It wasn’t long after Adrienne Schaefer moved to the Methow Valley 15 years ago that she began eyeing the opportunity to work for Methow Trails. A community-focused non-profit, the organization manages the area’s vast cross country skiing network, the largest such network in North America.
Luck was on her side when a position opened up a few years later and she took on the role of Program Manager and Event Director which, among other things, carries the responsibility for producing three incredibly fun, incredibly scenic, and incredibly successful events.
- Sunflower: a trail marathon and relay that offers stunning views of the North Cascades
- Cutthroat Classic: an 11 mile through run along the renowned Pacific Crest Trail
- Ski to the Sun: a marathon cross country ski version of the Sunflower event
Now, when I say “incredibly successful” I’m not exaggerating. Each of these events sells out every year. Sunflower – Methow Trail’s original running event now in its 46th year – sold out in just four hours this spring.
This is a problem every race would love to have, so Adrienne and I spent a lot of time talking about how they pull this off. In the end, it mostly boils down to a single word.
The Power of a Community
Community is an idea that’s easy to write in a blog post but hard to deliver on in real life. Methow Trails, however, does deliver on this concept across multiple, meaningful levels.
1) Helping Out-of-Towners Feel Like Locals for a Weekend
Many participants of their races live hours away in population centers like Seattle and Vancouver. Their roots are in the city but their hearts are in the mountains. Adrienne says her team of local volunteers does an amazing job of helping people feel welcome.
“Our volunteers are deeply connected to our organization. They want to share this beautiful place with others and do an incredible job of helping participants feel part of our community even if it’s only for a couple days and leave with a really positive experience.”
A simple example is that Adrienne knows many participants by name and, like seeing friends coming home after being away, excitedly welcomes them back to the event each year.
2) Community Input & Involvement
To be successful, events also need to have the greater community on their side beyond just runners and volunteers. So Adrienne plans her race calendar with everyone in mind.
“We hold our events on shoulder seasons when local businesses are able to sustainably handle the 400-1,200 participants coming to town. We even work with a local organic farm to cater lunch for participants and beer is provided by a popular brewery in town.”
Their courses pass through more than 170 private land parcels as well, so capacities are carefully controlled to maintain strong relationships with everyone involved.
3) A Race & Celebration for All
Adrienne has also moved their events away from a stiff, competitive vibe to more of a party that all can enjoy, no matter their finishing time.
“Putting these on is hard, so is participating in them. So we’ve shifted from an awards ceremony to a celebration of ‘we did this!’ for everyone involved. We give away free beer and there’s even a DJ to help kick off a post-race dance off.”
Only the top 3 men and women get awards and she doesn’t even give out finisher medals. But, with a cold beverage in hand, a smile on their faces, music pumping, and the surge of dopamine from accomplishing something hard, it sounds like nobody minds too much.
4) Past Participants Get Notified First
She also tries to reward the loyalty of her community as much as possible. One way is making sure that the first people to know about registration opening are people who have already participated.
“I appreciate that RunReg makes it easy to email all past participants and really build on that community by talking to that group first. I love being able to support people who have supported us in the past.”
Roll all these things up and in some years that email is all the marketing they have to do to sell out yet another event. I’d imagine there are more than a few event directors who would love their marketing strategy to be that simple.
Hard Work, Proud Partners
Adrienne didn’t shy away from the work required to run these events. Most of the organization’s revenue comes from their operations as a cross country ski area, so these races truly are ways to give back and celebrate the incredible place they call home. Yet, with people at the core of everything she does, these races continue to be worth it for her, Methow Trails, and the community that loves this incredible corner of the world.
Across much of that journey has been the team at athleteReg. When I asked her why she loves our platform, her answer was simple.
“It’s easy to use. Registration is easy for the participants and, if I ever have a question or hiccup when I’m setting up my event, the support team is always open and receptive to helping me. It really is a no brainer. We’ve had lots of sales people try to get us to switch, but the RunReg team has been so good to us so far and so easy to work with.”
We’re proud to play a small part in stories like this one and support people like Adrienne in their quest to get people outside and connect with nature and their fellow humans through incredible events like these. Want to learn more about their races? Links are below.
Sunflower:
https://methowtrails.org/events/sunflower
Cutthroat Classic:
https://methowtrails.org/events/cutthroat-classic
Ski to the Sun:
https://methowtrails.org/events/ski-to-the-sun
Or, learn more about athleteReg:
