Ski to Sea 2012 is still more than six months of cold, wet weather away, but organizers are already deep into planning for Whatcom County's annual community sports kickoff to summer.
The race committee announced a number of tweaks to the annual Memorial Day Weekend, seven-leg relay race from the Mt. Baker Ski Area to Fairhaven in its electronic newsletter on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
Included among those changes was the announcement that the start of the race is being pushed forward 15 minutes to 7:45 a.m.
"This is simply because we're trying to make it easier for the majority of the teams to be at the awards ceremony in Fairhaven at 6 p.m.," race director Pete Coy said in a phone interview. "Our goal is to have all the kayaks on the water by 5 p.m. so that everybody can be finished by 6 and allow racers to go to the finish line, have a beer and get ready for the awards ceremony."
Last year's race was unusual, because the race lengthened its course to 100 miles to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Mount Baker Marathon - the race that inspired today's Ski to Sea race. Because of that extra mileage, Coy said about half of the teams weren't allowed to paddle on the bay.
The race course should be back in the 90- to 95-mile range this year, as the mountain bike course will be shortened to its pre-2011 length of approximately 14 miles, eliminating most of the loops that were added last year to stretch it to 20.
"We're still looking at the first loop that we put in for 2011," Coy said. "It had a nice hill that made it a challenge for racers. But the mountain biking course will probably be pretty similar to what it was in the years before 2011."
Coy said the race probably will stick with the new course it used for the road biking leg in 2011, though, taking bikers down Silver Lake Road, rather than Kendall Road, on their way to Everson.
"We had a lot of positive feedback about that move," Coy said. "It got riders off the Mount Baker Highway and onto some country roads a lot earlier. It was quieter and safer, and there weren't the rumple strips along the side of the roadway."
That won't be the only change for the leg, though. The newsletter also announced that the Recreational Divisions "can have aerodynamic aids such as aero type handlebars, disk or composite wheels or wheel covers."
Coy said this was a change that was made mostly to make rules enforcement easier.
"We're just eliminating the special limitation for the recreation division and letting everybody race with the same equipment," Coy said. "We already do that in most every other leg, except for the canoe and kayak, and that's purely for safety."
The newsletter also announced that the race packet pickup will be available one day only on Saturday, May 26, this spring. Coy said this was so that the Block Party at Boundary Brewery could be moved to Friday, May 25, and allow race organizers to make the packet pickup more of an event along with the annual Recreational Expo, giving racers an opportunity to talk to local equipment dealers and stores and receive last-minute Ski to Sea race tips from experts.
"We're working on a few other things, but those are the important changes at this time," Coy said.
Reach David Rasbach at david.rasbach@bellinghamherald.com or 360-715-2271.
