Story Published:
Jun 12, 2008 at 1:46 PM CST
Story Updated:
Jun 12, 2008 at 1:46 PM CST
Grandma's marathon has been around for over three decades.
This year, Duluth's "world" class event is making less of an impact on the environment as Shannon Murphy explains in "Your Green Life."
June 21st, 2008.
It's the date circled on the calendars of those running in the 31st annual Grandma's marathon.
This year started off like no other has... with an online registration.
"The amount of paper that we save by not having to print our entries forms for this year, we saved 55 thousand plus entry forms as well as all the envelopes that went with that and that's sending the entry forms out to people and also getting them back."
Online registration provided ease to many racers, but it also saved a lot of trees.
As well as helping the environment it also created efficiencies within Grandma's Marathon Office.
The hours that used to be spent processing entries have now been put into other events for the city.
"We added a program this spring called the Duluth children's fit and fun run where we had 2000 of Duluth's elementary students come to public school stadium and take part in a quarter mile run."
Other changes that you'll see along the course this year include a new image for the waste management team.
Besides the usual trash receptacle, there is now a new style bag, colored green for obvious reasons, which will be used for the collection of recyclable materials.
"It's going to only benefit everyone in the future and we wanted to kind of get out in front of it this year and become more involved in taking care of our environment."
[ Bells, cheering ]
Another way Grandma's Marathon is going green is its partnership with the DECC. The DECC has been recognized as a national leader in environmental conservation efforts. Marathon officials will hold several pre-race events at the DECC to support their green efforts.
In Duluth, meteorologist Shannon Murphy, the Northland's NewsCenter.
For more information on how you can sign up to be a volunteer for Grandma's Marathon, you can log onto our website at northland's- newscenter- dot- com.
