Green Efforts
Missoula Marathon Green Efforts 2011
- Goodie Bags: made from 100% recycled plastic materials.
The bags, of course, are re-usable and totally recyclable. - Finisher T-Shirts: each is made from eight 2-Liter recycled plastic bottles or equivalent smaller bottles. So, if the Missoula Marathon were to have 4,500 participants this year, combined, we all would proudly wear up to 36,000 recycled plastic bottles on our backs just for finishing the marathon. That's pretty sweet, if you ask me! These are very nice and comfortable technical shirts. Plus, they have a great safety feature that you'll LOVE!
- Solar Powered Missoula Marathon Expo provided by Axmen of Missoula for the second year in a row.
- Organic and delicious post-race food served on 100% bio-degradable plates/bowls and "silverware" provided by The Good Food Store.
- Super quick self-serve water refill stations
throughout the Missoula Marathon courses to reduce the amount of cups
we would use otherwise provided by HydraPour. If you carry your own
reusable water cups or water bottles during the Missoula Marathon you
can use these super high-speed
HydraPour valves during the race to
refill your water carrying devices. Note: we also will have 17 regular,
fully stocked aid stations as well. Those cups are 100% compostable.
(Please, if you must throw anything away during the race, do so very
near one of the many aid stations, not in the middle of nowhere or in
some one's front yard. Thank you!) Click here to learn about the benefits of Cup-Free Racing, and get 10% off when you purchase a HydraPouch. - Cup-less Missoula Marathon training classes: to reduce up to 20,000 water cups during our training runs leading up to the marathon. Every Missoula Marathon training class participant received a HydraPouch for training and racing.
- Most of our "Official Race Vehicles" will be human-powered bicycles, not cars.
- Recycling of: plastic bottles, aluminum cans and cardboard provided by I.E. Recycling (Intergenerational Equity) and the Missoula Marathon.
- Recycling of your old running shoes by and at Runner's Edge.
- All city buses operate for FREE all day on Saturday courtesy of Mountain Line.
- Please bring your own BPA-free refillable bottle or cup to
the
Missoula Marathon Expo for free water refills. We will have several
water coolers at the Expo so you can stay hydrated the day before the
race. Free water provided by Culligan Water. - There will be two local farmers' markets in downtown Missoula on the morning of Expo Saturday. On foot, they are literally only seconds or minutes from the Missoula Marathon Expo.
- Your free, delicious, post-race beer provided by Big Sky Brewing is
LOCALLY brewed right here in Missoula. So it will not only be super
fresh, but there will also not be any shipping involved, either.
- Roadside clean-up of our beautiful marathon courses, to make them even more beautiful. This service is happily provided by members of Run Wild Missoula/Missoula Marathon and citizens of Missoula.
Missoula Marathon Green Efforts 2010
For this year’s Missoula Marathon, we again worked on our commitment to keep the environmental impact of our event to a minimum, while improving what we had started in the past years.
If you have never eaten
from and with 100 percent biodegradable plastic plates, bowls, cups and
“silverware”, you will now have the chance at the Missoula Marathon
while refueling your body with fantastic post-race food, provided by
the Good Food Store of Missoula; and you might find that this material
is actually very strong, even though it can and will break down
(biodegrade) in only a few months after you use it.
Several dozen volunteers put in approximately 100 volunteer hours last Saturday, to clean up large parts of the Missoula Half and Full Marathon courses. It was a great success and all of our participants and spectators ought to find a great course. Thanks to Frank Scariano Construction for donating his Truck and the necessary gas. While visiting and running, please enjoy the beautiful scenery of western Montana
Our 2010
high-end, technical finisher’s T-shirts are made from at least 50
percent recycled plastic – so thanks for recycling your plastic bottles;
now you may proudly wear those old bottles on your back, for you earned
it! In addition, you’ll find more T-shirt options of the same caliber
as well as other “green” Missoula Marathon memorabilia at the Expo.
The
Missoula Marathon Goodie bags for this year are fully recyclable and
reusable polyester bags. Plus, they look great and you may get some
attention while carrying your goods, even long after this Marathon.
Without
surprise, we again will recycle aluminum cans, plastic water bottles
and cardboard at the starting lines, finish area, and the Missoula
Marathon Expo.
For your immediate hydration needs, and to save on
many of thousands of plastic bottles, we opted to have an additional
water station at the finish area, just after you cross the finish line.
And speaking of water stations, all of the water cups used during the
Marathon are 100 percent compostable.
For the first time, the
Missoula Marathon will use Solar Power Energy at the Expo and for its
post-race festivities and awards ceremonies. The solar power will be
provided by Axmen of Missoula. Look for the solar panels, and stop by at
their informational table, to see how it all works. Axmen also will
have a little experiment on-site, to show what else is possible with
this technology. The Missoula Marathon experience is not only beautiful,
fun, with fast times, but also educational for young and old.
As
always, all Mountain Line Buses can be used for free all day on
Saturday. So consider taking the bus from your home or your hotel to get
to and from the Expo.
The Missoula Marathon will have several water stations set up at the Expo, provided by Culligan Water, and you are encouraged to bring your own reusable water bottle. It’s a great way to monitor your own water intake the day before the race, while keeping up your hydration. Besides, it saves a lot of unnecessary trash, too.
Lastly, and more as a side note, Missoula features two great Farmers’ Markets on Saturdays, where you can stock up on locally-grown and/or produced, and mostly certified organic or at least pesticide-free vegetables, fruits, dairy products, baked goods, meats, jams, coffee and freshly-squeezed juices. One Farmer’s Market will be open on Saturday from 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m., while the other operates until about 1:00 p.m. A nice plus for all our race participants and their support is that the two Farmers’ Markets, the People’s Market (featuring crafty items), downtown businesses, and, for the younger visitors to Missoula, the Missoula Carousel, all are within a very short walking distance of the Missoula Marathon Expo. Literally, you can see all of the sites listed above, while walking less than a mile. And just in case your feet get hot while walking that one mile, or perhaps after the Marathon, you can dip your feet into the frigid waters of the Clark Fork River, while watching white-water kayaks performing tricks in “Brennan’s Wave”, and looking down “Hellgate Canyon” – all less than 100 yards from the Expo!
We hope you will enjoy your Missoula Marathon experience, and that our “green efforts” will enhance that experience.
The
Missoula Marathon Committee and the city of Missoula is exited to
welcome all of you to our beautiful “back yard”, which we call home, and
wish you safe travels, a fantastic time while in western Montana and
during the race.
Best wishes,
Volkmar “Vo” von Sehlen
Director, Green Efforts
Missoula Marathon Committee
Missoula Marathon Green Efforts 2009
The Missoula Marathon, since its inception, has tried to be conscience
of the environmental impact is has on the communities through which its
routes pass. For this year’s race, those efforts of becoming a more
environmentally friendly race were drastically increased.
Being
already the largest Marathon in Montana, the Missoula Marathon, even as
it grows larger, will continue to improve on its carbon footprint and
the environmental impact a race of such a magnitude can create.
We
are working diligently to make improvements, and this year, we proudly
introduce true, ECO friendly, high-end, technical shirts for our
finishers made of bamboo charcoal and/or recycled polyester. The bamboo
was grown and the t-shirts were dyed and printed in the U.S.A. So, as a
fun fact, instead of finding your plastic bottles in the landfills, you
now will be able to wear super soft, “10 2-liter plastic bottles” during
your next training run or race. We didn’t stop there. The dye for the
shirts and the ink for the print are environmentally friendly as well;
they are water-based, non-toxic, lead-free, and contain no heavy metals.
The
same applies to our official posters and fliers; those were printed on
100% or partially recycled post consumer waste paper, and printed with
soy-based inks.
Also starting this year, we will separate garbage
from recyclable materials at: the Expo, the Half and Full Marathon
Starting Lines, throughout the courses at every aid station, at the
finish area, the food area after the finish, and at Caras Park, at which
the Medal Ceremonies and other post-race activities will take place.
A
big thank you goes out to our post-race food provider, The Good Food
Store, by providing: cups, plates, bowls, and any other plastic or paper
ware that is made out of biodegradable corn-based plastic and/or
recycled paper.
Our race bags are also made out of partially recycled plastic and are reusable.
The three leaders of the Half and Full Marathon will be accompanied by bicyclists, not motorized vehicles.
All
of the port-a-potties which you’ll find before, during and after the
races are free of formaldehyde, and provide an ECO friendly hand
sanitizer.
The Runner’s Edge is starting a recycling program for
your old running shoes. This program not only takes your shoes so that
they don’t end up in the land fills, but will also benefit great causes
by either recycling the materials for various projects or by
distributing the shoes to individuals in need of a running shoe.
We
will not give out plastic bottles which cannot or should not be
reused. However, we will provide filtered and treated drinking water at
the Expo, before, definitely during, and after the races. We encourage
you to bring your own reusable water bottle/s to the Expo to stay
hydrated.
Our volunteers will be provided with “green” shirts,
similar to the finisher shirts, and with reusable drinking bottles –
made out of recycled plastic and are PBA-free.
Be so good and do
your part of making the Missoula Marathon an enjoyable and green race
experience for yourself and those around you. Please dispose of any gel
wrappers, bottles, or any other garbage you may want to shed yourself of
during the race at any of the many aid stations throughout to race.
Keep in mind, volunteers will pick up your garbage, and it will become
more than cumbersome if the volunteers have to collect those items
farther than in their immediate areas of the aid stations. Also, we are
privileged to be able to run through many neighborhoods, so let’s not
trash the front yards of those friendly people who will wave at and
cheer for us and have their water sprinklers running for us.
We hope you’ll enjoy our efforts of creating a more environmentally-friendly Marathon race experience for you.
The
Missoula Marathon is wishing all of you runners, friends and families a
fantastic race and a fun-filled marathon weekend, and is certain that
you’ll leave with many great impressions of our beautiful state and
city.
Thank you for choosing the Missoula Marathon as one of your races this year!
Vo von Sehlen
Director, Green Efforts
Missoula Marathon
