We’ve all heard the ol’ Bring your own Beer right? Now, we have bring your own water bottle to the party. This is one of San Francisco’s biggest party on the streets called the Bay to Breaker footrace.  Have you noticed how little we think about what’s in the bottle, rather we spend lots of time thinking about recycling the bottle, or in this case reuse?

The race was energizing to hear about all weekend, and even more interesting was looking at all the race photos with bottles in hand on the news today. I was happy to see the new ‘bring your own water bottle’ program and was chuckling at how little we think about the expensive tap water inside of the bottle.

I ran down to the store before I posted today to see if Aquafina honestly portray their water as it really is. Tap Water.

The label  includes the words “Public Water Source”.  Now that’s a politically correct way of saying “tap water”.  I suppose since I found no proof that any of the bottled water at the store comes from what I see on the label, lets just stay in comical denial about their marketing tactics.  Often images on the label show mountains, snow or other bodies of water. For example, the label design on Aquafina (from Pepsi) gives me the feeling of mountains and snow; implying that Aquafina may be from a mountain spring, rather than bottled at Pepsi plants using processed municipal water. Coke’s Dasani, also one of the leading bottled water brands is processed municipal water with added minerals.  It’s not that I’m tickled that I keep getting duped by polished photos of salacious waterfalls and streams of the Rockies, more that at this weekends Bay to Breakers I doubt anyone was focused on how un-green our water is in these plastic bottles.

In San Francisco we are a step ahead of the water bottle movement.  San Francisco’s mayor banned city employees from using city funds to buy bottled water when tap water is available.

We San Franciscan’s, we aren’t just pumped about racing, we also know how to celebrate in costume. What an environmental kick this was. I got particularly excited by following who was going to win the “Green Costume Contest”. This race is not just about great runners but a wild costume contest with a real environmental twist.

There are a number of groups that use the foot race to get attention for their causes. In fact, this year, the costume contest included a GREEN award. Beth & Eli won the Best Green-Themed Costume Contest. Eli as a leatherback sea turtle and Beth as plastic in the sea that threatens turtles and other marine animals.

One environmental company, OceanHealth.org made a big green step by persuading thousands of runners to bring their own water bottle thru all kinds of marketing tactics.

Here’s a link to their OceanHealth.Org’s photostream

Bay to Breakers is an annual footrace that spans across the entire San Francisco peninsula. It starts at the edge of the bay and ends at Ocean Beach. Hence the name, Bay to Breakers.

The race was started in 1912, as a way to lift citizens spirits after the earthquake of 1906. Now, nearly a century later, Bay to Breakers is the longest consecutively running footrace in the world. Though numbers have changed throughout the years, the average participation currently is between 70,000 and 80,000 people! As you can imagine, this event is quite a sight to see.