Ep 11 - Climate Crisis and UTMB are they both unstoppable?

Influenced by two new books and the biggest event in Ultra UTMB, Kev asks if Ultra running is doing enough to save our sporting environments. 

Damien Hall’s - In It For The Long Run - https://www.waterstones.com/book/in-it-for-the-long-run/damian-hall//9781839810435?awaid=3787&utm_source=redbrain&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=css&gclid=CjwKCAjwhYOFBhBkEiwASF3KGS6l7EfvuU6hMrtnuOqzx4Uktl2q62Nd2BDdVN9FAisw6EgadbYdohoC01cQAvD_BwE

Professor Mark Maslin’s - How To Save The Planet - https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-save-our-planet/mark-a-maslin/9780241472521

TreesNotTees - https://treesnottees.com/

ReRun Clothing - https://rerunclothing.org/

Ourea Eventss - https://www.oureaevents.com/sustainability

UTMB  World Series - https://utmb.world/

Aid Station website where you can find the episodes or leave comment https://www.aidstation.co.uk/

Please feel free to give the show some feedback on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/aid-station/id1549735359

Transcript

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I just did. I can stay. Next station.

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I've got myself into a right old state this week, and all caused by the UTMB organisation and a guy called Professor Mike Maslin. So if you're not interested in Ultra Running's future and its relationship to the beautiful playground that we get to run around in, please come back at episode 12 when I promise to have a regular episode with a lovely guest. Right, it all started last Monday, which was a bank holiday in the UK, and I ran in a brand new local event called the Big Way Round based in Winchester. This was billed as 50k, which turned out to be 51.5k or 32 miles of old trail marathon around a lovely historical Winchester city. It was a substitute event for me as I was supposed to be in the Lake District racing the Great Lakeland 3 day as part of my DBR training. Unfortunately, the event got a COVID jab to August and it was too close to the Dragonsback race. Anyway, I went the big way round in a good time for me of 5 hours and 18 minutes. Did the usual hands-on knees stagger, doubled up breathless pant after flying under the finish arch in my highly increased paced jog sprint to the line. Once the RGB full colour spectrum had returned and I was able to resemble Homo erectus again and not a monkey, I walked to the table where the race director Claire was dishing out t-shirts. Nope, not collecting one of those, thanks. On the journey up the M3 home I tried to find some sport on Radio 5 Live. But due to it being a Monday and the Premiership football, only sport that seems to matter in the UK, is on in the evening, it seems there's no other sport to report on. Instead there's a talk style show, and just as I'm about to head over to Radio 6 Music, a guest by the name of Professor Mark Maslin is introduced, who is promoting his new book on saving the planet. The prof impresses me with his simple, non-technical boffin style and direct, simple to understand answers and delivery. As I'm passing Basinstoke, strangely a caller from Basinstoke asks, What's the one thing we can do as individuals to make a difference? The prof Mike's answer surprises me. He says, Talk about it. Make climate change the first and most important topic of conversation. He says it amazes him that our news is obsessed with trivia like whether the Prime Minister should have John Lewis furnishings in number ten or not, rather than the fact that the world's ecosystem is under imminent threat of collapse. Given the tiny speck of time that man has been on the planet, imminent is not an exaggeration. So that's what I'm doing with this podcast episode today, talking about the climate crisis. The prof's facts also shock me and make me think. Humanity is the new geological superpower. We now control the environment and the evolution of life on the planet. We move more solid rock and sediment each year than all the natural processes combined. There are more Lego mini people in the world than real people, and there are 78 billion of us plastic, loving, non-plastic people. Since the beginning of civilization, we've cut down 3 trillion trees, more than half the world's trees. We have made enough concrete to cover the whole surface of the earth in a layer of 2mm thick concrete. These are all statements from the professor's book. Now I'd just run through a lovely environment on that lovely day without a care in the world other than where the next station was. Selfishly, I don't want this beautifully painful escapism to end. But what impact am I and my band of masochistic hydration vest wearers having on our sports arena? Professor Mike's book is called How to Save the Planet The Facts. Those are some of the facts I've just read out from his book. The first thing I did when I got to the house was pre-order his book from Waterstones. A link to the book is in the show notes. This was even before using the loo. In fact I hadn't had a pea stop since my pre race loo visit. I've got to watch that dehydration thing. A couple of hours later after emptying the fridge and cupboards of savoury everything, and of course rehydrating, an email drops from Claire, the race director, with a quick summary of the event. This includes an admission about leaving a hundred toilet rolls in the boot of her car which apparently led to a few complaints. I find myself in the final pre-race prep in the paperless situation. Except for the fact, as I'm an old experienced runner, and thus a Portaloo expert, I came fully prepared with my own supply of the soft stuff. This led me to thinking how pampered many of us have become in our modern world. It may be a basic requirement of the first world to have paper provided in the loo, but never forget it's your waste and it's your bum. Even if you've paid your money and you know your rights. Another thing Claire states is that she has a lot of unclaimed t-shirts, especially size L. That's me. Good. I did overhear another finisher say that they had enough tacky event t-shirts. Their words, not mine, but I do have the same sentiment. So I provide Claire with some feedback on this subject, recommending Jim Mann's Trees Not Tees Company, who if you don't already know, provide race organizer with the option to offer race entrants with the opportunity to plant a tree rather than pay for a t-shirt, thus reducing the event's carbon emissions, while also planting a CO2 sucker and O2 maker for the future. A win-win. Claire responds immediately in the positive and it would be in place next year. Now I find reading running books very motivational when targeting targeting a specific event. In the case of the DBR, I've recently been reading Damien Hall's carbon negative book in it for the long run. My copy's sport by someone scrawling their name on the inside cover. The book is mainly about some journo dressed as a toilet who comes fifth at UTMB, more on that organization later. Being paced all around the major trails of Britain by runners who know where they are going, and made to pick up litter while he's waited hand on foot with vast supplies of tea and scoff. There is a potentially deadly hedgehog, but other than that, the book is bobbins. That is except for pages 167 to 175, which is where Damien gets radicalised by Extinction Rebellion. Now you're going to have to buy this book to read what happens to him, but I will tell you that he, like many other Ultra Runners, is good for the planet, and I find myself aligned to his principles on the environment. If not his refusal to eat tonnox spars, but we have to remember he has been radicalised by XR. I then get a more or less immediate return email inviting me to take part in an extraordinary adventure, which turns out to be a World Series of Ultrarunning of UTMB's own design in partnership with the Iron Man Group, culminating each year in the World Series finals at the three UTMB events of OCC, CCC and UTMB. My immediate reaction is that this sounds like a corporate money making venture. My suspicions heightened by the partnership with Iron Man Group. I've taken part in a few triathlons up to the long distance that Iron Man invented, but I never liked the Iron Man organization's approach, preferring to race locally or with the challenge family. In my opinion, the heart and soul of the two sports of mountain ultrarunning and triathlon are vastly different. The first thing I did was look for UTMB's environmental statement. It is almost non existent. There are three lines under the title Sustainability Environmental Initiatives to Act for the Preservation of the Mountains Anti Discrimination Standards Gender Equality Commitment. That's it. So only one line relating to any environmental impact with no detail on these initiatives or how they relate to the carbon offset of future emissions from their events. And these will be much higher by the very fact that UTMB are expanding the scope of a must-do worldwide ultra. Now to be fair, you'll struggle to find many running events of any type with a meaningful environmental statement. This is probably because the environmental impact of the simple act of running is so minimal that events have never really had to consider them before. However, this should not be the case any longer, with events that draw in competitors from well outside of what could be called local, especially those that require international travel. Surely I'm not the only ultrarunner that feels this way. Let's see what the Twitter sphere thinks. Now I'm not a great social influencer and only a follow a few ultrarunners on Twitter, but there were a fair few of these whose immediate reaction to the UTMB news was not positive. With particular distrust of the Iron Man tie-up. One who really stood up to be counted was John Kelly, Barclay's Marathon's winner, and as I speak, is on course to taking back the Pennine Way, fastest known time, if you're American, record it seems if you're a fell running Brit from Damian Hall. John, in his past, was on the verge of turning pro as a triathlete. He tweeted this message In my time as a triathlete, I did eight Ironmans plus a handful of half IMs. Sorry, I mean seventy point threes. I went to Kona twice and even went pro for a race. And I can't even begin to put into words all the horrible thoughts I have on this. It is this sort of forthright view gained from personal experience that will aid people in our sport to make conscious decisions on race entry. I also believe that both the environmental values and accessibility values of the two sports are very different. In simple terms, Tri involves more equipment manufacture and product consumption, while being far more expensive both from an equipment purchase and race entry fee perspective, thus making it a sport for people with higher expendable incomes. Triethan has a far bigger carbon footprint than ultrarunning. Access to these events can only be gained by participating in UTMB's own or newly sanctioned events. Currently there are seven sanctioned events, two in China, and then one each in Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Austria and Spain. I've not included the actual UTMB events themselves that start in France, as you can't get into them without gaining stones from the other events first. Now don't get me started on the stone system. Basically it's replacing the points, the old point system. I'm sure that there will be other events added to the list that may well include the UK and North and South America. There will be a loyalty program that apparently is not all about entering lots of their events, but the details of this program are not available as yet. Currently in Ultrarunning, there's not much focus on age group racing or results. This is a huge thing in triathlon and one of the biggest selling points literally. Once Iron Man recommend the development of this age group categorisation to the UTMB organization, age group racing will become an even bigger draw to get people racing in their World Series events. I'm not against racing, but I am now firmly against the larger carbon footprint it will create. So needless to say, the UTMB races are not on my bucket list anymore. And a few more races will be off my list if they don't start taking a serious look at how they can help us all offset carbon footprint of our sport. Now as you would expect, and as I have mentioned, Trail and Ultra Running does care about the environment and is in the main not all about corporate expansion. Indeed, that's why so many of us have taken part in this sport to escape corporations. Our sport attracts tree huggers, and we tree huggers are attracted to other tree huggers. So I want to finish on a positive note and feature real progressive modern thinkers in our sport. Most of them do or have run at the front end of Ultra Races and we can all learn from them. Jim Mann, winner of the Dragonsback Race and holder of many failed records, formed Trees Not Tees a few years ago. Please look out for races that feature this initiative at race entry and donate the cost of your t-shirt to plant a tree. If you must have that shirt, at least offset its cost of its production by buying a tree. You get a geolocation of where the tree is planted, which is great so you know what you've actually bought and can watch it grow. Trees Not Teens aims to put 50 million deciduous mixed woodland forest trees in the ground by 2030 in the UK. Dan Lawson, joggle record holder and GB Ultra Athlete, and his family operate the Rerun Clothing Company. They recycle running clothing and shoes. Don't send your old kit to Landfill, send it, organise collections for and tell more runners to send it to Dan's Rerun. And I finish with Aurea Vents, who operate the Dragon's Back Race, Cape Roth Ultra and Great Lakeland 3 Day. This is because they're a shining example of how all race directors and promoters should be approaching sustainability. I finish by quoting their sustainability statement. The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. A quote by Robert Swann. We love the mountains in which we run, climb and walk. These mountain landscapes form a key part of the global natural environment, yet they are threatened by the climate and ecological emergency unfolding in front of us. We are living through a climate and ecological emergency, and we all have a responsibility to do what we can to reduce our impact on the environment. We believe that it is incumbent upon us to recognise, quantify, and reduce and mitigate the environment impacts of our events, so that we can continue to deliver them for many years to come. We have consulted a carbon accounting expert and our goal is to make Aurea events carbon neutral. We believe this is the only morally defensible way to run a business in the 21st century.aidstation.co.uk. Also, please see the show notes below for the episode to find the links to all the mentioned recommendations and events. I hope you enjoyed this edition of AidStation. And if you did, please leave a review and subscribe. In another bit of news, I've set up a Facebook page for AidStation. It's an AidStation ultra running community, and it'd be great to get you along there. Please just feel free, search it up on Facebook and come along, and you can then join in with the community stuff on there asking questions and get direct access to me if you want to to talk about anything ultra. So it'd be great to see you along there. And until then, and until the next day station comes along, keep running, enjoying your running, and I hope to see you out there on the trail soon. Bye for now.