Going Green: The Trials & Tribulations Of Organising An Environmentally Friendly Trail Race

Hot summers, droughts, milder winters and downpours. The weather has certainly changed in character over the last 20 years and with an increasing global population – the strain on the planet is at a tipping point. Yet what has this to do with trail running? Quite a lot actually.?

Trail runners are by default closer to the environment, spending their time running on paths and through woodlands rather than on the treadmill. This closeness to nature brings with it an understanding of the fragility of the natural environment. And often trail runners will be conscious of what they eat and where their gear comes from. In short, trail runners can actually be trailblazers within their own social and professional circles for being aware of their impact and setting an example which extends well beyond just trail running.

Going green was at the front and centre of our new race, the Bradenham Blast hosted in Buckinghamshire, UK. We wanted to connect runners to the environment while also thinking carefully about our own actions and impact as race organisers.?

The setting for our race was in the UK’s only arable nature reserve, a working family farm run by local farmer Andrew Stubbings and his father before him. The farm is flying the flag for conservation efforts on a national scale, full of wildflowers and insects with massive field margins, it is a stunning habitat with a plethora of Bee Orchids and even a very rare flower, the Chiltern Gentium. The whole site is managed by the National Trust and was a fitting host for our eco-friendly trail race which fitted around the natural habitat. For example, our podium was a big lump of Sarsen stone from the last ice-age.

We are a cup free race (sort of)

While this is not unique, the Bradenham Blast is a cup free. We have all seen the images of cups strewn along the pavement after the London Marathon; perhaps the clearest visual image of single use plastic and waste creation at a mass participation race.?

Encouraging participants to bring their own cup, mug or bottle actually worked a treat with the vast majority making use of their own drinking cup or bottle.?

However, in planning the safety, it became increasingly clear that being 100% cup-free was not going to be possible. What happens if a dehydrated runner needed water and we didn’t have a cup?

Therefore a small stock of biodegradable cups had to be purchased. While not perfect, this seemed the best option to balance the safety requirements along with being as near to cup-free as possible.

The medal problem

If you are still buying big chunky medals from China, well sorry, but you are stuck in the Dark Ages. The environmental cost of production along with the costs of transportation is totally unnecessary. Especially as most medals end up in landfill anyway. It is just one big waste creation process from start to finish: production, shipping and when it reaches the end customer.

Since medal orders are made well in-advance, there is nearly always a surplus of medals which events will consign to landfill. Race organisers seem to get fixated on medals which for most participants falls way down their priority lists of what they actually want from an event.?

The wooden medal craze seems to have taken off with many organisers opting to purchase a ‘sustainable medal’. Scratch beneath the surface a little and there are clear problems with wooden medals as well – trees still have to be cut down (don’t worry, they are sustainably sourced so it is ok) and let’s not forget about ribbons. The vast majority of wooden medals come with a plastic ribbon which is definitely not sustainable. So wooden medals look good on paper but the reality is a little different.

After plenty of searching, we came across a social enterprise Earth Runs who make medals out of recycled paper-mache and infused with wildflower seeds. The whole medal and ribbon can be planted out to grow into some pretty wildflowers or you can keep the medal as a memento. The company planted a tree for each participant, so not only were we able to offer ‘the greenest medal out there’. A tree was also planted for each medal. This was an excellent eco-friendly solution to the medal problem.??

Our trophies were all made from off-cuts from mixed hardwood from the very forest that participants were running through. Handcrafted by Judy Ridler out of another social enterprise called The Shed.

The other elephant in the room

It is really difficult to find domestic suppliers for event equipment: course markers, signs, flags, reusable cups and medical equipment. Perhaps 30-40% of our event equipment has air miles on it and in all likelihood came from the Far East. Even if your purchase it from a UK company, chances are it has originated abroad.?

There is a persuasive line of thinking, that if you buy a quality made item which lasts – then it is ok to buy it abroad. We live in a global economy after all. But it doesn’t help with cutting the carbon footprint of the event equipment we purchased. Ideally all supplies would come from local or domestic sources.?

We are of course hypocrites. Trying to source local and domestic supplies for one thing but buying high-vis vests which originate in Indonesia. Does being ‘sort of’ environmental cut the mustard? For most Race Organisers, they simply will not have time to trawl through hundreds of suppliers when you are restocking your ice-packs for first aid. Our team attempted to make bunting from old clothes, but again ran out of time.?

The effort required to either make event equipment or source local items was more than our small team could realistically handle.

Creating and making waste

Waste is sadly unavoidable, although cutting back on single-use plastics was a key goal. Our event recycled as much as we could and ended up producing around 75g of waste per participant (which is the equivalent of two bags of crisps). Our aim is to reduce that to half that amount for next year.?

If you buy any new equipment, it will have plastic in it. If you provide any sort of nutrition including sweets and biscuits, perishable food will be stored in plastic. There is a wider issue on how things are packaged in shops and our over-reliance on plastic to keep food fresh.

Environmental impact

Our direct environmental impact to the local area was negligible, the area of most activity ‘the start/finish’ line showed no sign that an event had ever taken place shortly after. As a rough estimate 95% of people drove to the race in their cars. The event itself was a walk away from both a train and bus station but without? incentives to car sharing or utilising the public transport network, people will continue to drive.?

The course was sensitively marked using detachable ribbons or removable course markers. None of our course markers damaged a plant. It was sad to see the ancient scars of other events in the woodland where we operated, big beech trees with the cuts from staple guns fixing on course markers to their trunks. Yet there is a balance to be struck, overgrown paths were cut with a strimmer so it is not quite a zero impact affair.

Supporting local

Our last aim was to be a good partner to local conservation groups. Events are typically a ‘once-a-year’ flash in the pan, and leaving behind a legacy albeit a modest one was important.?

The organising team worked closely with two groups, supporting them financially. They in return supported our race with volunteers and equipment. The first group, Friends of Naphill Common, who look after a large area of public land near to the race, sent down a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers.?

We also gave all our other volunteers the option for travel and expenses reimbursement or the option for a donation to St Botolph’s church restoration fund, all opted to donate to the local church. The church in turn, provided us with tables and chairs for the event.

The verdict

Going green is hard. But it was worth it. It is a key part of what we are trying to do at the Bradenham Blast; hosting an eco-friendly race for responsible participants who care about the environment and their impact on it. As organisers of the Bradenham Blast, we have tried and failed in many ways to make this a truly green event. The main stumbling block around effort and time required to go 100% green. This is a step in the right direction, and we plan to make next year even better for the environment.?