The Up For Air Series brings endurance athletes together to celebrate a shared passion for running, amplify informed dialogue about air quality issues, and support organizations that are working toward solutions. RUFA strives for a minimal footprint on the trails but maximal impact on the nonprofits fighting for cleaner air in our communities.
Running Up For Air – Moab is the newest! Unique in the Series, the 2nd annual will be on April 5. 2005, springtime in the desert, so participants can expect sunshine and dry rock. It is also a short but steep course, allowing people to see other and socialize regularly, with refreshments and support close at hand. Participants will challenge themselves in one of the 3, 6, or 12 hour timed events, completing as many laps of the looped course as possible in the allotted time.
Starting at the Moab Rim Trailhead, participants will hike or run up the Stairmaster Trail, to reveal an expansive view of the Moab valley and the snowy La Sal mountains in the background. Stairmaster is a rocky singletrack, gaining 890 feet in .95 miles. They immediately turn around and descend the nearby Moab Rim Trail, which is a 4WD track on pure slickrock, the bare sandstone Moab is renowned for. This is the exact same distance so is equally steep; RUFA Moab is an excellent course to see how much vertical gain you can accomplish in a set time.
The course is open to others, and race entrants do not have any right-of-way, so please be respectful and courteous to all other users. By descending a different route, participants can go as fast or slow as they like and not get in each others way. Jeeps may be slowly grinding up the Moab Rim Trail, but they are moving slower than you, the track is quite wide, so they can be readily avoided.
50% of the proceeds from RUFA Moab will go to RUFA Inc, and 50% will be given to Youth Garden Project, a Moab 501(C)3 that engages high school students in a beautiful organic garden on school grounds, and provides weekly free dinners for the community, prepared from the garden. Have faith: your entry fee will be put to very good use! When you collect donations for your fundraiser, donors will be able to choose if they want their donation to go to the Youth Garden Project, Clean Air Utah, or the Running Up.
