The Epic Races Firecracker 5K was back at Briarwood Mall this year, thanks to construction in downtown Ann Arbor that made the standard location of Fourth and Liberty unavailable. Attendance was up from 2022, with a large number of onsite registrations, likely due to people making sure the air quality would be okay.
The hot dog division (eat four hot dogs in 76 seconds, then run the 5K) was back, as was a one-mile run and a 200-yard kids dash, led by Larry the amazing human hot dog!
Without any downtown trash cans to worry about, we needed only a single Zero Waste Station in the post-race area, with the medals crew stuffing the plastic wrap into boxes for us. One “rogue” trash can did appear at the finish line, which I confiscated before it got too far out of hand. And staffer Debbie and I were able to handle things without volunteers.
Food was the hot dogs (for the contestants), bomb pops, and bananas. Bomb pop wrappers went to TerraCycle, and sticks were composted. Recyclables were water bottles, cardboard, paper, and plastic wrap from medals and water bottle cases. The aid station waste was nearly all water jugs and compostable paper cups, so it was easy to process them.
Everything went smoothly, and we were outta there before noon. The only hiccups were the aforementioned rogue trash can, and a small but annoying amount of litter from people leaving their bottles and such in the shaded picnic area.
Recyclables were up a bit from last last year, while the amount of compostables was nearly identical, so total waste increased a little, not surprising with over 100 more runners this year. However, waste per 100 runners has been in a consistently tight range for the past five years.
And under a pound of landfill again, which is something patriotic Ann Arbor athletes can be very proud of!
Happy Planet Running 