PTRA Response to UTMB Mobility Plan

The Pro Trail Runners Association issued a statement in response to UTMB’s Mobility Plan and Environmental Commitments announcement:

We support the UTMB’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their main event in Chamonix, which serves as a proof-of-concept for their global series. While we are not in accordance with all of the specific actions proposed, we acknowledge and support the planned measures aiming at reducing CO2 emissions caused by travel and by the event itself.

First off, the PTRA calls UTMB’s announcement a ‘travel policy’, which in it of itself is a big tell from what angle they are approaching this. And I am not dissing them here at all. Looking at the policies UTMB puts forth and checking on how these affect the runners is their stated goal.

The PTRA points to a few things that they wish for UTMB to clarify, with the main focus being the angle of accessiblity:

Further work needs to be done to attempt to reconcile the reduction of emissions and environmental impact, while still ensuring accessibility and inclusivity.

I took a brief look at the PTRA’s document titled ‘Environmental Boundaries for Trail Running Competitions‘ to see if I could find any comments around traveling to events, which surprised me a bit as it’s well-known that participant travel is the biggest “issue” when looking at the carbon impact for sporting events.