Top Five Reasons Why YOU Should Get Involved in The Great Climate Race

This post has been updated since originally being posted September 15, 2015

Maybe you’ve been meaning to register but haven’t gotten around to it yet. If that’s the case here is your chance. All the details and the registration link can be found here www.greatclimaterace.org/race-details.

Don’t forget get 10% off by using my friends and family discount code: ImBringingFriends.

Or maybe you think this event isn’t for you because you aren’t a runner or you won’t be in town but hear me out…

Here are the top five reasons people have told me they are hesitating to get involved in the Great Climate Race

1. What if you aren’t a runner? We have a wide range of participants registering for this event. There will be some elite runners competing. Also there is a senior citizen I spoke to at a church the other day who will be walking around the seawall with a walker. I tried to convince her to just do the 2.5k walk around Lost Lagoon. But she insisted that she had walked the Seawall before and she was so committed to doing something about climate change that she wanted to do the full 10k. She is collected pledges based on how many kilometers of the race she completes. Great idea right? Our MC Don Ryder promises he will be there until the last person crosses the finish line (I will too). I’m sure you can walk around the Lost Lagoon or the seawall and if you want to give running or jogging a try we have weekly training runs and all kinds of other fun opportunities to train. It’s a great excuse to focus on your personal health as well as the health of the planet at the same time. This will be a first time race for many participants.

2. What if it’s too expensive for you? We are providing student, low income and seniors discounts. Send me an email at Ben@GreatClimateRace.org and I can send you a discount code for up to 50% off. Also we have volunteer opportunities to help us pre-race and if you work 2 shifts (4 hours each) you can have a free registration. We have done everything we can to keep the prices low and still make this a unique experience. We have a team of artists and performers who will make this a one of a kind experience. Also of course we have a team working to organize the event itself and others who helped build our website and so forth. Even with some awesome sponsors coming on line putting together an event of this scale costs a lot. Just so you know, every participant who registers for the inaugural event, gets a lifetime discount for all future Great Climate Race events.

3. What if you won’t be in town on race day? We have decided to hold a “virtual race” that allows people to participate from wherever they are! You can find all the details here http://greatclimaterace.org/virtualrace

You can participate any time in the last week of October right up to the October 30th, race day. You can go for a run wherever you are and upload your results on our website and on social media. You can even participate in real time on the same day if you want. All of your content will be included in our nifty social media wall on race day and you will be part of the video of our inaugural event. Virtual participants also qualify for prizes and discounts on Great Climate Race swag (have you checked out our store?). We already have people signed up in Morocco, Grenada, California, Toronto and more.

4. What if you are worried about the weather? What can I say… this is Vancouver. It rains. We could plan an event in June and it could end up raining too. It might be a lovely day it might not. You get a free hat with your registration so that should help keep your head warm. You can also wear a warm costume if you want (did I mention all the fun costumes people are planning? There will be polar bears and superheroes galore). Or you can just run. That will keep you warm. I ran through all of last winter training for the Vancouver Marathon. I actually preferred it to running in the heat in the summer.

REMINDER: This is a run focused on taking action on climate change. To make the solutions a reality we are all going to have to go outside of our comfort zone a bit.

5. What if you would rather donate or volunteer? That is great too! We need a couple hundred volunteers on race day and a lot of them to help promote the event between now and then too. Here is our volunteer page. http://www.greatclimaterace.org/volunteer

We also very much appreciate financial support. If you want to pledge support for a runner you can do that here: http://supportme.greatclimaterace.org/solo

Anyways, can you tell I really want you to register for the race? I have been working my butt off on this event and I could really use your support. I know I have invited you to a ton of different things over the years but this one is different. This is not an event I am working on on behalf of an NGO this is a personal passion project that my partner Mari and I have co-founded and we are bootstrapping it into reality. We want to provide a way to empower people to be part of meaningful climate solutions in their own communities. People are hungry for solutions and it’s hard to know what to do. Already we are reaching far beyond the so-called “usual suspects” that come to rallies. Last year at our inaugural event we had over 1,100 people at our event in Vancouver and 300 more in our virtual race. Only 150 of those people were people that we knew from being involved in environmental campaigns.

I see this as a critical way to continue growing the movement for action on climate change at a critical moment. Climate change is a race against time, we have no time to lose.

Lotsa love,

ben

Originally published at www.greatclimaterace.org.