The third thing you need to know about the Yellowstone Half is that this is a CUP FREE RACE.
Head over to our Facebook page and leave a comment on this post to be entered for today’s free race entry giveaway!You can read all about what that means in a previous blog post. It is exactly what it sounds like. No cups! The response to our cup free racing at our other races has been overwhelmingly positive. Most people LOVE the hydrapouches we provide for our runners. Some people aren’t wild about them, but they bring their own hydration system (water bottle, racing belt, camelpak, etc.) and find the cup free experience just as enjoyable.
We want to keep our course clean and safe. We do that by eliminating cups. Our aid stations will still be plentiful and there will not be line build up. Cup free racing really is the way to go.
We need to keep our national parks timeless and not date them by the nature of out trash!
I am proud to be from MT and am proud of the care that we take in keeping our state especially our parks beautiful. I have friends from the east coast that have been blown away by the lack of litter.
You are taking part in an activity to keep yourself in good shape, so treating the course of competition the same only makes good sense.
My parents raised me to believe to leave everything better than you found it and that is how I have raised my five children. National Parks are treasure and should be treated as such, so I think your cup free races is an awesome way to reduce some waste!
As a volunteer course sweep of over 30 races a year, in places including Zion national park as well as many state parks and local trails, the one thing that is most annoying to find on the trail is discarded cups and gu wrappers. If people carry a hydration system of some kind and stuff the wrappers in the pack’s pockets instead of in the bushes, I can keep up with the last runner while removing the chalk, signs and trail markers. At some trail races we have to add extra sweeps with nitrile gloves and bio hazard bags just to clean up the discards.
Thanks Jim. Our sweeper at Zion found only 6 Gu packets on the course. The trash created from all our aid stations and course at Rocky Mountain was less than a 1/4 bag of trash.
We have trash cans along the course and are completely cupless. Our races are extremely clean and we love it that way!
I had the pleasure of visiting Yellowstone this summer. Breathtaking, awe inspiring, majestic, are just a few words that come to mind. I love our National Parks, we definitely get our money’s worth out of our annual pass. They really should be called our National Treasures. Cup-free races is a natural progression in keeping the parks beautiful, while still allowing these AWESOME events to happen. One of my favorite ways to explore new places is by running, how amazing to be able to run a race in the parks. WOW.
I grew up going to the national forest hiking, camping, etc.. I am always teaching my children that you never litter and always always pack in and out everything! I even have them pick up any extra garbage we find I believe it is so important to continue keeping every park green!
It’s important to me that my children, and grandchildren get the same experience that I have had growing up and visiting these beautiful parks.