Running Up For Air – Why These Runners Ran Until They Couldn’t

Running Up For Air – Why These Runners Ran Until They Couldn’t

In the West, we are on the front lines of air pollution. Major western cities like Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Reno regularly rank among the worst in the entire country for particle and ozone pollution. 
The people who live in our region are noticing.
The Running Up for Air race series is an event that challenges participants to put their fitness endurance to the test in the name of air quality.
The event began on Grandeur Peak in the Wasatch Mountains above Salt Lake City. Participants ran up the peak, overlooking the pollution from over 8,000 ft above sea level. In the winter the smog above the Wasatch front is often some of the worst in the country. During the race runners got first-hand experience with the poor air quality of their home as they ran up above the air pollution and then descend back into it.
…
Now the event has spread to several areas across the West. It raises awareness and money for air pollution in key cities. 
WRA was present to help crew one of the sponsored events run by Suffer Better in Staunton State Park, Colorado.
On this episode of Two Degrees Out West – Why air pollution is a crisis in the West, the runners that were inspired to run until they couldn't in the name of addressing air pollution, and how you can add your voice to the fight for clean air.

Learn more below!

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2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.
 
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Transcript

In the West, we are on the front lines of air pollution. Major cities like Denver, Reno, Phoenix, or Salt Lake City regularly have some of the worst particle and ozone pollution in the country. The people of the West are noticing the running up for Air Race series is an event that challenges participants to put their fitness and endurance to the test in the name of air quality event began on Grandeur Peak in the Wasatch Mountains above Salt Lake City.

Participants ran at the peak overlooking the pollution from 8,000 feet above sea level in the winter. The smog on the Wasatch front often is some of the worst in the country, and the runners got a firsthand experience if they ran above the air pollution and then backed down into it. During the raise, runners got a firsthand experience with poor air quality in their home as they ran above the air pollution and then had to descend back down into it.

Now the event has spread to several areas across the west. It raises awareness and money for air pollution in key cities. I got to visit, photograph and help crew. One of the sponsored events run by Suffer Better in Staton State Park, Colorado. On this episode of Two Degrees Out West White Air [00:01:00] pollution is a crisis in the west.

The people motivated to run until they couldn't, and how you can add your voice to the fight for clean air.

Nice. Super pretty out. And yeah, the stars are out, the moon is out. It's really nice. It's cold. Um, but not as cold as you feel like it might be. Should be for February and Colorado. To me, hiking up a mountain at 5:00 AM in the morning. Why am I walking up a trail in February in the dark? Well, I was shooting and recording the running up for Air Endurance Race in Staton State Park, Colorado.

A really big theme of the race this year is a lot of the runners are telling me that, uh, they've run this before and this is the best conditions they've ever had, and the best conditions for running is. Dry trails. No water, no ice. The race began at Stones State Park almost 12 hours earlier on the previous day at 6:00 PM The biggest, uh, overnight group we've had since [00:02:00] we started craziness.

Nine, nine years ago, we started doing Rupa in Hurry, Colorado. The race was broken down into several categories. Runners could run for 24, 12, or six hours straight. The earliest runners began at six on Friday night. We were there to crew capture and support. This is Peter Downing. So I'm Peter Downing. I'm the executive director of Suffer Better, which is the local nonprofit, and I'm also the race director for running up for Air and for, uh, the other races that suffer Better puts on Suffer Better is a, a local nonprofit.

Like I said, we're based here in Colorado, and which my partner Bob and I started 12 years ago. All about getting trail runners to appreciate where they get to go and to give back. So all of our races are focused on environmental issues and they're fundraisers for whatever those are. Peter is about to send these runners on a 24 hour endurance mission and support [00:03:00] of clean air.

Yeah. When you look outside and you realize it's 60 degrees in February, you know, we have issues, so that's why we do this. So, um. Thank you for stepping up for all of that. Rufa or running a rear has a long history. It began in Salt Lake City in 2012 with Jared Campbell, who did it by himself the first year.

Um, and then slowly picked up some steam, and then us and Tara, who does the race in Ogden, we started doing them in 2017. And now there are nine of them, I think, um, in the states, all in the west. So tell me, tell me about the, the i the rationale behind running up for air. What is the story of it? The goal was, Jared started it because he lives in Salt Lake, which just has horrific inversions and the air is, I remember last year when we were doing this, it was literally.

Rated as the worst air in the world last [00:04:00] year about this time. So Jared, who lives in Salt Lake, is an incredibly thoughtful, environmentally conscious man, um, and a runner. And so he just decided when it was that bad to run up and down grandeur peak, just outside of Salt Lake as many times as he could to draw awareness to the air quality issue.

The West regularly ranks highest in the country, both in terms of ozone and particle pollution. Salt Lake City and Denver are both on the front lines of the fight against air pollution in the West. According to the American Lung Association, nearly half of US residents lived in places that had unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution in 2025.

That most recent report was the worst report in over a decade. According to doctors and health experts across the globe, particle and ozone pollution is known to cause premature death, asthma, cancer, heart attacks, and birth defect. But, uh, the whole goal is to draw awareness to it and raise money, uh, for.

Mostly local causes. So each of us focuses on a, a [00:05:00] local environmental organization that we raise the money for. Running up for air is the race we do in the winter, and it's a timed event. You run a seven mile loop as many times as you can over that. Um, we do both of them at Stanton State Park. So our fall runs are raising money for public lands and waters and, uh, we do a 5K, 20 5K, and a 50 k.

And we include a fly fishing division in the 20 5K, which is hilarious here. As a winter race, normally runners have to tend with snow and ice throughout the course. In Stanton this year, that wasn't the case. Colorado ended up having its worst winter on record. Large portions of the trail were completely dry, and most of the snow and ice was completely avoidable.

Even above 9,000 feet course is in amazing shape. I've never seen it like this. In February, it's mostly dry, which is mind boggling. Of course we were just talking about this. There are a couple of skating rinks that are short. Um, just pay attention. You're [00:06:00] also going to beat the volunteers up to the aid station up top, so they're hoofing it.

So just make sure you know where you're going. So I'm just gonna run through it super fast. You go up from here up old mill. At the mill itself, there's a bunch of arrows and signs. You turn right onto the, give you an idea. The course ends up being about 1500 vertical feet over seven miles. On each lap, the runners told me, and I confirmed that the beginning was the hardest part.

According to the annual state of the Rockies voter survey, over 82% of Westerners can consider air pollution to be a serious problem. Notably, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona residents in particular see it as a problem. Roof of runners certainly seemed to be among those concerned. Before they set off, I asked some of the participants what inspired them to do this race.

So my name is Linda. Um, my relationship to running is I started running when I was 17, when my parents divorced and haven't stopped, read the book, born to Run, got inspired to do Leadville [00:07:00] 100, which was my first ever ultra and haven't stopped. Linda is a very experienced runner and is about to disembark on the 24 hours I.

As much as she loves running, she says that she has a different reason for being at this race in particular. So I have four friends and I should say I, I have one friend with lung cancer, one who beat lung cancer and two who succumbed to lung cancer. All four were runners in Colorado and none of them were smokers.

Oh man, that is heavy stuff's. Yeah, there's gotta be a correlation. I am sure air quality has a lot to do with it. Um, cancer among women is up 20% women who don't smoke and they're starting to link it with air quality. So it's, it's a health issue as long as a environmental issue. Linda wasn't the only runner that said air quality was a really big concern.

Joni Watkins: My name is Joni Watkins. [00:08:00] Uh, I run a lot. Uh, or hike a lot. Running is life. It, you know, keeps me balanced, keeps me moving, and it's great for my mental health. 

Dave Papineau (Host): Thank you. 

Joni Watkins: I like this race because it definitely has kind of like a low key like community vibe. And I also like that we, we are. Uh, dedicating ourselves to something that matters, something that's productive, um, you know, it's fine.

Just go for a run for yourself. But sometimes it's good to go for a run for other things and to raise awareness, and we're raising awareness for clean air and, um, yeah, how to, how to ensure, uh, the great outdoors are still here and fresh and clean for future generation, 

Dave Papineau (Host): according to that same 2025 American Leg Association survey.

That we mentioned earlier in the podcast, the US air quality is getting worse. 25 million more people were exposed to unhealthy air compared to last year. 

Joni Watkins: Yeah, so I actually have lived in Colorado's. Since the nineties and um, although I was a kid then and my awareness was lower, uh, I can tell you it [00:09:00] has changed a lot just in the last 30 years.

Um, and a lot of this is due to inversions, but a lot of days you'll see the brown clouds sitting down over the city and it's quite honestly disgusting. And then when we don't have those inversion, weather, weather patterns, it's still there. Um, it's just not sitting as low, but you know. I have seen remarkable changes in my 30 years just from being in the wilderness all of that time.

Dave Papineau (Host): Uh, and do you think it's getting worse or getting better? 

Joni Watkins: Oh, it's definitely getting worse. 

Dave Papineau (Host): Peter was particularly concerned about recent news from Colorado that highlights the severity of the situation. It's even more challenging now at this current environment 'cause. We've got the federal government telling us to restart a coal plant that was already scheduled to shut down.

And it's just insane to me that they don't get it. And, um, so, and we have health issues that all come from that. And, uh, anything we can do, we should do. Craig won is a coal power plant near [00:10:00] Craig, Colorado for nearly a decade. The utility and local community and regulators have been planning for its closure at the end of 2025.

An illegally flimsy move, the Trump administration ordered it to remain open. The move is expensive for Coloradans costing us as much as $84.7 million annually, but worse, it furthers air pollution in our wild spaces. A large part of the utilities rationale behind closing Craig one was reducing air pollution in places like Rocky Mountain National Park.

As of recording, Craig won, has been offline since December 19th, 2025, due to a mechanical failure, unrelated to its planned closure. It is unclear how or if the plant will even operate going forward. You can listen to our episode on this issue, link in the show notes to learn more. And fighting for clean air in the West is exactly why WA is at Ruo wa a's marketing communications director.

Christy Silverstein was excited to participate this year. I really hope 

Christie Silverstien : I be 

Dave Papineau (Host): yelling those numbers. Christy, tell me about how you're feeling before your raise. Oh no. 

Christie Silverstien : Well, it started really soon, so I'm getting a little bit anxious 'cause I like to [00:11:00] be prepped and ready and I really hope this doesn't leak.

Dave Papineau (Host): Christie and several other WRA staff all participated in the six hour segment. Brendan WA policy advisor on W'S Western Land team and former podcast host was also running. Brendan, how do you feel? 

Brendan Witt: How do I feel? Yeah. 

Dave Papineau (Host): How long are you running for? 

Brendan Witt: Uh, well, running is a subjective term when I'm trail running.

Um. But I think we're, well, the, uh, the memo, Mr. Cress just walked away, but I think our plan is to try and do 14 miles today, so two laps within the timeframe. We'll see how it goes. 

Dave Papineau (Host): In my 25 years in Colorado, catastrophic wildfire has been a serious impact on the places that I live. The Marshall Fire, Cameron, Pete, east Troublesome Haman, and four 16 fires have all uncontrollably burned places that I love.

Wildfire is a real impact on the air quality in my home every summer. In 2019, the Decker fire got very close to my hometown in Salida. Brendan Witt works to help the West [00:12:00] consider and plan for the impacts of catastrophic fire. I caught him before his race and he said air quality and wildfire are very much linked.

Brendan Witt: Well, I mean, with some of our worst air pollution days come when catastrophic wildfires around the West or in Canada, largely driven by climate change, are emitting tons of wildfire smoke and wildfire smoke we know is not always just wood smoke and, and, uh, the. PM 2.5 that comes from burning, you know, fuels and, and forest materials.

But often, you know, really hazardous materials that come if communities, uh, see impacts. So, you know, God forbid somebody loses their home, uh, those emissions are much more toxic. We know from the American Lung Association and their research into the toxicity of smoke, wildfire can be a whole bunch of gross stuff that we're breathing in and it flows and has impacts.

You know, miles and miles away from where that fire is located, that compounds on top of the ozone emissions, the P 2.5, that comes from burning fossil fuels out of our cars. And so the more that we reduce our emissions and improve [00:13:00] our air quality outside of wildfire season, the better we are able to to weather those times when we have really high smoke impacts.

Dave Papineau (Host): One of the ways to prevent these kinds of disasters is controlled prescribed fire to strategically eliminate dangerous fuel load to help lessen the impacts of catastrophic wildfire in the west. The benefits of prescribed fire are well documented, but concerns over liability often keep qualified burn bosses, the people who are trained to manage prescribed burns from using this critical tool.

That's why in 2025, WRA and Brendan worked to establish a prescribed fire claims fund via Senate bill oh oh seven in the Colorado State legislature. The bill established a $250,000 claims fund to be used in case one of these approved prescribed burns was ever to grow out of control and damaged personal property.

Similar legislation has been seen as an effective strategy to help increase the safe and ecologically restorative use of prescribed fire in other states with similar wildfire rates. This extra layer of security encourages more frequent use of the critical tool helping prevent and mitigate severe fire.

Before too long, Brendan and Christie segments of the [00:14:00] race began.

Don't feel. Thank you. 

Christie Silverstien : IO two split pace. 18 minutes. Five more to go. Climbed up about 870 feet so far. This is incredible.

Oh, almost three miles in pretty good pace. I had to stop for this view. Alright, four miles in, still about 20 miles off for 20 minutes a mile because the views are amazing. It's a little bit of ice, some uphill downhill trying to avoid some other people around the trail. Two more miles. Seven two mile pace for that one.

See you soon. Alright. Mile six. One more mile to go. This right here, 

Dave Papineau (Host): when [00:15:00] it comes to dirty air, all the raisers thought it was time for states and local governments to do something about it. Even if the federal. And has turned its back on action to clean up air in the west. I would like to see more passion, more people committed, more people involved.

I think it's more of a grassroots effort. The news gets out there and people understand it, and people are impacted by it. Then it becomes more, more pa people become more passionate about it. 

Joni Watkins: Um, I'd like to make sure that we're keeping, um, industries and companies in line, um, especially those in, uh, commerce City to be particular.

And I wanna make sure that, um, we have leaders who are progressive and thinking about the future and not just thinking about how to make money. Now. 

Dave Papineau (Host): Um, I know that in, in many instances, um, these big companies are. Are gonna do what they're gonna do. And, and it's people like, um, Western Resource Advocates, um, that [00:16:00] help us get our voice across to them.

And so, on the personal level, I feel like carpooling is one of the things that I can do, but I can also contribute to these different organizations that help amplify my voice and my message. WRA is working on the state level to implement solutions like this. Us. I chatted with Christie to talk about her race and what WRA is doing to fight for clean air in the West.

Like it's definitely not an easy thing to run an elevation and run continuous laps. Like that's That's rough. 

Christie Silverstien : Absolutely. It was way harder than I was expecting. Coming from Arizona, I realized that the elevation was gonna be tough for me even being used to hiking with an 800 foot elevation, and it was already hard for me to breathe.

When we started at 8,000 feet, 

Dave Papineau (Host): what is your relationship to running and why did you participate in Rufa? 

Christie Silverstien : I am a lifelong runner, so starting from my first 5K race when I was eight years old, to running my first marathon on an [00:17:00] extremely rainy day in Miami, in my mid twenties. So with WRA sponsoring the event, it only made sense to participate and try out the six hour option to get to experience the race as a participant, 

Dave Papineau (Host): you are a marketing communications director.

You've worked for an environmental nonprofit. Why do you work in climate advocacy? Like what motivates you to to do this work? 

Christie Silverstien : I do this work because I want our future generations to be able to breathe clean air, visit amazing landscapes in the west, and ensure that there's water for all of us to survive.

I have two really active boys who love to spend time outdoors and with the temperatures already hitting triple digits in Phoenix in March. That means they can't spend long weekend afternoons playing at the local park because it's too hot to even be outside. WRA is driving state level advocacy, fighting for policies that will improve our air quality and protect our land and water along with it.

Our air pollution solutions aren't confined to a single industry. [00:18:00] We are tactfully and tenaciously targeting all the different sources of the problem and ensuring meaningful emissions reductions in the west. So take for example, last year in Colorado, WRA helped pass Senate Bill 2030, which created a fee on the production for oil and gas, making sure the industry is helping pay for all the impacts that it's causing.

The resulting fee revenue allows the state to remediate some of the environmental harm caused by the oil and gas industry's production. So this new funding enhances both ecosystems that help clean our air and the public transit infrastructure that will help get more cars off the road. So a total win-win to help reduce air pollution.

And then this year we're working on a bill that would create a circular economy for electric vehicle batteries. So these EV batteries would be recycled or repurposed instead of going into landfills and using our precious natural resources to make new [00:19:00] batteries. So this is a great way to ensure that electrifying the transportation sector doesn't create any emissions or strain on our environment and data centers.

So in the, just the past few short years, artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life. Every time you send a message stream a video. Search online or use a smart tool. Massive data centers are working behind the scenes to make it all possible, but here's what most people don't see, right?

These enormous facilities run 24 7 and consume staggering amounts of electricity and millions of gallons of water each year. So left unaddressed data centers, loads threatened Western states, air quality, climate, and water supplies. So our experts at WRA analyzed the impacts of this increased energy and water demands from projected data centers in our region, and then compiled a report that identified a list of policies that would protect our natural resources and our [00:20:00] communities and ensure we don't continue our reliance on dirty fossil fuels.

Dave Papineau (Host): The West is an air quality crisis. The data doesn't lie about that, and it's something the roof of runners knew as lived truth. Even as I'm recording this, an unseasonably early wildfire burns uncontrolled in Fremont County near where I live in Denver. Wildfires and dust storms are currently impacting the air quality index.

The good news is that states like Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah have the power to fight back against dirty air. We've gotten winds and made progress before. That means we can do it again. That's the kind of progress that WRA drives its legislative session. Marches forward in the west. Now is the time for legislators to take action on behalf of their constituents.

It's clear that Westerners are worried about what air quality means for their health, and we all deserve better. The health impacts, the climate impacts and the costs of expensive fossil fuels have all been salient for Westerners. If you wanna take action on this today, you can click the petition link in the show notes and tell your state leadership to take action on air quality in the West.[00:21:00] 

Lastly, we'd like to thank our sponsors who enable our work in the West. Our champion sponsor is First Bank. Our signature sponsors are Denver Water Torch, clean Energy, Scarpa, goco, and Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. Our supporting partners are BSW Wealth Partners, Meridian Public Affairs Group 14, engineering and Kind Design.

Thank you for listening.