The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon this Sunday will be environmentally friendly--with organic cookies for the runners, aggressive recycling efforts and new trees along the course, organizers said.

This year's race, expected to attract about 1.5 million spectators, is the first in which a whole range of environmentally friendly practices will be carried out, organizers said. The marathon's primary sponsor, LaSalle Bank, led the effort, coordinating with city departments and vendors.

Organizers said they hope people will take at least some of the practices home after they see how easy it is to do things that protect the environment.

"The whole issue of sustainability is very important to our organization," said Mark Nystuen, executive vice president at LaSalle Bank. "This was a great way to lead by example, as our single most visible event of the year."

We will be "adding recycling cans all around for the [Health and Fitness] Expo, at the start and finish line, and where we can along the course," Nystuen said. "With the million and a half spectators, there's a great opportunity to recycle there."

For the first time in the marathon's history, Whole Foods, a health-food purveyor, will be part of the event. Runners at the finish line will be greeted with a display of organic snacks that will include fig bars, English muffins, bananas and apples.

"We're doing some specialized signage [so that the organic food] is visible to the spectators," said Scott Curcio, associate director of marketing for Whole Foods Market's Midwest regional office.

"It means that organic is getting a nice little boost. If it exposes it to a group of people who hadn't heard of it before ... and they eventually try it out. Then we've all won."

The air promises to be cleaner this year for runners and visitors: Whole Foods plans to cart food for the race and the Health and Fitness Expo, an event held alongside the marathon, in biodiesel-fueled trucks, which emit fewer emissions than their diesel counterparts, Curcio said.

"Those trucks are about as clean as you can get," he said.

Runners and spectators also will see a leafier course. More than 75 elms, maples and several other types of trees were planted along the western part of the Loop in September to cool down what are called "heat islands," non-vegetated areas that absorb heat and raise temperatures during summer months.

Trees also can take in earth-warming carbon dioxide, said Brian Steele, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation.

The tree-planting project, which will continue in coming years, was organized in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Environment, the Department of Transportation and Mayor Richard Daley's GreenStreets program, an urban forestry effort that has been in place for 17 years, Steele said.

"The idea was, let's combine this successful city program [GreenStreets] with this very successful city event," he said.

Chicago joins cities such as Los Angeles in efforts to make its annual marathon greener. Race coordinators there have launched recycling efforts, and the race's pace cars, provided by Honda, are among the lowest polluting on the market, said Laurence Cohen, spokesman for the Los Angeles Marathon.