Comet's Carry-On
Cleaning up Austin's Most Popular Trail
By Julia "Comet" Weatherby

Over the last couple of months, I've been enlisting the assistance of generous ARC members to volunteer at local races, especially those in the Distance Challenge series. It's an easy way for us to give back our fair share to the running community. In early September, I heard about the Town Lake Cleanup effort being organized and sponsored by the Town Lake Trail Foundation. The foundation would offer breakfast tacos, Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee and we would spend about three and a half hours picking up trash over a section of the trail. Lucky trash collectors would find one of several hidden prizes! I sent a request out to the ARC volunteer mailing list and was overwhelmed by the response. Thirteen ARC members gave up their morning to make the trail a better place.

On the cool morning of September 25, we met in the parking lot by Austin High School and were treated to a great breakfast, some trash bags and "Keep the Trash off the Trail" t-shirts. There were probably around 150 in all, and I noticed quite a few young people there from a local middle school. We split up into four groups and each group got a section of the trail to clean. I was a leader for one of the groups, which was made up of all the middle schoolers, their adult leaders and a few others. The middle school requires four hours of community service per semester and by participating in this, they got their requirement fulfilled in one day. We started at Deep Eddy and made our way to the end of our section, which was at Congress Avenue.

We were encouraged to spread out like a search line from the water to the road, looking for trash hidden in the underbrush. Naturally, most of the kids were much more interested in finding the hidden treasures. "Do you know where the prizes are hidden exactly? What are they?" It was quite the challenge keeping the group together. At some points, it was difficult to tell if the majority were ahead or behind me. Quite often, they'd get excited about finding trash along the trail and eagerly hunt towards the east. I'd have to run way ahead of them and slow them down as a group. With so many people having a tendency to get back on the trail in search of prizes, they sometimes got in the way of runners and walkers. I.d have to yell to them to "STAY OFF THE TRAIL!!" Being taught as a child to always stay on the trail, it was strange guiding them out into the trees and bushes. I was prepared to be bending over picking up trash that day, yet I think my efforts more closely resembled spending the morning herding cats.

I'm very pleased that I picked up more lost baby pacifiers than gel wrappers. It's obvious that most of you who use the trail respect it by not littering. I was reminded of how much our work was appreciated when passing runners and walkers kindly thanked us. The majority of the trash was under bushes, in parking lots and by the creeks and the lake. I'm sure we didn't get every piece of trash, but we filled up many, many garbage bags.

The weather was cool and cooperated all morning with our covered arms and legs. It was a dirty job, but I think we all got a great sense of accomplishment knowing we helped make the Town Lake Trail a cleaner place to run, walk and bike!

To join the low-volume mailing list and hear about other rewarding volunteer opportunities, please send a blank email to racevolunteers-subscribe@austinrunners.org


A father and son work together in cleaning the area near the stretching rock. People of all ages assisted in the Trail Cleanup.


They can run, too! The lead runner just discovered the first hidden treasure of the morning.

This article originally appeared in Running Austin, a bi-monthly publication of the Austin Runners Club.