The Epic Races Swim to the Moon is always a busy one for the Green Team. For some reason lots of people think it’s a good idea to swim long distances (up to 10K). Or perhaps they just wanted to be part of Happy Planet Running’s inaugural “Guess the Weight” contest to win a swell prize. (Results at the end of this report.)
Yeah, the contest, that’s totally why we swam all that way.
With much nicer weather than last year, over a hundred more swimmers showed up, and stuck around for the post-race party. But with the help of able interns Kaylee and Charlie, and with the help of volunteers Thomas and Janice, we were able to handle the rush.
I’m too cheap to buy T-shirts for my staff, so Kaylee tries out our new uniform.
We moved the main Zero Waste station this year to between the food tables and where most people would hang out after the race. It was also closer to the finish line, so we could monitor it for any accumulation of waste. One of the staffers there (thanks, Larry!) helped out by bringing their plastic wrap and cardboard to us.
Post-race food was the standard Epic Races breakfast of egg wraps and pancakes, and the ice cream chest (which was completely emptied). New this year was bags of popcorn, served in compostable bags. A nice touch we were grateful for.
Thankfully we avoided last year’s unpleasant surprises of big pileups of unsorted waste in a few places. We did this by placing a small station at the far end of the race area, and policing the finish line. Just one pile of boxboard near the popcorn machine which some people apparently added their trash to. But as a pleasant surprise, we were interviewed for an upcoming Epic Races video!
And now what you’ve all been waiting for…
Our contest, where we had people guess how much total weight we’d process at the event, got a good number of entries. With more swimmers this year, most guesses were naturally higher than last year’s total of 301.5 lbs. (with only six of that going to landfill). But we had less! Compost was down, and recycling was way down, especially cardboard. Also, the cups from the aid stations never arrived. The best guess is the volunteers threw them away. But as their actual weight is very low, the end result wasn’t affected.
The winning guess of 196.8 lbs. was closest to our actual total of 214.4 lbs. The winner will be notified by email on how to get the swell prize of an upcycled TerraCycle bag, made from recycled materials. It’s sized to hold a tablet, but could be used for anything.
Finally, I want once again to mention North Star Reach, which this race directly benefits. It’s a summer camp for kids with special medical needs, allowing them to have a full camp experience. Check them out at https://www.northstarreach.org/ and please consider donating.
Happy Planet Running 