Sell-Out Races, Future Plans

by Heather Johnson Durocher

Race season is just around the corner. And in northern Michigan, it seems more are racing than ever.

Consider the region’s annual first-weekend-of-summer sport tradition that is the Bayshore Marathon. Last December, when registration opened for the 28-year-old Memorial Day weekend event, both the marathon and half marathon filled in record times: three and a half days for the 26.2 mile race, and 17 hours for the 13.1 miler.

Similar sign-up frenzies occurred for this June’s M-22 Challenge  and this fall’s Iceman Cometh Challenge mountain bike race. New opportunities for racing are cropping up, too, like this weekend’s Mud, Sweat & Beers, a mountain bike race now in its second year, and the Cherry Roubaix, a TC road bike race that’s only four years old but already has been awarded the Michigan State Road Race Championship for 2011 and 2012.

Is it the landscape? The uniqueness of the races themselves? Or a wildly competitive spirit in the water? The Ticker caught up with a couple of local race directors to find out what makes their race such a hot option, and what they plan to do to accommodate – or not accommodate – the growing numbers of competitors.

The M-22 Challenge

What began three years ago as an event for a couple hundred athletes who could sign up as late as the day of has become a 550-capped, sold-out race. “It completely filled in about six hours,” says Keegan Myers, who, along with his brother, Matt, started the event.

Keegan credits word of mouth with the event’s buzz. “Social media is letting people talk about these events and get excited about them. There’s also the general concern about health, and it’s a really cool social way to meet people, instead of going to the bar or whatever.”

Motivated by the popularity of their M-22 race, the brothers tell The Ticker they’re planning a fall racing event; details to come.

Iceman Cometh

More than 4,000 riders will participate in this year’s Iceman Cometh Challenge. Last year the event filled within 12 hours. This year? Less than five hours. “It’s crazy,” says event director Steve Brown.

More than social media, he credits online registrations for the reason his race keeps filling faster. “The athletes, they’re all competitive people, so they’re seeing who can get online first and register,” he says.

Despite the flurry of entrants, Brown says he doesn’t anticipate expanding the participant field any time soon – because with it would come increased parking lot and trail congestion: “I really like the size that it is right now.”

Clearly, so do the riders.