megatransect

Pack It In - Pack It Out. I am always amazed to find litter. It just does not make sense that someone spending time to get out into nature would purposely destroy it. I just don't get it. These are the people that make an impression. Keep your eyes open for them for your own safety, but also recognize the many others that are courteous and polite. And, make sure people put you into the courteous and polite category after they've met you on the trail. Just amazed that A few of us Had to pick up someone elses litter during the "Mega".

Glad you appreciate the beauty of unspoiled woods. Last thing that we ever want is for our woods to be littered. I hope that you will feel better to know the following: Our two sweepers follow the pack of contestants and pick up all the litter that is generated by our event. Most of the wrappers and bottles are accidently lost when people pull things out of their packs. Another key point to note is that we have both a running event and hiking event going on at the same time. Runners seldom stop and it is considered normal in a running event to discard above a station as you refuel during a race. It is hard to understand but when trying to navigate at breakneck speed, every second counts to these runners. At any large marathon it is not unusual to run on thousands of discarded drink cup crunching under foot at each water station.
Thanks for your concern and I hope that all of us can be more careful with our trash. Dave

Trail Guy is indeed correct. I am an avid outdoors lover and take great pride in leave no trace when I am out in the forrest. But when you are running as fast as I normally do you cannot for a moment look away from what you are doing or down you will go. I know personally that I dropped 1 twix wrapper when trying to get another out of my waist pack. There was nothing I could do. To stop was to cause me horrible pain along with getting back up to speed again would have been difficult.
My thought was there will be plenty behind me to pick up the wrapper. I did indeed think about it and rest assured I have picked up my share of trash on trails over the years.
So I apologize to you for doing so and I also thank you if you were the one to pick up my wrapper!
Cheers,
Jess

I agree with ybnozy. We found ourselves taking the time to pick up wrappers every mile or so (didn't see any Twix). Maybe we weren't in contention to win, more like top 30, but we were in a hurry as well. Accidents do happen and we hope fewer will happen in the future. That's why we have sweepers. I'm happy to see the anger about the litter,though. Its good to see people care. And let's stop making excuses for people because of their behavior at OTHER events. These are Grand Slam trail events. Just as our participants hold us to a higher standard, we expect the same from them. Look at it this way...we get angry when we see beer cans, cigarette butts, and fast food wrappers when we're out running. We blame kids, hunters, and ATVers. Now turn that around. DCNR goes out in the woods and sees Gatorade bottles and Carbboom wrappers. How does that make us look as trailrunners? I can guarantee that the Hyner and Rothrock will not tolerate it at their upcoming events. I'm sure ybnozy feels the same. Lets all do our part and keep the woods as clean as we found them!!!