Door County’s Fall 50 Run Seeks a Foothold

Door County is growing as an outdoor athlete’s destination, gaining national attention as a top kayaking, biking, and running locale. Now the second installment of the Fall 50 hopes to expand the peninsula’s standing as a hotspot for endurance athletes.

Sean Ryan launched the Door County Triathlon in 2005 and added the Fall 50 last year. The 36 year-old Green Bay man said the race sprung out of another event he heads up, the Door County Triathlon, held each July at Murphy Park in Egg Harbor. After the inaugural triathlon in 2005 Ryan said the Door County Visitor Bureau was excited about the event but a little disappointed with the calendar placement.

“They were looking for an event outside the peak season,” Ryan said. “I said that’s fine, as long as you don’t want swimming. Jon Jarosh suggested a marathon, but I’m hesitant about that because you need a lot of course support. It’s very operationally intensive.”

Ryan runs the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon as well and said that event requires over 700 race-day volunteers to man stations at every mile. Over 150 volunteers were needed for this year’s triathlon. In comparison, last year’s inaugural Fall 50 used just 20.

The other problem Ryan saw with a marathon was length. He said a marathon, at 26.2 miles, is relatively short.

“How can 26 miles do any justice to the scenic beauty of Door County?” he asked.

So Ryan took a day to drive from the northern tip of the peninsula to its population center, Sturgeon Bay. After winding through the villages and down a few back roads he pulled into the parking lot at Stone Harbor Resort in Sturgeon Bay with his odometer at exactly 50 miles.

“I thought certainly there was already a Fall 50 somewhere,” he said, “but when I looked it up on the Internet there was nothing. So I registered the domain name right away and got started.”

Ryan originally thought the race would be for relay teams only, but the number of solo “ultra-marathoners” who expressed interest pleasantly surprised him. These runners, from what Ryan calls the “ultra extreme athletic community,” often take part in races stretching 75 – 100 miles. By the time the race began, 24 solo runners and 35 teams stood at the starting line, for a total of 170 participants.

He said 50 teams and 25 solo runners were committed as of Sept. 4, edging him closer to his goal of 400 participants for this year’s race.

“I’ve done a lot of grass-roots marketing,” Ryan said. “We’ve sent brochures to a large database of runners throughout the state, gave information to people in the Door County Triathlon. We’ve already surpassed last year’s registration with six weeks to go.”

The racecourse is divided into 10 legs of three to eight miles each, with restrooms, parking, and hydration stations at each stop. The legs are of varying distances to accommodate runners of different levels, but also so if a team of five followed the standard approach – in which the first runner ran legs one and six, the second legs two and seven, and so on – they would end up running nearly equal distances.

Ryan said the response to the initial event was extremely positive. He has participants fill out a post-race survey at each event he runs and one of his primary questions is whether they would recommend the event to others.

“Last year’s was one of the only events where I’ve had a 100 percent yes response,” he said. “Normally at least a few people find something to quibble with.”

Ryan hopes Door County businesses come to embrace the event and recognize its potential as a tourism driver. He estimated 80 percent of runners are from out of the area, and since the run starts at 7 am in Gills Rock and ends with a party in Sturgeon Bay with all-you-can-eat food and drink, he figures most of those runners will stay at least two nights on the peninsula.

“When runners come to Door County they’ll also plan a family vacation around the event,” Ryan said. “Maybe some of them would have come here anyway, but the potential for this event is way above average because of the amenities Door County has.”

He said there’s a huge difference between a 5 or 10k run and an endurance event in terms of visitor draw.

“People typically aren’t going to travel far for a 5 or 10k,” he said. “But endurance athletes will drop serious money to find a new challenge. They’ll fly, book five nights, and spend a lot more money.”

He said his post-triathlon survey indicated that the 800 participants in 2006 booked 500 hotel room nights and he estimated this year’s 1,000 athletes booked as many as 800.

He stressed that the event isn’t solely for the serious endurance athlete by any means. In fact, he said he foresees the most growth in the relay portion.

“Those runners aren’t always as intense and want to have fun,” he said. “I’m looking into adding things like a scavenger hunt for those types of participants. The more we can do to make it more fun the better it is for everyone involved.”