Earth Day Running

In honor of this Friday being Earth Day, I am dedicating a blog post each day on ideas on how to incorporate environmental ideas into your running. My friends and family that know me wouldn't describe me as Mr. Green when it comes to environmental issues. I have questions about many of the claims made on how men or women affect the world environmental system. But regardless of your political bent on ecology, we can all do simple things that help saves the planet for future generations while just making common sense (and cents) at the same time. I'm what you might label an 'economical environmentalist'. If the benefit of the practice outweighs all of the costs, why not do it?

First and foremost, probably the biggest immediate impact you can have – bottled water. For Christmas 2010, bonnie bought me a Kleen Kanteen Bottle. I love the bottle, easy to clean, light metal, cool color and easy to keep in the side pocket of my gym bag. Since the start of the year, I have drunk 1500 ounces from it. I have not used bottled water once this year. Now that's 4 cases of bottled water. I know what you are thinking, 'Sam's Club sells a case of water for $5 a case, big deal." But that's still $20 vs. free. And think of the 100 empty water bottles that would've ended either in a landfill or recycled with additional use of energy. And you want to know something that made this practice a habit? It's easier. When I think of hauling the cases of water that I did in the past from the car, the searching for the bottled water before going to the club, paying $1.50 for water at the club Aquafina machine because I forgot the bottled water, etc. – this is a very easy practice to get into.

So Tip 1 for the Green Runner: Can the use of Bottled Water.