cautioned them against moving forward with the race.

"It's extremely dangerous," Miramontes explained. "You've got small particles lodging in your lungs that could possibly cause health problems in the future."

He said officials from the Air Quality Board and U.S. Forest Service advised against the race, but the "last straw" came when he heard a cyclist training for the event up Donner Summit on Thursday ended up in the hospital.

"The service we're providing is a health and fitness event and we'd be contradicting that," he said.

It was the latest of a series of sporting events to be canceled due to fire or smoke, including the Western States Endurance Run on June 27-28, a mountain bike race at Northstar in Truckee on July 10 and the upcoming Tevis Cup horse ride in Auburn, Calif.

Keith, who along with her husband, Scott, owns Fleet Feet in Carson City, said it has been hard on her family that usually spends a lot of time outside during the summer.

"It stinks to be indoors this time of year," she said. "We're usually out biking and running every other day."

She said she's tried to compensate with weight-training classes at the gym and riding the stationary bike. However, she can't bring herself to run on the treadmill.

"It's just too boring," she said.

She usually takes her three kids up to Lake Tahoe about three times a week to swim and bike and run, she said. This year, they've only been once. And they were the only ones at Cave Rock for five hours.

"It was pitiful," she said. "We haven't been able to go since."

Instead, they've been going to the public pools in Carson City and Douglas County.

On Friday, they found reprieve at the local Dairy Queen.

According to the spokesman for the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, the healthful range of air quality is at 35 micrograms per cubic meter. On Friday, the measurements averaged 90.

"With the readings being that high, the general caution is people with respiratory problems or at high risk to stay indoors and run the air conditioning," the department noted in a statement.

- Contact reporter Teri Vance at tvance@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1272.