Jon, thank you for giving me your perspective.
First - Wow, Sorry! I screwed that up. Just redid a resort of data and in fact there were 127 who chose a wave. The vast majority of the remainder actually moved back a wave, none of which were in a podium or top 5. My apologies on the misinformation. I could have a look at those who moved up to wave #1 vs where they would have started, simply out of interests sake.
Second - Full disclosure my feeling as a former athlete was always that you should race in your wave because then you are racing in exactly the same conditions as everyone else in your age group. I had a lot of sometimes heated discussions with customers who wanted to move up. Then, I tried the choose a wave option based on feedback a few years ago. Perhaps I allowed my thinking to be skewed by more vocal customer/athletes. Your and others feedback are causing me to rethink Choose Your own Wave for Barrelman, and maybe the series.
Maybe the hybrid should be, choose your wave if you want to MOVE BACK because you are an uneasy swimmer. Maybe that would satisfy the safety issue and re-level the field on the competitive side. Sometimes we make decisions that we think are in the best interest of the customer and what they want....but are wrong. I am not afraid to do so.....Anyone else have an opinion?
John Salt, Founder - MultiSport Canada
Canada's Largest Triathlon Series and Barrelman Niagara Falls
http://www.multisportcanada.com / http://www.niagarafallstriathlon.com
"Discipline Is What You Do When No One Is Watching You"
First - Wow, Sorry! I screwed that up. Just redid a resort of data and in fact there were 127 who chose a wave. The vast majority of the remainder actually moved back a wave, none of which were in a podium or top 5. My apologies on the misinformation. I could have a look at those who moved up to wave #1 vs where they would have started, simply out of interests sake.
Second - Full disclosure my feeling as a former athlete was always that you should race in your wave because then you are racing in exactly the same conditions as everyone else in your age group. I had a lot of sometimes heated discussions with customers who wanted to move up. Then, I tried the choose a wave option based on feedback a few years ago. Perhaps I allowed my thinking to be skewed by more vocal customer/athletes. Your and others feedback are causing me to rethink Choose Your own Wave for Barrelman, and maybe the series.
Maybe the hybrid should be, choose your wave if you want to MOVE BACK because you are an uneasy swimmer. Maybe that would satisfy the safety issue and re-level the field on the competitive side. Sometimes we make decisions that we think are in the best interest of the customer and what they want....but are wrong. I am not afraid to do so.....Anyone else have an opinion?
John Salt, Founder - MultiSport Canada
Canada's Largest Triathlon Series and Barrelman Niagara Falls
http://www.multisportcanada.com / http://www.niagarafallstriathlon.com
"Discipline Is What You Do When No One Is Watching You"