Cómo convertirse en un corredor sostenible

Tina Muir ran the 2023 New Balance Bronx 10 Mile wearing a skirt made from discarded materials such as bar and gel wrappers.

This article is written by Tina Muir, a former elite runner, an environmental activist, and the co-author of Becoming a Sustainable Runner. She works with major marathons to help runners think about their environmental impact.

In 2016, everything was coming together for me. I represented my country in a world championship and lowered my personal best marathon time by five minutes. Incredible opportunities fell into my lap.

In 2017, I quit running and wasn’t sure I’d ever run again. I didn’t have a healthy relationship with myself or my body. I didn’t have a sustainable approach to running – and if I am honest, to my life.

I promised myself that if I were ever to run again, it would have to be different. It took years to untangle my identity as a fast runner from who I was. I was on a journey from burnout runner to becoming a sustainable runner.

The biggest unlock to get there? Connecting and embracing reciprocity with my community. I was giving, but it was breathing life into my running.

My passion for environmental advocacy was growing. I thought about the bag of trash my husband and I put out each week. If we were typical of households in the U.S. and other Western countries, where would it all fit? Surely, eventually we will run out of room.

Sustainability became the thing that people would talk to me about (other than running, of course). I could see in their eyes that speaking to the fear, guilt, and anxiety they felt about the future helped them to process. They got it off their hearts, leaving them open and eager to do their part.

This year, Zoë Rom and I published Becoming a Sustainable Runner. Our goal was to make it clear that sustainable running doesn’t only mean being an environmentally conscious runner. We can’t take care of our community if we are not taking care of ourselves. We can’t take care of our planet without making change at the community level. And our planet can’t give to us in the way it has the potential to if we are not able to receive it.

We wanted to make the book part guide, part personal stories. We wanted it to be part “Go get it,” part “Let’s slow down,” part “Here’s how you do it,” part “Find your own path.” We wanted to be vulnerable with our own imperfect journeys to show our readers that we are not perfect either.

It is not possible to be perfect within the systems we live in. Those who have contributed the most to the climate changes we are experiencing right now want us to believe that it falls on us as individuals. They want us to be so busy pointing fingers at one another about who is more “eco-friendly” that we forget to point fingers where they deserve to be, at them.

The only way we are going to figure a way through climate change is if we work together. Zoë and I both believe that the running community will be a powerful force to help us get there.

We need you. We need your unique set of personality traits, opportunities, connections, and passions. We can’t tell you what those are, but they will become clear as you begin your sustainability journey. That is the biggest way your individual actions, choices, and voice matter.

Tina will be running the TCS New York City Marathon on November 5. Stay tuned later this month for Tina’s tips and guidelines for minimizing your impact as you prepare for race week and race day in NYC.

You can also check out an interview with Tina on NYRR's YouTube channel here.