The Oshkosh art teacher won the race in 1 hour, 8 minutes, 57 seconds. Moments later reality began to set in for the race organizers. The inaugural event went off without a hitch, drawing 581 participants. Less than a year earlier the idea of the race was first tossed around over pancakes at Al Johnson’s famed Sister Bay restaurant. Though thrilled with the results, it was apparent to organizers that the race was going to get much bigger. The logistics were likely to grow more complicated, too. Ryf, a veteran of over 200 competitive races and 15 marathons, said he expects the number of runners at this year’s race on May 3 to double if not triple.
The course received high praise from Roy Pirrung, a member of the USA Track & Field Masters Hall of Fame who has run over 800 races. “This was one of the best half marathon courses I have ever run,” he said. “It was like running on a track through the forest.”
The USATF-certified course has tremendous selling points. The race weaves through Peninsula State Park, one of the region’s most popular and revered destinations for golfing, boating, camping and wildlife watching. The course is closed to traffic for the race and provides runners and fans with panoramic bluff-top vistas of the Door County shoreline.
Other events booming
But the half marathon is just the latest addition to a burgeoning slate of races and rides that take advantage of the renowned scenery of the Door County peninsula. The popularity of the half marathon and more established Door County Triathlon, Fall 50 and Door County Century Ride are all showing that the peninsula is far more than a retirement destination. The rapid growth of these events makes one wonder why it took so long for Door County’s silent sports potential to be realized.
“It seemed like a natural,” said Sean Ryan, who launched the Door County Triathlon in Egg Harbor five years ago. This year the event will take place over two days, July 18-19, with nearly 2,000 participants expected.
“At first, I couldn’t quite get my mind around why Door County was such a great place,” said Ryan, who organizes several Wisconsin races, including the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon. “Since then, I’ve come to realize it’s more than the tourism amenities and beauty. It’s the vast expanses of unspoiled landscape between these great little villages. It’s that combination that makes it special.”
An active alliance
Now a group of enthusiasts has banded together to solidify the county’s reputation for outdoor recreation. The Door County Silent Sports Alliance took shape in 2007 to bring the outdoor recreation community together to improve trails, access and local promotion of silent sports.
In just two years’ time, DCSSA has become a major player in the community, getting bike routes included in comprehensive plans and transportation agendas and helping get Safe Routes to School ideas included in the reconstruction of a dangerous stretch of road in Sturgeon Bay. The group has initiated discussions to redesign mountain bike and cross-country ski trails at Peninsula and Potawatomi state parks, and has nudged a foot in the door of the county’s tourism marketing effort.
“We’re just trying to make Door County a more friendly place for silent sports,” said Bob Dickson, the group’s president and owner of the Shallows Resort on the Egg Harbor shore. “I think we’ve gained a little bit of traction.”
That traction includes helping bring about improvements at the county’s five state parks such as expanded bike trails and improved relations with bikers as well as better access to resources and water for silent sports enthusiasts.
Dickson is an avid mountain biker and cross-country skier. He sees silent sports promotion as an opportunity to reinvigorate and grow the county’s visitor base, while also improving the quality of life for local residents.
Younger crowd sought
Dickson admitted that DCSSA was formed somewhat out of frustration. “We needed to get the voice of active residents heard, but also to get those sometimes disparate groups of people to work together,” he said. “We were asking how do we get involved with these other groups and realize we’re all working toward the same thing?”
Dickson moved to Door County in 1995 and is cognizant of the county’s particular attraction to older visitors. The local population is aging, too. “I didn’t move here to live in a retirement community,” he said. He wants to see younger people on the streets of the peninsula’s villages, and silent sports promotion is an avenue to do that.
Ryan said many area business owners told him they didn’t understand what a triathlon was until they saw the type of visitor the event has attracted. “After one race, seeing the types of individuals and clientele it brings up, they really bought into it,” he said. “It skews the visitor balance to a younger, more active demographic and changes the impression (of the area to outsiders). It becomes more than just a place to go relax and golf.”
Silent sports
beget conservation
In a community where preservation of natural resources is paramount, silent sports is a perfect fit for Door County. It’s an economic driver that doesn’t insist on more impervious surface, storm water runoff or billboards. On the contrary, scenic vistas are seen by silent sports participants as more valuable as part of the public domain rather than sequestered behind condominiums and vacation homes.
The events themselves can have minimal impact when run well. Ryan said he puts great emphasis on the cleanup following his races. “One weekend a year Door County becomes a playground for triathletes. The rest of the year it remains a pristine rural landscape,” he said.
As silent sports opportunities grow and become a more important part of a community’s economic and environmental identity, the value of conservation increases.
“There are a lot of people out there who want to preserve what we have,” said Margaret Carroll, an active DCSSA member. “The Silent Sports Alliance is about making sure we’re all working together.”
Carroll is an open-water swimmer who moved to Sturgeon Bay in the summer of 2008. She joined DCSSA shortly thereafter because she wanted to meet people with similar passions about otherwise solitary pursuits. “I moved here for the great outdoors, and a lot of people would move here or vacation here if they knew the whole story,” Carroll said.
Myles Dannhausen Jr. is the news editor for the Peninsula Pulse newspaper in Door County and coaches boys varsity basketball at Gibraltar High School. He catches the off-road bike trail at Peninsula State Park a couple hundred feet from his front door in Fish Creek.
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