Sports - Ski to Sea

POSTED: Friday, May. 22, 2009

Race director: Big plans still remain for Ski to Sea

While the race may change from year to year, two things have remained relatively constant during the 36-year history of Ski to Sea - a goal to be the premier community sporting event Whatcom County and the race director.

Pete Coy, who is preparing to serve as Ski to Sea Race Director for the third time, is only the third person to hold the post. During his short tenure, the race has entered the electronic timing age and this year will undergo a major face lift to the mountain biking leg.

Coy has been a Bellingham resident since he moved to the area in 1965 to attend Western Washington University. He is a salesman for RE/MAX Whatcom County, and he and his wife have two children and two grandkids who no longer live in Whatcom County.

He recently took a few minutes from his busy schedule of race preparations to discuss last year's race, this year's race and where the race is headed in the coming years.

Question: You're now approaching your third Ski to Sea as race director. How would you describe the first two years?

Answer: Well, there was certainly a learning experience during the first year, because nothing had been written down by any of my predecessors. I tend to be extremely organized. So the first year was spent getting everything organized. The second year I could implement many of my plans and ideas. This year I'll be able to implement even more of my plans and ideas.

Q: What do you rate as your biggest success during your first two years as race director?

A: Organization. That's it in a nutshell. I went into this job with a list of about 150 ideas I wanted to implement, but until I got everything organized and made sure everybody knew what they were supposed to do, I couldn't implement them. Now that everybody understands what they're supposed to be doing, I can help work with them to make the race better for everyone.

Q: On the other side, what do you feel has been your biggest disappointment so far?

A: I'm disappointed we couldn't make the switch between running and mountain biking leg (a switch that the race committee looked at implementing for this year's race). That idea is not dead, but we ran out of time before the snow started falling. We just didn't have time to find a suitable way to bring the mountain bikers down the mountain in a way that was safe enough. So that idea had to be put on the back burner until we could find a suitable course.

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing Ski to Sea in the years to come?

A: Certainly this year we are nervous about how the economy will affect the number of teams we will get in the race. I've tried to research to see how the other relays in the Northwest have been doing. It appears that other races with strong local traditions have not had too many problems drawing teams. Seeing as how we have a very strong local tradition, I'm optimistic that we can come through this very well.

As of May 1 this year and May 1 last year, we had almost an identical number of teams registered, which was 374 (completed registration and paid).

The other things that I want to make sure is that we provide a maximum amount of services to racers without raising our registration fees.

Q: How many teams are you expecting for this year?

A: We can take up to 500. I expect we'll have more than 400 but not as many as we did last year.

Q: How have you found the economy is affecting teams?

A: For some of the teams that are from out of the area, travel is more prohibitive. Some other teams that rely on sponsors, the sponsors are a little short on cash. If we have any reduction of teams, I expect it will be entirely because of the economic conditions.

Q: How is the race itself weathering the current economic climate?

A: Financially, we're fine for the year.

Q: Corporate sponsorships are OK?

A: It's been a little more difficult than usual. The Chamber of Commerce has been responsible for that aspect, and certainly it has been difficult to find those sponsorship dollars.

Some of our sponsors, such as Joe's (Sports and Outdoors) have dropped out, but others have stepped in. We expect certain attrition every year. Every day we face challenges, and we figure out how to make do.

For example we were planning to do race packet pickup at Joe's Sports. When they went into liquidation, we decided to move the race packet pickup to Bellis Fair Mall where racers could still come in and shop and pick up their packet and we had room to do what we needed do.

Q: Any other problems you are expecting for this year's race?

A: There are certainly things that I'm looking at, such as swine flu and the river conditions and lots of other things I'm examining on a daily basis to see if conditions will change and if that will affect the race.

Q: One of the legs to the race - the mountain biking leg - is undergoing some major changes this year. What impact do you feel that will have on the race?

A: In the past I think the mountain bike leg of the race has been the most boring for the racers, because there were very few challenges for the riders. This year we have an entirely new course which is 65 percent off road and will include hills, heavy grasslands, mud and a number of other motocross type features that will make it a load of fun for the riders.

Having been over every aspect of this course over many years, I think that the mountain biking course will now be one of the most enjoyable legs of the race.

Q: As major as those changes are, they are not as big as some of the changes you were looking at making with the leg. You originally announced plans to switch the mountain biking and running legs. Are there still plans to look at making that move in the future?

A: Actually we're going to be looking at all the legs of the race this summer and evaluating them to make sure we have got the right leg of the race in the right place and making sure we can make each leg as strong as it can be.

Q: So any of the seven legs might be in a different place next year?

A: Obviously we have to keep the two skiing legs on the mountain where there's snow. The hardest part is finding the right recreational event between the ski area and the bottom of the hill. Whether that's runners or mountain bikers or anything else, we want to make it as enjoyable as possible. We're going to be looking at the running leg, the road biking and the canoeing leg. Those three are the main ones.

Q: I notice you didn't mention the mountain biking leg among those three.

A: What we'd like to do is put mountain biking leg up on the mountain. If that's not possible, I'm pretty happy with where it is.

The problem with where it is, is that so much of it is on private land. Those owners have been very gracious to let us use their land on race day and for practice the day before the race. But we don't know that we are always going to be able to use the land, so we need to look for a more permanent location for that course.

Q: What other changes have been made this year that will impact the race?

A: Moving the race time to 8 a.m. is a significant change because it means people will have to leave Bellingham earlier. The whole purpose is to get all teams finished in a reasonable time. We're adding five miles to the race (for the new mountain biking leg) - that is certainly something we needed to think about.

In prior years we have released mountain bikers (at Hovander Park in Ferndale) at 4:30 (p.m.) and any kayakers at Squalicum (Harbor) at 5 p.m. The result is there are some traditionally slow teams that fall further and further behind as the race goes on. To help these teams this year, we will take the last eight to 10 teams and issue them new chips and let them start at the same time. This will allow them to get started early and compete against the eight to 10 teams that they are released with. I think it will make it a more enjoyable experience for each of those teams and help make us sure everybody is off the course in a reasonable time.

Q: What other changes do you see on the horizon for Ski to Sea?

A: I suspect that the technology will improve in the coming years so that we can move to some sort of active timing chip that will bounce a signal off a satellite so that we can see exactly where each team is on the course at any time.

Now we're using active timing, which tells us when each team crosses one of the seven finish lines. That will allow people who have signed up to receive our text message alerts to receive those times and know about where their team is on the course. That is a big change for this year.

There are many other changes and improvements that I plan to make to the race, but it's too early in the planning process to talk about those at this point.

Q: Is the electronic chip timing where you would like it to be as Ski to Sea prepares to use a timing system for the third year?

A: We're using Milliseconds again this year. They were our timer last year, but not the first year. We've gone to the active timing system that will load the times to the Web Site as soon as a team crosses one of the finish lines and send out the text messages.

I think Milliseconds learned a lot about how we operate last year, and they have made some changes to help improve what they can do. I'm optimistic about where we are with electronic timing at this point.

Q: Last year the race committee formed a Green Team in the hopes of reducing the race's footprint on the environment. You said last year was all about setting a baseline. What did you learn?

A: It was a learning process where we tried to evaluate if we were doing the right things and if it was successful. Our conclusion was that we can do a lot more.

For example, we have recycle bins at the finish line of every leg, but many of the recycle bins were contaminated with the wrong types of material and had to be discarded as garbage. We don't want that to happen again.

So this year we have more recycle bins and everyone one them will have an attendant, who is a Girl Scout. They will educate people what can be put in the recycle bins.

We are also collecting a green fee this year, which is optional and about 35 percent of the teams agreed to pay it. We will be using that fee to reduce our impact and will be donating to several groups in the area that are working with us toward that cause.

Q: Last year was a bit unprecedented with the cancellation of the canoeing leg because of dangerously high water levels on the Nooksack River and the shortening of the kayaking leg because of afternoon winds on Bellingham Bay. Obviously racer's safety was the reason behind both decisions. What did you hear from racers after last year's race?

A: We had to make the decision on cancelling the canoeing leg before I got to the exchange area at Riverside Park in Everson. I was expecting people to be upset. I was surprised to have some of them come up to me and say, "Thank you. You may have saved my life today."

I think a number of people were nervous about paddling in that high, fast water. Though some of the elite teams could have made it, it's the recreational-level competitors we have to consider when we think about what safety measures have to be instituted.

Safety will always come first. It has to.

Q: What did the race committee learn from those situations to use should similar conditions arise in the future?

A: To have a backup plan. Because I saw last year what had happened with some of the rivers in King County, I developed a plan for what to do should that because necessary on race day. I explained that plan to the race committee, and they implemented it and it worked almost flawlessly.

The reason it wasn't perfect is we had an equipment failure at the end of the road biking leg in Everson, making it so we could not pass their finish times down to Hovander Park in Ferndale as we had planned. We think we have that resolved for this year and there will be backup equipment at every site, and that kind of thing won't happen again.

Q: How much of the race do you actually get to watch as race director?

A: I'm at every exchange point along the race and I'm in the VIP van, and we follow some of the top teams down. So I see the top teams finish at most finish lines, but I don't see the majority of the teams finish, expect at Marine Park where they come in between 2 and 6 p.m.

Q: What is your favorite part of the race?

A: The friendship and fun that teams have as they work together to compete against friends and neighbors and watching them reminisce about their successes and failures at the finish line.

Q: What is it that makes Ski to Sea so unique?

A: It's the largest one-day local event, and it highlights the geographical diversity and recreation opportunities that we have here in Whatcom County. There are not many places that you can have snow skiing events and paddling events in the same day. It highlights the beauty and the recreational opportunities that we have in this region.