The Pterodactyl Tri put on by RF Events is the middle of their summer sprint triathlons. Over 300 athletes showed up to do either the sprint triathlon, or the duathlon (run-bike-run). All they had to do was go faster than the dinos!
Here dey come. Nummie num num!
As it’s identical to their other two in format and setup, managing the race waste is pretty much the same for all three, although for this one we tried out a couple of new ideas. I set up the main Zero Waste station near the registration tent, and put large All Waste boxes in transition at Bike Out and Run Out. I put up “Please Clean Up Your Station at Checkout” signs there, which seemed to cut down on litter somewhat. A second station was placed across the path from the tent serving post-race fruit smoothies. Two All Waste boxes were placed at the finish line, up from one.
Bridget and Jill at the main station.
This year we removed six park trash cans in the race area instead of four, as we added a station across from the first water stop. In a sort of revenge, a large bag of mixed trash was placed by the station, apparently collected by the park rangers. We just put it in one of their trash cans at takedown, after removing a few bottles and cans.
Compostables were way down from 2025, with plastic fruit smoothie bowls instead of pizza boxes. The downside is the bowls have to be washed by hand and dried before they can be recycled, and the spoons are apparently mixed bioplastic and regular plastic, meaning they cannot be either composted or recycled. I’m still awaiting confirmation on this from Playa Bowls, so the spoons are in my garage pending final disposition.
145 smoothie cups, plus spoons, dry after washing at HPR HQ the next day.
Recycling was also way down, mainly from a decrease in cardboard and waxed cups from the water stops. People were apparently not as thirsty this year. Landfill was basically flat, with diapers the main contributions to its weight, although the spoons also contributed.
Joining me on the team tonight were Bridget, Abby, and Jill. With their help we stayed on top of everything and were done by 9:00.
Jeff, Abby, Bridget, and Jill. Go team!
Happy Planet Running 