Green Daily

You're an athlete, and you're planning on participating in a race. What can you do to keep a light carbon footprint and still enjoy your experience? Bruce tells all:

1. Carpool – Travel with friends and/or fellow athletes from your community. If you don't know any, contact the race director to ask for names and email addresses. some race directors have social networking modules on their sites that allow athletes to communicate. Others provide a list of registrants with town or city locations that you can use to find a carpool companions.

2. Take public transport – this is not an option for many as the us has such a limited public transport system. Cities like Portland, Oregon or and San Francisco are better. and of course Europe has a much better public transport system.

3. Ride your bike – if the race is fairly close by – within 5-10 miles, then leave a little earlier and ride to the race site. You'll get warmed up in the process.

4. Offset your carbon emissions -- especially if you're flying to an event, but also if you are driving. For example, according to The Council for Responsible Sport , 1,787 athletes who took part in the Ironman Championship in Hawaii last year flew a combined total of over 18 million miles round-trip to participate in the race. This equates to almost 24 million lbs of greenhouse gases, according to the CRS.

5. If you plan to stay overnight – Some race directors offer a 'home stay' option for athletes, so instead of using a hotel you stay with a local family, thus reducing your carbon footprint.

And Bruce practices what he preaches: he tries his best to carpool to races, and offset his carbon emissions. He uses recycling bins, if available at races, or takes his plastics and paper home to recycle. If there's time after the race, he'll pitch in to help pick up litter.