It’s not easy to breathe when you’re running up a mountain. If you live in a valley with winter inversion, it’s even harder.
Last week, over 100 runners ascended up and down Mount Sentinel in Missoula as many times as they could — to raise awareness about poor air quality, and to raise money to try to fix it.
“The course is snowy, if you haven’t guessed that already!” Jeff Mogavaro says
It’s 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Mogavero stands next to a speaker addressing a small crowd of runners gathered around a tent at the University of Montana’s M trail parking lot. Many runners strap on microspikes, and everyone has trekking poles to navigate through the calf-deep snow. Along with headlamps, since the sun won’t be up for a while.
“Course changes, if you’ve run RUFA in the past, we are not doing the switchback with the hibernating bear. We’d love to but we’re going to let him sleep,” Mogavaro says.
Mogavero created Missoula’s Running Up for Air Race, often referred to as RUFA. This is the race’s fifth year. The concept of running up and down a mountain to raise awareness of poor air quality first started in Salt Lake City, and there are now seven RUFA races across four states in the West.
For the next 12 hours, the runners climbed up Mount Sentinel and back as many times as they could. They were joined by six-hour runners at noon, and three-hour runners at 3 p.m.
The topography of much of Western Montana creates winter inversion, where colder air gets trapped in the valley under a layer of warm air and it sits there. Missoula’s especially prone to these events.
Inversion locks in air pollutants that are harmful to human health. Emissions from homes and cars worsen air quality during inversions and contribute to climate change.
These winter inversions, coupled with longer periods of smoke from worsening wildfire seasons means many Montanans face poor air quality days year round.
The RUFA races raise awareness of air quality issues and raise funds for local groups that work on improving air quality.
“In the broader fight against climate change, oftentimes I feel like I don't know what to do,” Devin Streur says.
Streur participated in RUFA for the first time this year, and got the most donations of any runner before race day. His birthday was in January and he sent his fundraising link to any friends and family that texted him 'happy birthday.'
“I love it. It's actually probably more fun than the training, is raising money and talking about clean air and what the purpose of this is and really getting my friends and family invested in on board,” Streur says.
Climate Smart Missoula gets the funds raised from this race. The group works to address climate change and mitigate the negative effects people are already experiencing, like by providing portable air filters to people during smoke season. Most of the organization's staff also participate in RUFA,
“Every lap you do is $6 for Climate Smart Missoula. So you can’t stop doing laps. And if you’re tired, you’ve just got to keep going,” Mogavaro says.
Climate Smart’s Executive Director Amy Cilimburg ran the 12 hour race and cautioned fellow runners to be careful in the deep snow.
This year was the first time the race had snow from top to bottom. Runner Will Rice said it made for an interesting descent.
“You definitely feel like … like I'm feeling pretty steady on my feet. And then all of a sudden you're like, woosh. And it was just like, eat it. Yeah, a lot of that,” Rice says.
The highest lap count in the 12-hour race was 12, averaging about a lap per hour. Streur competed in the 6-hour race, getting seven laps done in that time and managed to raise more than $1,200.
“This is really a great way that I can feel like I'm making a contribution that helps people,” Streur says. “And it's not world changing, but it's local and it's my community where I live, where I run. And that's, that's a good place to start.”
