Whats a green marathon?
You don’t need much to be a runner, or so many of us believe. Just running shoes, right? For endurance runners, however, the gear list can quickly grow to include much more than shoes. A runner might assemble a collection of performance apparel, gadgets and nutritional drinks, gels and bars — and then there’s getting to and from marathons, which aren’t always close to home. All of this adds up to runners with giant footprints — carbon footprints, that is. A carbon footprint measures the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere as we live our daily lives. Running gear often includes synthetic materials, and the manufacturing and transportation of those materials and products emit toxins and fossil fuels. In 2008, the magazine Runner’s World calculated the annual CO2 impact of a typical American runner, including everything from clothing and shoes to travel. It found that one runner generates 5,449 pounds (2,471 kilograms) of CO2 in one year. That’s equal to driving an SUV (
