Time To Act

This has to stop

Through competing and organising I have become acutely aware of how much waste, packaging, shipping and general carbon footprint can occur in the event world. We want to reduce all of this.
 
We are going to have a set of swim hats for ALL our swim events. They will be high-quality, number-printed, and made in the UK. We will hand them out at registration of each event and collect them in at the end. We will be donating our remaining surplus swim hats from previous events to local swim clubs in Tywyn, Machynlleth and Aberystwyth.  

We have never given out medals as we have always seen them as a waste of the earth's resources, however we have always given out a race souvenir to all participants. These have always had a use, such as our local slate coasters (made from slate quarried 15 miles away), our bottle-opener fridge magnets, our re-usable race cups, and our CADAIR X mugs. There is room for improvement here and we are working on it.

We are looking into options regarding a supplier of high-quality, organic, sustainable and ethically produced hoodies (UK based). These hoodies will be made to order. If you have a  recommendation please let me know - mike@weswimrun.org

Reusable race cups given to Cadair X runners

There is a train station 5 minutes walk from our Aberdovey swims, which runs from Birmingham, Aberystwyth and Pwllheli; and a bus stop 30 seconds walk from our Tal Y Llyn swims & CADAIR X, which runs between Dolgellau and Tywyn. We have informally helped with car shares via our facebook page. We are now going to actively encourage, and help to facilitate this for all future events.

We are proud that all of our water safety team & marshals live within 12 miles of our events. They are experienced & qualified outdoor professionals who live and work on the coastlines, rivers & mountains of South Snowdonia, year round, all seasons, whatever the weather. Our Professional Event Photographer, Dan Wyre, also lives within this 12 mile radius.

Our nutrition partner WILD TRAIL Snacks is based just 4 miles from Aberdovey and 10 miles from Tal Y Llyn, that's pretty local. The bars are produced on site and I pick them up myself when passing through Tywyn.

We will continue to limit numbers of participants to a maximum of 200 (most of our events have a maximum of 100), we feel it's a better experience for everyone this way.

We have become a member of the SURFERS AGAINST SEWAGE 250 Club, a small donation from every entry will go to this great organisation.

We are working with our prize partners HEAD Swimming, SMOCSMOC and SELKIE Swim Co. to further reduce waste & carbon footprint. This may take time to develop but we are moving in the right direction.

​Reduce, Re-use, Recycle. We are far from perfect but we have made a start, more work to be done...

I found these gathering dust on top of my kitchen units. I've since found a few more and I'm going to make something useful out of them...