By Jennifer Pirtle

 

Dan Houston, 49, occasionally suffered from hay fever, yet his allergies never affected his ability to run. That changed in July 2004 when he began having trouble breathing during a routine six-miler. "My lungs felt like I was inhaling very cold air in the middle of winter," says Houston, a department manager for a machinery manufacturer in York County, South Carolina. Houston struggled to run that summer and the next. "It was hard to justify taking medication just so I could run," he says. "But finally I decided that exercise was important enough to me to seek help."

Houston's doctor diagnosed him with exercise-induced asthma (EIA), a condition in which exercise triggers coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. (Chronic asthma is a more serious affliction.) Today, Houston takes two puffs from his inhaler about 10 minutes before he works out and can, on most days, run without gasping.

EIA and hay fever (or allergic rhinitis) are the two most common respiratory conditions that affect runners, and they often go undiag-nosed and untreated. But as Houston found, it only takes a little effort to manage your symptoms so they don't slow you down.