北京国际马拉松成了有毒霾拉松

The 34th Beijing International Marathon has acquired a new name among some disappointed participants: Smogathon.

第34届北京国际马拉松赛有了新名称，一些感到沮丧的选手称之为：霾拉松。

About 30,000 runners, many from other parts of China or abroad, awoke in the Chinese capital on Sunday to an orange sun glowing weakly through a dirty haze.

周日，大约三万名选手——其中许多来自中国其他地区及国外——在中国首都醒来，太阳透过肮脏的雾霭发出微弱的橙色光芒。

Some ran anyway. Some ran away. But no one canceled on the advice of the organizers, the Chinese Athletic Association and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports, because those organization did not call it off. That sparked calls from participants for the International Association of Athletics Federations, which has approved the 26-mile, or 42-kilometer, race, to set air quality standards in the future to avoid damaging the runners’ health. The association could not be reached by telephone on Sunday.

有的人还是决定参加比赛。有的人放弃了。但即便是放弃也并非出于组织者——中国田径协会及北京市体育局的建议，因为他们没有取消比赛。这促使参与者呼吁国际田联（International Association of Athletics Federations，简称IAAF），也就是核准了这项赛程为26英里（约合42公里）的马拉松赛事的机构，在未来设定空气质量标准，以避免选手健康受到损害。周日，记者无法通过电话与IAAF取得联系。

“Does the IAAF have guidelines?” asked Chas Pope, a British engineer who took part in the marathon on Sunday. “If they don’t, they should consider it,” said Mr. Pope, who has lived in Beijing for 11 years and runs several long-distance races each year.

周日参与马拉松比赛的英国工程师查斯·波普(Chas Pope)问道，“IAAF有设定标准吗？”他说，“如果没有的话，他们应该考虑一下。”波普在北京生活了11年，每年都会参加几场长跑比赛。

Skeptical that the air on Sunday would be good after what has been a smoggy autumn, Mr. Pope said he had only entered the half-marathon, which was on offer in addition to other, shorter started out wearing a face mask — a common defense against Beijing’s gray air. Then, at the 10-kilometer mark, he took the mask off to see what it was catching. It was dark with dirt.

由于今年秋天雾霾严重，波普对周日的空气质量表示怀疑，他称自己只参加了半程马拉松赛，除了全程比赛外，选手可以选择距离较短的半程比赛。波普带着口罩——抵御北京雾霾的常用品——开始了比赛。在10公里处，他摘下口罩查看，发现口罩已经变黑了。

“It’s meant to be fun and good for your health,” Mr. Pope said of the marathon. But in such air, “it’s just plain ridiculous to be running,” he said. He abandoned the course. “Most of my expat friends pulled out,” he said. “And quite a few of my Chinese friends too, but a lot didn’t. I think they don’t know as much about the health impact.”

波普提到马拉松时说，“参加比赛本来是为了乐趣和身体健康。”但他说，在这样的空气中跑步，“简直太荒谬了”。他放弃了比赛。“大多数外国朋友都退出了比赛，”他说。“少数中国朋友也退出了，但有很多人继续参加比赛。我觉的他们不太了解这种空气对健康的影响。”

Images on Twitter and Chinese social media showed Chinese runners sporting a variety of face protection, from light cloth masks to World War I-style gas masks.

Twitter及中国社交媒体上的图像显示，中国的选手们戴着各种面部保护用品，从轻薄的口罩到第一次世界大战风格的防毒面具。

“Today’s race should definitely have been called off or rescheduled,” said Zhang Kai, Beijing-based campaigner with Greenpeace East Asia.

绿色和平东亚部(Greenpeace East Asia)北京办公室的工作人员张凯说，“今天的比赛明显应该取消，重新安排。”

“What happened today to this iconic sports even is just another reminder to the government that much remains to be done to China’s energy and industrial structure” to solve pollution, said Mr. Zhang. “If the battle against pollution is a marathon, it is now time to catch up on speed.”

张凯说，“这场标志性的体育运动今天遇到的情况，再次提醒中国政府，中国在能源机构及产业结构方面还要做很多工作”才能解决污染问题。“如果对抗污染的斗争是一场马拉松，现在是时候赶上速度了。”

Still, many completed the race without masks, said Chen Mei, a mother of two who finished the 10-kilometer race she entered.

陈梅（音译）表示，很多人在没有戴口罩的情况下完成了比赛。陈梅是两个孩子的母亲，她参加并完成了10公里的比赛。

“For me it wasn’t too bad,” Ms. Chen said “I’m not a person who always wears a face mask.”

“对我来说，不是特别糟糕，”陈梅说，“我不是那种整天戴着口罩的人。”

“I love Beijing, the city, and the pollution and the traffic,” she said. “It’s not Beijing’s fault, it’s everyone’s fault and we should all do something about it. Everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything. Nobody rides a bicycle instead of driving a car. And everyone wants more shops, more cars.”

“我爱北京，这座城市，这里的污染和交通，”她说。“这不是北京的错，这是大家的错，我们应该为此做些事情。大家都在抱怨，没人做点什么。没人放弃开车，骑自行车。大家都想要更多商店，更多汽车。”

Despite air pollution that reached a “severely polluted” score of 444 at a Chinese government air quality monitoring station near the marathon’s starting point on Sunday — an inauspicious number that sounds like the Chinese words for “death death death” — organizers decided not to halt the event on the grounds it would be “too difficult.” The reading represents a compilation of fine particulate matter or PM 2.5; coarser particulate matter, or PM10; and ozone, sulphur, carbon and nitrogen dioxide levels.

周日，尽管中国政府在马拉松起点附近设立的空气质量监控站显示，空气污染指数已经达到了444——“严重污染”的水平，组织者仍决定继续举行比赛，因为取消比赛“难度太大”。444是一个不吉利的数字，中文发音听起来像“死死死”。这个读数是对细颗粒物PM2.5、较粗颗粒物PM10，以及臭氧、硫磺、碳和二氧化氮水平的汇编。

At that pollution level the Chinese government advises: “Outdoor Sports Not Suitable, Avoid Outdoor Activities, Open Windows Not Recommended, Masks Necessary and Air Purifier Necessary.” But instead of following this advice, municipal authorities advised runners to “watch weather conditions” and make a decision about running based on their personal health.

中国政府建议，达到这种污染水平时，“不适合室外运动、避免室外活动、不宜开窗，有必要戴口罩，使用空气净化器。”但北京市相关机构没有遵循这些建议，而是建议参赛选手“注意天气情况”，根据自身健康情况决定是否参赛。

The previous evening, with smog building, the organizers issued a text message alerting runners to the possibility of “light to medium” smog. Runners should drink more water and eat foods that would cause them to spit more, they said.

前一天晚上，随着雾霾的加重，组织者发送信息，提醒参赛选手可能有“轻至中度雾霾”出现。他们称，参赛选手应该多喝水，吃一些清热润燥利咽的食物。

“I’m sure many people dropped out, but I was surprised how many people finished,” Ms. Chen said.

陈梅说，“我确定有很多人会退出比赛，但最后完成比赛的人数让我很意外。”

“I saw a lot of young people running and I remembered how when I ran it once before a lot of young people dropped out,” she said. “You know, Chinese people didn’t use to have very strong physiques, but that’s really getting better.”

“我看到很多年轻人在跑，我记得自己之前参加比赛时，很多年轻人都退出了，”她说。“大家都知道，中国人过去体格不是很强壮，但现在真的有所改善。”

In the end, the race was won by two Ethiopians: Girmay Birhanu Gebru won the men’s race in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 42 seconds while Fatuma Sado Dergo won the women’s in 2 hours, 30 minutes and 3 seconds, breaking Chinese women’s dominance of the race for the last 22 years.

最终，两名埃塞俄比亚人夺冠：吉尔梅·比尔哈努·格布鲁(Girmay Birhanu Gebru)以2小时10分42秒获得男子组冠军，法图马·萨多·杰尔戈(Fatuma Sado Dergo)以2小时30分03秒获得女子组冠军，打破了中国女子选手过去22年在比赛中一统天下的局面。

The favored Chinese woman runner, Gong Lihua, told China News Net that the smog didn’t affect her too much but it interfered with many people’s ability to sweat, affecting their performance.

赛前被看好的中国女选手宫丽华告诉中国新闻网，雾霾对她的影响不大，但这种天气导致很多人排汗不畅，因此影响了他们的成绩。

The men’s winner, Mr. Gebru, teold China News Net that he was satisfied with his performance given the adverse conditions.

男子组冠军格布鲁对中国新闻网表示，鉴于天气状况糟糕，他对自己的成绩很满意。

“Being able to run with this result under these weather conditions was not easy,” he said, in remarks translated from the Chinese.

他说：“能在这样的天气中跑出这样的成绩已经很不容易。”