Sarah Hodder, Katie Thompson, and Mercedes Walters (ages 31, 32, and 32, respectively) are all ultrarunners who live near the area. They decided running the pipeline route was a considerate way to protest its existence and impact on local communities.
“In doing so, our team hopes to raise awareness of the deleterious impacts of the pipeline and tell the stories of those people whose lives are so negatively impacted by its construction,” Walters said.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline runs 303 miles through Southwest Virginia up through West Virginia, across 17 counties; over 1,000 waterways; and dozens of wilderness areas, parks, and forests. Portions of it also lie on ancestral