Greening the Marathon with Go Green Gals

Freedom's Run has joined in the Green movement and was exemplary in their effort to Green their marathon in its inaugural year. This health, heritage, and community based marathon joins the ranks with the best of the notable Green marathons. The volunteers involved have all embraced the Green movement through their commitment to support the environment and create awareness in this first year, and at the same time, setting their sights on continuing to add more Green components with each annual Freedom's Run Marathon. Reducing the Runner’s Footprint is a philosophy that founder Mark Cucuzzella has included in the overall vision of this project. Every participant will partake in an eventful journey through some of the most noted historical and naturally diverse areas of the nation while knowing that the environmental impact of their presence has been lessoned through these greening efforts.

• Reusable BPA free (made in US) water bottles given to all participants and encouraged to carry during race and reuse at finish
• Trash free/recycling stations
• Refill stations for all water bottles
• Environmental and historical education and appreciation
• Partnering with the national park service and other stewards of the land
• Community volunteerism
• Reusable beer glasses (after marathon celebration)
• Support and affiliation with local businesses
• Promotion of farms and land preservation
• Awareness of natural resources
• Collected fifty two 33 gallon bags of plastic for recycling from aid stations and start/finish
• Composted 145 pounds of orange/apple/banana peels, cores and leftovers
• 340 pounds of cardboard recycled under the Shepherdstown Elementary School account
• 196 pairs of shoes sent for reuse
• After all of this, only three bags of trash that equaled 20 lbs!
• Disclosure: about 13 regular sized trash bags were deposited at the waste facility in Shepherdstown because they had some sort of biowaste in them (diaper/handwashing/portajon).
• Hand carry straps given to marathon runners to further encourage hand carry-refill your bottle and less cup use!
• All in all, we saved a huge amount of plastic, cardboard, and food waste from the landfills!

Additional Efforts in 2010

• Partnership with Atayne- Environmentally friendly shirts
• Farmers Market at finish- Fresh Food and less post race trash