I started road racing about four years ago in Nashville, TN at the Rock n’ Roll 1/2 marathon. Along the way I was awestruck at the people cheering, the volunteers, the music, and of course, the amount of waste thousands of runners can generate. There were gu packets, plastic cups, emergency blankets, tossed aside clothing, etc., everywhere I looked. The common practice is to ingest your gu, and throw the wrapper on the ground. Do you think about what happens to the wrapper after that? Maybe a volunteer cleans it up? Maybe it stays there for the city to come through on street cleaning days?

Over the past four years, though, I’ve noticed a considerable effort in the running and racing community to clean up their races and decrease the millions of footsteps along each race course. In the 2008 ING NYC Marathon, 38,000 people ran through the city, and thousands more came out to watch, volunteer, and cheer. The race was fantastic, but the clean up effort afterward, monstrous.

With more and more people participating in distance road races, it’s crucial to nod towards greening our races. More and more distance races are becoming Green Certified through the Council for Responsible Sport. Last year, the Nike Women’s Marathon organizers took steps to help make the race more environmentally friendly. In 2009, the race will be run as an official green marathon. Here are some highlights from last year’s race:

  • Biodegradable postcards containing seeds were handed out at the Expotique
  • Temporary restrooms contained environmentally friendly soap and toilet paper made from recycled content
  • Event staff and volunteers were bused to the event to reduce vehicle usage
  • A bike valet was provided for runners
  • A no idling policy for race transportation was enforced to help reduce emissions
  • Three tons of cardboard from on-course aid stations was recycled
  • Four cubic yards of heatsheets (those silvery blankets provided at the finish) were recycled
  • Wherever possible, compostable cups and spoons were used
  • Unused food and discarded clothing were donated to charity
  • Age group awards included bags made from banners and collateral from the 2007 NWM
  • The Reuse-A-Shoe program was promoted, which takes used shoes and recycles them into material used in sport

As runners, we depend on fresh air, clean trails and streets, quality water, and healthy food in order to keep running. My good friends and fellow runners, Emily and Joe will be traveling to India for a few months this summer and I’ve had plenty of conversations with them about how they’re going to cope with not being able to run outdoors. They’ll certainly enjoy their time in India, but will have to go through some adjustments through this brief shift in the way they train. I have been continually blessed with beautiful, clean, and healthy places to run, and I feel a strong obligation to preserving these environments. There’s a lot that we can do as runners to make sure we’ll always have a place to run, and it can start by finding green races nearby your home town (so you can minimize your travel footprint as well as save money). Check out Runner’s World’s guide to Green Running and breath deep whil you enjoy your summer training!