LA Marathon Goes Green...Plus No More Bibs!

As many of you already know, this year's LA Marathon has been fraught with controversy - primarily over the shifting of the race date from the historical late winter date to Memorial Day Monday. Now, anyone familiar with our weather out here knows that Memorial Day is typically hot and smoggy and concerns about dehydration and asthma are high.  Nonetheless, the race must go on!

I signed up for LA way back in October, not realizing that my injury would keep me from training. So while I won't be running the event this year, as a registered participant I am continuing to receive all of the email updates about the race.

It definitely seems like everything "green" is really hot right now, so I wasn't particularly surprised by the news coming out of Marathon headquarters that the race is going green.  Actually, race organizers take note: there are some pretty cool "conscious" ideas going on here.  They say that "As California goes, so goes the country."  Perhaps we're likely to see these changes impact more and more races?  Here's what LA is doing:

1.  No plastic goody bags.  Runners receive a shirt, a Honda pin, a Clif Bar, and a bunch of other stuff.  But they've done away with 50,000 plastic bags and nearly 1,000,000 pieces of paper that would end up in the bags! 

2.  Green certification from the Council for Responsible Sport.  Like a LEED certification for a building, this rating will be complete after ReSport Officials come down and observe the event on race day. 

3.  Recycling throughout the event.  There will be recycling containers at the Expo and in the Finish Line Festival. 

4.  Ridesharing.  With their partner Spaceshare, the LA Marathon has set up their own ridesharing microsite.  Why drive to the race with empty seats in your car?  Click hereto find out more information and to sign up to carpool to the race and/or expo. 

5.  Beach clean-up in conjunction with Heal the Bay.  Keep Los Angeles beaches safe & swimmable.  The Marathon is organizing a cleanup on May 16th.

6.  Bio-diesel power generators on the race course. 

7.  Compostable wax paper cups.  The cups you drink from on the course will be taken to an special facility and turned into clean energy. 

8.  All of the race trash will be filtered so recyclables are separated and sent to an appropriate facility. 

9.  Virtual goody bags.  Participants will receive promotions and special offers via email instead of paper. 

10. Recyclable heat sheets.

I really love the "Virtual Goody Bag" thing.

And here's something really cool. Race participants can ditch their race day bibs and opt to buy a t-shirt pre-printed with their name and bib# right on the shirt.  No safety pins, no funky paper bib.  The shirts are made of microfiber polyester and can be ordered for about $35. Looks like you can pick your bib shirt up at the Expo that race weekend. So much for the edict about not wearing your race shirt on race day!

Well,I have to admit that I get a sense of longing whenever I get one of these Marathon emails, but the 'ole knee just isn't up for it. And I was so excited about horrifying my nail tech with my "trophy" black toenails at my next pedicure.  Oh well, I guess the horror will have to wait! Good luck ladies! You're just about into your taper now!

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