John Korff founded the most successful triathlon event in the country, but he’s not quite ready to hang up his racing shoes. For Korff, running the New York City Triathlon was just a warm-up. In February, he managed the inaugural Sarasota Music Half Marathon, an event that garnered unprecedented attention from the community. We spoke to Korff afterward about the course from here forward. 

PHOTOS BY EVAN SIGMUND

Why did you leave a successful endeavor in New York to launch a completely new event in Sarasota?
John Korff: I owned the New York City Triathlon, started it and built it over 15 years, and then got a big offer to sell the business. I have got three little kids—two first-graders and a third-grader—and took it as an opportunity to give them a different way of life. When I decided where I would want to move, Sarasota is as good as anywhere else to go in the country.

How did the idea of a Music Half Marathon come together?
Korff: I wasn’t going to retire, and I thought, ‘What can I do in athletics that Sarasota doesn’t already have? I didn’t want to do another triathlon. I went to a lot of races in Florida, and learned a lot of it is pretty boring. The biggest group attracted to marathons are the experiential runners: people who want to have fun, not set a personal best every time. One time, the New York City Marathon came to me and said, “Your triathlon is so great, what can we do to have something more like that?” I told them the problem is the marathon is 26 miles. You need some music to make it fun and build the excitement. So when I was going to do a marathon here, I decided music would be a big part of it. I’m going to have five bands and go only through neighborhoods. I went on the assumption that few people run a race to break a record. Most just want an experience and I have to deliver that experience. When I talk to runners, they say this is what they want.

What can this race do for the region?
Korff: The race is not about me. I may own it, but it’s about Sarasota. It should be a perception-altering event in Sarasota that shows it is something other than just great weather and a retirement community. There are young people here who are physically fit and active, and one of the objectives of this race is to showcase that. Sarasota is young, vibrant, exciting, musical, whimsical and healthy. Our race can change ever year because we can change the bands every year. Other races, you can say you have been there and done that, but we can say one year we have band “X,” and the next we had band “Y.” We want local runners to feel great pride for hosting this race and to bring people from out of town to have a positive economic impact.

What most impressed you about the reception to the race in its first year?
Korff: We had already gotten 1,500 people in the race pre-registered, which is unheard of. Then we had 1,300 people enter on race day, more than any other Florida marathon ever. More than Disney or the Miami Marathon ever had on race day. It blew me away. SRQ