Running Out of Excuses: Simple Athlete Actions for a Cleaner Planet

We train for health in a world that’s getting sicker. The air we breathe on our runs, the snow we ski on, the rivers and seas we travel to for races are all under pressure from the way we live, produce, move, and throw things away.

As endurance athletes, we move through the world at a pace that allows us to breathe it all in—so we’re in the position to notice what's changing, and we can choose whether we quietly add to the mess or help reduce it.

Beautiful Places, Ugly Footprints

If you look around on almost any run or ride, you see it: bottles in the ditch, food wrappers in the trees, plastic bags tangled in bushes, overflowing bins at trailheads. None of this disappears just because it’s “away” from us. Trash and pollution are a part of the climate and environmental crisis we can literally see and touch. They’re also the part where our daily choices as athletes and humans matter a lot.

I don’t believe a single reusable bottle will “save the planet,” but I do believe it matters. It’s a visible daily choice that keeps the problem in front of my eyes, sparks conversations, and quietly challenges the idea that being neutral is normal. I can move through stunning places on my own legs and lungs and still be part of the demand that creates trash and pollution elsewhere—or I can let small habits like this constantly pull me back to the question, “What impact do I want to have?” This post is my way of making that neutrality a little less comfortable—for me first, and maybe for you too.

Movement, pollution, and the ocean

Most of us don’t live right on the coast, but the ocean is still our downstream. What we buy, what we throw away, what escapes from overflowing bins, what blows out of landfills, what runs off our streets and rivers—all of it is on a journey. Rain washes microplastics and chemicals into rivers, rivers carry them to the sea, and the sea spreads them globally. Even if your favorite training loop is in the mountains, the plastic wrapper you drop or the fast-fashion jacket you replace twice a year is part of that story.

The ocean regulates climate, feeds millions of people, supports entire coastal communities, and absorbs a frightening amount of the carbon and heat our systems pump into the atmosphere. It’s resilient, but not infinite. As athletes, we understand the difference between productive stress and chronic overload. The ocean is past its “productive stress” zone. Trash and pollution are two of the clearest overloads we can choose to reduce.

What I did: my birthday miles challenge

This year, for my birthday, I decided to move for the ocean. I challenged myself to track every mile I covered—training and commuting—and to turn it into a donation for a cleaner ocean. I counted strength and mobility sessions as “miles,” too, converting that time so that every bit of movement contributed to the total. I chose Ocean Conservancy because it’s an organization I trust to turn that effort into real work for a healthier planet.

On the day of my birthday, I went backcountry skiing on my telemark skis for the first time since before my baby. It was wonderful—until one bad choice (the wrong socks, of all things! I should have known better!) turned into massive blisters on both heels. With a ski marathon coming up the following weekend, I had to be extra conservative and let them heal. So I doubled down on mobility and gym training to make up for the miles I couldn’t run or ski. It was the perfect reminder of how this all works: you make a plan, life throws in a plot twist, and you flex while keeping the same goals and intentions.

For me, that challenge wasn’t about trying to look like a good person or an eco‑hero. It was simply a way to make my values a bit more concrete: “If I say I care about the ocean, can I also move and organize my life in a way that reflects that?” The miles were just a container; what mattered more was showing, in a small and practical way, that I care enough to do something.

Actions athletes can take: trash and pollution

You don’t need to run a birthday challenge to make a difference. You also don’t need to overhaul your entire life overnight. What you do need is to move from vague worry (“the planet is in trouble”) to one concrete focus: trash and pollution. Here are places where that focus intersects directly with our lives as athletes.

Gear and daily life

• Choose reusable over single‑use. A durable bottle, a decent thermos, a set of food containers and cutlery you actually like using: these are tiny, boring purchases that quietly keep hundreds of plastic bottles, coffee cups, and takeaway boxes out of your year.

• Be slower with the gear. Repair what you can. Buy second‑hand when it makes sense. Think twice before ordering the 5th pair of nearly identical tights just because they’re on sale. Every item has an invisible cost in materials, energy, and transport.

• Rethink food choices. If you eat fish or seafood, choose better‑sourced options and less of them. If you don’t, look instead at how much of your weekly food is wrapped in plastic and where you might swap one or two things for bulk or unpackaged versions.

  
  

Training and racing

• Adopt a zero‑litter rule. This sounds obvious, but it only takes one gel wrapper that slips out of a pocket, or one “I’ll pick it up on the way back” that never happens. Make it as non‑negotiable as showing up with your shoes: nothing stays behind.

• The “trash pocket.” Dedicate one pocket in your vest or shorts to trash—yours and whatever small pieces you pick up. On some days, you’ll bring nothing back. On other days, you’ll arrive home with a handful of wrappers that won’t end up in a river.

• Prefer lower‑waste events. When you can, choose races that are cupless or that clearly work to reduce single‑use plastics, and support them. If you love a race that still uses mountains of cups, write them a kind email or message asking about alternatives.

• Do “cleanup sessions.” Once a month, turn an easy run, walk, or family outing into a simple clean‑up. Ten minutes before or after your session with a bag and gloves is plenty. You don’t have to collect every piece of trash you see; you just have to collect some.

Transport and energy

• Rethink your commutes. Could one weekly session be done from home instead of driving somewhere scenic “just because”? Can you carpool to training or races? Can you choose one local event instead of flying across the continent for every big goal?

• Bundle your miles. If you need to run and you need to run errands, can one become part of the other? A run‑commute once a week or a “run to the store and back” session won’t save the world, but it nudges your default in a better direction.

Community and voice

• Normalize talking about it. Share what you’re doing: your reusable setup, your cleanup run, your choice to skip a race because the travel didn’t sit right. Not as a performance of virtue, but as a quiet, repeated statement that this matters to you.

• Plug into organizations doing the heavy lifting. Individual actions matter, but policy and large‑scale projects matter too. Environmental groups—especially those focused on oceans, rivers, and coasts—are the ones pushing for systemic change, organizing cleanups, and pressuring companies and governments.

  
  

Why I chose Ocean Conservancy

This year, I decided to point my own “trash and pollution” energy toward the ocean. That’s why I chose Ocean Conservancy for my birthday challenge. They work on things I care deeply about: protecting ocean ecosystems, reducing marine debris, supporting coastal communities, and pushing for better policies so that the responsibility doesn’t fall only on individuals cleaning beaches one bag at a time.

My logic was simple: I want my miles and my small platform to feed into something bigger than me. Donating directly or fundraising for an organization like this means my concern turns into actual resources for people whose full‑time job is to protect the oceans.

That doesn’t make my own habits irrelevant; it makes them part of a bigger picture. First, I look at my own bin and my own routes, then I look at who is working upstream and ask, “How can I support you?”

Your turn: pick your three

You don’t have to do everything. You don’t have to fundraise. You don’t have to pick Ocean Conservancy. But if this resonates, you can choose three actions for this month:

• One daily habit to change (for example, always carry a reusable bottle and cup).

• One training habit to change (for example, a monthly cleanup run or a strict zero‑litter rule).

• One community action (for example, support an environmental organization, join a local cleanup, or share one honest post about why you care).

  
  

Movement is how we train our bodies. Repetition is how we change our patterns. The same is true here. Pick your three, repeat them, and let your miles leave the world just a little cleaner than you found it.