Run, Forrest forest, Run

For those of you who have driven past me lately, in a snowstorm or bitterly cold weather, no, I haven't lost my mind (that happened long ago!). I have been in training for a half-marathon.

Now, I'm using the word "training" very loosely here, because the amount of training that I have been getting in has been rather limited. The amount of excuses I can dream up to avoid running, that has increased tenfold.

I must, say, however, with my limited amount of training I sure wasn't burning up too many kilowatt hours on the treadmill! Score one for the environment there!

Alas, the day of reckoning arrived this past Sunday - race day! I packed up the family and headed over to Sudbury so that I could test my mettle in the Hypothermic Half. They call it hypothermic for good reason - it's February, wintertime, Northern Ontario...need I say more?!

I woke up Sunday morning to a balmy -17 Celsius - the sun was shining and there was no wind, so it really was balmy compared to the weather of late. I dressed in layers of technical materials - yikes! All that polyester! Not an organic cotton item to be found on my body (by the way, cotton and cold can kill - really). So far, my environmental impact wasn't so good - not to mention the 2 hour drive to the city, the hotel stay (with a pool no less - gotta entertain the kiddies somehow) - at this point I had already left a huge environmental footprint.

I arrived at the starting line, wearing my race number (trees), held on with safety pins (metal), that I took out of my race kit (plastic bag, advertising mags- more trees - our poor forests are taking a beating because of my running). Uh-oh, definitely not doing well. My race kit also contained my running hat and gloves that were part of the race "swag". They were enclosed in a plastic box, which was wrapped in a (non-recycled) cardboard sleeve. That's excessive packaging for sure.

Throughout the race course there were water stations, with water and Gatorade served in, you guessed it, Styrofoam cups. Yes, I drank water, and unhappily tossed the cups.

I had a great run, and chatted merrily the whole way with a friend, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the nice weather and great conversation. When I got to the finish line, I received, as did each participant, a finisher's medal. It was nice to see the medal was not inscribed with a year, so any excess could be used again, and it was only the ribbon that was imprinted with a 2009.

It's funny, how we perceive running to be a great form of exercise with little environmental impact. After all, we aren't using anything motorized, no excessive gear, and it is part of a healthy lifestyle. But it still does have an impact on the environment, and we need to work on ways to lessen it.

Post-race, I realized that there were several things that I could have done to help lessen my impact from taking part in this half-marathon. (I certainly didn't come up with anything pre- and mid-race, as I was just focused on finishing the darn thing without any major injuries and with as little pain as possible.)

• buy recycled polyester clothing (available at Mountain Equipment Coop and other outdoor retailers - this one I have done; check!)


• better yet, buy used clothing from thrift stores, yard sales, and eBay (check!)


• carpool to races (check!)


• carry a run belt with water bottles to avoid cups at the water stations


• better yet, ask race organizers beforehand if they will have forest-friendly cups from recycled or lower-impact materials - read the article at iRun on this!


• reuse race number safety pins (check!) or get a race number belt that you reuse each race (I don't plan to run enough races to warrant that, that's for sure)


• stay at a hotel that is putting green measures into place (difficult around here, but it doesn't hurt to check the Environmentally Friendly Hotels database)


• say "no thanks" to swag bag magazines, plastic bags and other advertising and doo-dads that you have no use for (forgot to this time, but will next time for sure!)


• donate your finisher's medal (if you don't want it) to Medals 4 Mettle - they give the medals away, and "The recipients can be any age and might have exhibited such mettle by dealing with disease, handicaps or any similar challenge." (what an awesome idea!)

So, if you are a seasoned runner, a finely-tuned athlete, a fair-weather jogger, or even a "wogger", (or a plodder like me who uses running to train for things I really like), you too can try and lessen your impact on our forests and our planet.

Got any great tips to add? Be sure and leave a comment or send me an email so I can include it in a future post - in case I decide to run again :-) .