This year’s Holiday Hustle was a bit chilly, with temps in the 30s and a breeze, but that didn’t stop hundreds of runners from coming out to run, and even dress up in fancy holiday costumes.
No comment.
I’m not sure Dickens had anything like this in mind.
The morning half marathon starts and finishes at Erratic Ale in Dexter. The post race “footprint” is their large patio. I set up a staffed station at one end near the food truck, and placed unstaffed tables with large All Waste boxes at the other end and in the center.
With a good morning team including my sister Jenn and my friends Dave and Sue, I had enough bandwidth to run the half. The best thing I can say about my performance is that I stayed warm. I ran out of gas and basically staggered across the finish line, but that can happen when you’re coming off an injury and an illness. After a beer I recovered and we got the job done, but my calves complained for the rest of the day.
Ready to rock the half! Had I but known. Oh, who am I kidding – I’d have run anyway.
Food as usual came from a BBQ truck, Raterman’s pretzels, and beer. The beer was served in compostable cups, and the BBQ used compostable containers and utensils, which minimized the need to rinse anything.
We wrapped up at Erratic Ale around 3:00, and after a quick trip home to unload and reload, I was back at Monument park at 3:30 to set up for the 5K. Intern Liz and veteran volunteers Bridget and Andrew joined me for that event.
The 5K layout was a bit different this year, as much of the Park was taken up with decorated Christmas trees. Without much room for people to wander around, and Santa gone by 4:30, we did fine with a single staffed station at the end of the park near the finish line. We covered several of the park’s trash cans and put large All Waste boxes on top.
Effective, but not the prettiest picture. Maybe put a board underneath next time.
Notably, all the trash cans were already full when we arrived. I don’t want to think about what the park would have looked like if we didn’t collect all the race waste.
And like last year, we picked up many empty and partly-empty water bottles from the area. A reminder to please use the stations by the announcer would probably help here. And we could set up an All Waste box across the road in the spectator area.
Total waste increased by about 10% over last year, with compostables and recycling up, and landfill remaining about the same. Another landfill diversion rate of over 99 percent. A great way to wrap up the year!
Happy Planet Running 