Determined to Deliver

If you’ve ever run in an outdoor marathon you’ve probably grown quite familiar with the portable restroom. In fact, there’s a good chance the portable restroom plays an important role with your pre-race routine. Conveniently located at the starting line, the porta potty is there when you need it most and can help you shed that extra unwanted water weight from early pre-race hydration.

As a marathon runner, or spectator, you may have once wondered how all the portable toilets seem to magically appear and disappear before and after each race. While we’d love to say it’s as easy as waving a magician’s wand, it’s actually a rather difficult and labor intensive process. To give you an idea on how this operational masterpiece works, we have put together a short 4 minute documentary that highlights a high profile marathon in the heart of Chicago from start to finish.

This video begins 72 hours prior to the 2013 Chicago Half Marathon and showcases our team diligently working to load one of the ten box trucks with aid station supplies including: bottled water, Gatorade, drinking cups, rakes, blowers and more. Once loaded, each of these trucks will be delivered to a designated part of the course where volunteers will work to unload the aid station supplies and provide runners with the proper hydration they require.

Along with delivering the aid station supplies, Service Sanitation also provided the sanitation equipment that the marathon required including: 400+ portable restrooms, dozens of handwash stations  and 2,000+ rolls of toilet paper. The delivery of the restrooms began 48 hours prior to the marathon and three crews worked aggressively to complete the task. The starting line and VIP zones were among the first staging areas completed and the toilets on the course, which included Lake Shore Drive, were delivered on race day. It was quite the responsibility, but our team was eager and ready to take on these duties!

As you know, keeping our parks clean is also very important! To help assist with clean-up, our parent company Homewood Disposal was called into action to help with the marathon clean-up. Some of their tasks included garbage toter removal and street sweeping. They also followed behind our restroom trucks to pickup any loose garbage or debris that was left behind at each aid station. Following our large processional were two state-of-the-art street sweeping vehicles that collected any small items that may have been left behind, leaving the streets cleaner than when we first arrived.

As you can see by watching this video, things need to move quickly and efficiently. With pressure from The City and the promoters, it was important that our team orchestrated this task flawlessly. This year we wrapped up the course cleanup by 9:13am for Northbound Lake Shore Drive and 10:12am for Southbound Lake Shore Drive. No fines were issued from The City and we completed our task 12 minutes ahead of schedule. Just another example of how Service Sanitation does “Whatever it Takes”. To learn more about special event sanitation services please feel free to contact us at 800-909-5646.