Great Lakes Endurance, LLC

Environmental

Great Lakes Endurance is committed to pioneering race events with minimal to no environmental impact. Our committment to organizing a ecologially sensitive event was featured in an article by Suzanne Van Dam in Running Times (May, 2005) .

Unless you have directed a race you may not be aware of all the garbage that such an event produces. Paper cups, orange rinds, banana peels, cardboard boxes that t-shirts and other prizes are shipped in all pile up. Even the ubiquitous 100% cotton t-shirts introduce toxins into the environment during their production. Prior to our first event we decided to do things differently. We have never produced more than two standard size kitchen bags of trash in our Keweenaw event. In 2004 and 2005 we produced only 1 bag. In 2006 we reduced it to zero. This is not bad for 300+ runners over two days.

The KTRF and the Grand Island Trail 10 K provide runners with Organic cotton T-Shirts. Over a half pound of pesticides are required to produce the cotton for one conventional cotton t-shirt. Pesticides are a major pollutant of rivers and lakes. The Grand Island Trail Marathon provides runners with a durable, well sewn Silkweight Capilene shirt made by Patagonia. This company now offers a recycling service for capilene clothing.

Since our first KTRF back in 2000, we have served runners a breakfast featuring organic and locally grown foods. Organic farming restores and maintains healthy soil. Even more importantly locally grown foods minimize fossil fuels required to transport foods long distances. Food scraps from breakfast are donated to a local farmer for composting. This way nutrients are returned to build soil, not a landfill. Our breakfast is served with real cups, plates, and dinnerware. No Styrofoam, paper plates, or plastic utensils. No landfill contributions. In 2007 we began our focus on local foods with our innaugural Navarino 15K Trail Run in Northeast Wisconsin. Learning how much petroleum is burned shipping food long distances, we decided to source all of our food within a 100 mile radius. The buffalo and elk burgers were purchased from a ranch only 8 miles away. The whole grain - flax buns were made by a small Amish bakery 15 miles to the north. The green and purple cabbage was raised by the Mares Family Farm in Clintonville (17 miles southwest). Luke Mehlberg who had been tapping Maples in nearby Pella donated a gallon of his maple syrup. Oakgrove Cheese (Clintonville, 18 miles west), a small local cheese house produced their much loved Longhorn Colby and Aged Sharp Cheddar. Other local farmers donated carrots and honey. The Door County Cherry Grower's Cooperative donated cherry cider (55 miles) and the Wisconsin Cranberry Grower's Association in Babcock (100 miles south west) donated premium cranberries. We ended up with a delicious menu of elk & buffalo burgers on whole grain buns, cole slaw, maple sweetened cranberries, and cherry cider. We anticipated having to struggle to put together a healthy meal with only local foods - and the just the opposite occurred - we ended up with a highly nutritious meal with superb flavor. Local is better! Its better tasting, more nutritious, and better environmentally.

Aid stations can produce an enormous amount of garbage. We have always encouraged our participants to carry a water bottle to avoid producing paper cup waste. In 2005 we required runners in the Grand Island Trail Marathon to carry one. We simply refilled the water bottles with narrow spout pitchers at each aid station. This was highly successful, indeed we found it works better than the sloppy paper cup style aid station. Now all of our races 15 Km and over require runners to carry a 20 oz water bottle. Runners claim it works better than cups in nearly all instances.

In our shorter events we are changing from waxed paper cups to new biodegradable PLA cups, and in 2007 to biodegradable bagasse (faster breakdown). We will collect these and place them in a biodegradable bag and compost them appropriately. Our goal is to achieve waste free aid stations at all of our events.

We have used tree free paper and 100% post consumer content recycled paper with soy ink in past years to print entry forms. In 2007 we only printed entry forms for our Navarino race. This year we will no longer print entry forms. Runners can register either online or download and entry form (preferrably on the backside of already used paper).

We mark all of our race course with reusable blue wired flags. We never use spray paint or other toxic markings. Our mile markers and directional arrows were constructed from several old sheets of plywood pulled from the trash bin (Cheap and ecological). Our goal is to leave only footprints at the race site. Several hours after the race you can barely tell that an event even occurred.

Last Updated

01/17/2008