This year’s Epic Races Swim to the Moon at the Halfmoon Lake Day Use Area took place on a rare cool morning for this summer, a relief to everyone, especially the Green Team. The swimmers enjoyed up to 10K in 79-degree water with a full breakfast following.
Marilyn answers an athlete’s questions. The swimmer is wearing a personal swim buoy, which are becoming popular for visibility and safety reasons.
The event benefits North Star Reach, a summer camp for kids with special medical needs, allowing them to have a full camp experience. They are still working hard to get back to their pre-Covid staffing and camp activity, so check them out and please consider donating.
We set up our staffed station across from the food area and next to the Epic Races merchandise tent. All Waste boxes were set up near the Bearclaw coffee truck, in the kitchen area (along with a box for disposable gloves), at the finish line water station, and on top of park trash cans near the parking lot and the race area porta-potty. These all worked well, and we had only one “rogue trash can” – a cardboard box in the kitchen that I caught before it got out of hand.
Our team of four – myself plus interns Jenny, Marilyn and Cole, enjoyed a little slack time while everyone was in the water, but once finishers began coming in, the rush was on for three hours. We got everything processed and weighed, and our station taken down just after 1:00.
Cole and Marilyn keeping on top of things.
Like last year, the drop bag area had a whole bunch of bags the athletes had not come back for. We got lots of unopened Gu and snack bars, as well as a whole bunch of swim goggles, for some reason. So our Free Stuff box is restocked for the September races.
A good day, a good event, a good cause to support, and over a 96 percent landfill diversion rate. Pretty hard to beat that!
Mandatory cute dog pic.
Happy Planet Running 