Report written by HPR event captain Marilyn Harbin
This year’s Island Lake Tri was the eighth year HPR has supported it, and while there are always a couple of surprises to handle, everything went smoothly, and more or less according to plan.
Beautiful morning to swim / bike / run!
We first set up by the registration tent and the water, to make space for the athletes gathering to jump into the water. After they were all in, we moved to be more visible to the finishers and spectators. We also put All Waste boxes at the exit and entrance of the transition area, the registration tent, food tent, beer tent, and finish line.
Sue and Bridget at the main station.
Like at many races, we turned over park trash cans, but someone flipped them all back (speaking of surprises), so we simply put the All Waste boxes over the two main trash cans. For the others we fished out easily recyclable items during the event and at the end.
Food was pancakes, wraps, and bananas. Plates and utensils were also compostable but sorting was made more difficult by the abundance of contaminated aluminum foil used to hold the hot food. We cleaned as much as we could to get rid of the blueberry syrup or cheese. Also, the swim was difficult this year due to thick seaweed beds, and we got some in our boxes!
Recycling included Gatorade bottles and cans from a local energy/protein drink company who we were neighbors with. Landfill was mostly contaminated items such as ice cream wrappers or tin foil we couldn’t get clean, or items contaminated from the syrup. While we understand the advantage of using foil, finding a compostable alternative remains a standing suggestion.
Things that went well included the aid station people who helped pre-sort the bags before they gave them to us. This made sorting them so much faster. Thanks! Also, the transition area was pretty clean. I picked up some little things, but it looked like the “Please Clean Up Your Station” signs worked well.
Overall, another success with our highest diversion rate yet!
Ed. note (Jeff): Many thanks to Marilyn, Bridget, and Sue for stepping up and doing such a great job while I was working the Detroit Riverfront Run.
Happy Planet Running 