Dutch Grand Plog

Wow.. Zandvoort, I love you!

18 days in the lead up to the Dutch Grand Prix.

306.6km plogged. Every street in Zandvoort plogged. 4,460L of trash collected

All while wearing an F1 racing driver's suit (including helmet)!

But the real story was the amazing people of Zandvoort

How it happened

In February the Zandvoort Race Festival came to me and said.. "We would like you to do some sort of plogging event for the Dutch Grand Prix. what do you think?"

I think they expected me to say "Yeah, let's do a cleanup/plog event"

But instead, I said "Let's NOT do a cleanup event! It is great, but I only clean up one area for one day. I think we can make a bigger impact"

So I came up with the #DutchGrandPlog.

The original idea was to run/plog every street in Zandvoort (around 60+ km - which in reality is around 120km of running by the time you cover all those streets).

"Let's make all of Zandvoort clean BEFORE the race, to show the world how wonderful Zandvoort is"

So I said I will do it in the 2 weeks before the race.

And then I added, "If you get me a race suit and helmet, I do it wearing that!"

They loved the idea!

From my perspective, it sounded fun.. but then again thinking about running in a driver's helmet sounds like fun in Feb, but in Aug it isn't so much fun! haha

I still had a job at the time, so I thought I do it before and after work.

But then I lost my job

The Dutch Grand Plog gave me confidence that I could make this professional plogger thing work.

How it went

So... no job.

No pressure to get it done in the morning and evening

That sounds like a chance to see what I could do without that restriction!!

And.. WOW. It was amazing.

New Target (200km)

The first change I decided to make was plog more.

I was planning on doing it over two weeks so I decided to cover 100km a week (so 200km for the adventure)

I was still going to cover every street, but I could also cover some of the beautiful bike paths behind Zandvoort (National Park Zuid Kennemerland) and also chill a bit more and do some streets a few times.

It also meant I could do it during the day!!!

That meant I saw more people, and as a result - make a bigger impact

Which bring me on to the real story

Zandvoort Facebook Community

Someone suggested that I post, about what I am doing, in the Zandvoort Facebook Group(s)

THIS CHANGED EVERYTHING!!!!

Wow.

The idea was to make this a positive story about making Zandvoort look at its best for the GP

But the story turned out to be a celebration of the people living in Zandvoort.

Suddenly from that Facebook post, everyone seemed to know me!

I was stopping on every street to speak to people (I was kinda glad as it gave me a chance to take the helmet off! hahah - but before I started running again, I put it back on)

The community were amazing.

People gave me drinks.

Everyone waved and cheered me.

It was... truly.. amazing.

It was no longer a story about trash, but the wonderful community of Zandvoort.

THANK YOU ZANDVOORT!

Extension

The community were so supportive and incredible, that the Race Festival called me and said "would you continue over the weekend?"

The plan was to stop before the race weekend, but now I was going to do an extra 4 days (I decided to make the day after the F1 race, my last day)

But that screwed up my 200km goal

Time for a new target

306.6km

Just like always, it gave me a chance to push myself further!

So I decided to do an extra 106.6km in the four days.

306.6km is the distance of the race itself.. a perfect number to chase

Was it tough?

hahahahha

People asked if I was hot in the suit and helmet.

My reply: "If it rains I am cold and wet. If it doesn't rain, I am hot and wet!"

When I first put the suit on and started running, the helmet was soaked in 3km!

It was 18 days before I could get the helmet dry again haha

What an adventure!

Potential For Other Events and Sponsors

I think what I managed to achieve here was really special. It showed me that ploggers have a chance to inspire the community in the lead up to big events. The #plogeverystreet idea is so simple but so valuable.

And for festivals and other events, the attention it gets is incredible - and something that is attractive to sponsors.

I hope this is the first of many such events

Here is a video that was made my ViaPay (who showed the race on pay per view) - they were really enthusiastic about what I was doing.. so cool.