Urban Wildland Half Marathon

Just finished the Urban Wildland Half Marathon in the rain. Ran a 2:16 (1:59 weather adjusted) in very humid conditions (90+). Well organized race and did a good job with lots of warnings and water stops.

They bill themselves as 'Minnesota's Green Race' and attempt to make all parts of it earth friendly - from the time keeping using solar power to the cups used in the race bio-degradable.

While I support that mission, there's a limit to how much emphasis one can go in that direction. One instance of going to far was our race numbers being made of bio-degradable sun flower seeds. Pin those to a thousand plus runners with high humidity and rain half way through the race and you get a thousand runners finishing the race wearing 4 safety pins on their shirt and no numbers.

This is an example of too much of a good thing, since those numbers ended up on the ground throughout a 13.1 mile path through Richfield.

It's the thought that counts, though, and here's hoping more races embrace the Eco-Friendly effort.


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Location:Richfield, MN