At Runners for Public Lands (RPL), our mission is to empower runners to protect public lands and ensure that everyone has access to healthy, runnable landscapes. That mission recently took us to the national stage, where we submitted formal comments [LINK] to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA is considering whether to weaken or even roll back the 2009 Endangerment Finding—the scientific and legal determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. This finding is the foundation that allows the EPA to act on climate pollution. Without it, the protections that make running safe and possible would be stripped away.
We spoke up because the realities of climate change are already colliding with the running world. Just last summer, the Cascades 100 ultramarathon in Oregon had to be halted mid-race when wildfire smoke from the Flat Fire pushed air quality into the “hazardous” range, leaving runners gasping for breath. In Minnesota, organizers canceled the Twin Cities Marathon and a companion 10-mile race because extreme heat and humidity made it unsafe to run. And in the Sierra Nevada, the famed Western States 100 was canceled for the first time in its 35-year history in 2008 when wildfire smoke blanketed Northern California. These events show that climate change is not a distant problem—it is shaping whether and how we can gather as a community to run.
The impacts reach beyond canceled races. In the Pacific Northwest, floods have repeatedly destroyed trails and access roads in national parks, including a storm that washed out large portions of Mount Rainier’s infrastructure. On the Olympic Peninsula, landslides closed the only road to the Hoh Rain Forest, cutting off access to a beloved landscape for months. In Arizona, record-setting temperatures have forced organizers of Pat’s Run in Tempe to expand medical support and hydration systems to protect participants. And in Nevada, summer races face an escalating risk as the number of “danger days”—when the heat index soars above 105 degrees—continues to climb. These are the landscapes we depend on for health, recreation, and community, and they are already being reshaped by a warming climate.
For runners, the stakes are particularly high. We spend extended hours outdoors, often breathing harder and deeper than the average person. That means polluted air, ozone smog, and wildfire smoke penetrate our lungs more fully, amplifying health risks. What might be a mild irritation for someone walking their dog can become a dangerous trigger for asthma, heat stress, or respiratory injury for a runner training on the same day. And when races are canceled or trails closed, the ripple effects spread through entire communities. Hotels, restaurants, gear shops, and guiding services in gateway towns lose income, and local economies that depend on outdoor recreation take a hit.
This is why RPL submitted comments to the EPA. We wanted the agency to hear directly from runners: our community is on the front lines of climate change. Protecting the Endangerment Finding is about more than abstract policy. It’s about defending the air we breathe on long runs through the city, preserving the trails we cherish in our national forests and parks, and sustaining the small towns that welcome us for races and adventures. Rolling back these protections would not only endanger runners’ health but also deepen inequities, since underserved communities already bear the heaviest burdens of polluted air and lack of safe outdoor spaces.
Runners are the largest outdoor recreation groups in the country. By submitting comments, we are making sure our voices are heard alongside those of hunters, anglers, and other recreation communities. We know the joy of an early morning trail run, the collective spirit of a finish line, and the solace of moving freely through open landscapes. These experiences depend on clean air, stable climates, and resilient public lands. RPL will continue to advocate for these protections, but the story is bigger than us. It belongs to every runner who goes outside.
RPL spoke up to the EPA because running connects us to health, nature, and community. Protecting the Endangerment Finding means protecting that connection—for ourselves, for future generations, and for all the places we love to run.