Author Topic: Wave Starts Worked for Me  (Read 7169 times)

Vomastic

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Wave Starts Worked for Me
« on: August 15, 2015, 05:33:15 PM »
Last year, I was the last runner to cross the start line.  The fire truck, which pulls out of the station to clear the streets behind the runners passed me on the way, like I was not in the race.  When I got to the first aid station last year, I had to wait at least three minutes for the backlog of runners to disappear.  Today, I started with wave 21 and many of those in wave 22 passed me before the first aid station.  There was NO BACKLOG and no delays on the Ws. 

Hoot

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Wave Start was Great!
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2015, 06:52:54 PM »
I REALLY liked the wave start at this morning's Ascent!  Much less congestion, less passing on the trail, more running with comparably-paced runners, and less temptation to start out too fast.  That was my perspective from Wave 4.

Hoot

jemahon

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Re: Wave Starts Worked for Me
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2015, 08:26:40 AM »
Started in wave 14 and was passed at the end of Manitou Ave and up Ruxton by at many from waves 15 and 16.  No waiting at the 1st aid station or beyond.  I was able to keep a consistent effort all the way to the Bottomless Pit sign.  The narrow trail and lots of people slowed me up a little until just before A-frame.  That may have been a good thing, because I was able to push a little harder on the top 3 miles.  I was just under the pace for a 5 hour finish at all historic way-points and finished at 4:56:38 ... about 20 minutes faster than I thought I would do.  I think the new multi-wave start helped me a lot.

tjl

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Re: Wave Starts Worked for Me
« Reply #3 on: August 17, 2015, 10:08:40 AM »
This was my first PPA but I was happy to see none of the crowding and backlog that I've heard about in prior years. I started in wave 20 and was on pace for a 5 hour finish until I hit the wall at about the A frame :(  I finished but it took me six hours instead of five.

Tim Schumacher

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Re: Wave Starts Worked for Me
« Reply #4 on: August 17, 2015, 02:01:02 PM »
From the back of the pack perspective, the new start procedure made a world of difference entering Barr Trail from Ruxton.  There was still a conga line too slow for my liking on the Ws but I really appreciated being on the course and able to move.

warkie

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Re: Wave Starts Worked for Me
« Reply #5 on: August 17, 2015, 06:37:58 PM »
I think the Wave Starts could be a good idea but the determination on what Wave your supposed to be in should be evaluated or just remove the Wave running from the Marathon all together. I understand doing this for the Ascent as there are 2x as many people running that race. I ran the PPM this year, last year I had a slow race and I suspect that is why I got put into Wave 9. By the time I got to Ruxton I had caught up with people in wave 7 and by the time I made it to Hydro I was running with people from Wave 5 & 6. All the way up the W's were packed, I didn't see any difference in the congestion from years past and starting out fast for me didn't help (except for my starting time) me all. If I had been in a more appropriate Wave or if they didn't decide to do the Wave for the Marathon I would have avoided the majority of the congestion all together.

admin

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Re: Wave Starts Worked for Me
« Reply #6 on: August 17, 2015, 08:32:38 PM »
I think the Wave Starts could be a good idea but the determination on what Wave your supposed to be in should be evaluated or just remove the Wave running from the Marathon all together. I understand doing this for the Ascent as there are 2x as many people running that race. I ran the PPM this year, last year I had a slow race and I suspect that is why I got put into Wave 9. By the time I got to Ruxton I had caught up with people in wave 7 and by the time I made it to Hydro I was running with people from Wave 5 & 6. All the way up the W's were packed, I didn't see any difference in the congestion from years past and starting out fast for me didn't help (except for my starting time) me all. If I had been in a more appropriate Wave or if they didn't decide to do the Wave for the Marathon I would have avoided the majority of the congestion all together.

We will be looking at the seeding methods, as there were a few outliers along the way that I'd wish I knew about before the race so that I could have seeded them better. For that reason I hope to have a few additional paths to let folks "up" their wave next year. The main thing is that the paths need to be deterministic and quantitative. We cant just take a simple "but I've trained a lot," but stuff like factoring in the GoG 10M or an optional "faster post registration race" for everybody is something I definitely hope to be able to do.

warkie

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Re: Wave Starts Worked for Me
« Reply #7 on: August 18, 2015, 09:52:48 AM »
I understand, this is a work in progress and this was a great start for staggered starts. Can't wait then to see what you guys come up with but the overall approach is a good idea, just need a few tweaks here and there.

FlyGirl

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Re: Wave Starts Worked for Me
« Reply #8 on: August 18, 2015, 01:41:34 PM »
While I missed the marathon this year, I did really notice a difference in the Ascent.  It worked really, really well.  Yes, we all ended up mingled by the time we hit the first aid station, but it kept moving.  There was no log jam and stopping in the W's.  Huge difference!

I know the ultimate decision was with the City of Manitou, but the fact the Incline was closed also made a HUGE difference.  Thank you for that!  Perhaps we can keep asking for that to be done?  I'd really like the city to know it was not only noticed, but deeply, deeply appreciated by the runners.

hillclimber

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Re: Wave Starts Worked for Me
« Reply #9 on: August 18, 2015, 03:00:35 PM »
I thought the wave start made a very noticeable improvement over the way it used the be.  There was much more passing in the first couple of miles as the front of each wave overtook the back of the wave in front of it.  I would expect there will always be some overlap when the waves start just one minute apart.  This passing seemed to occur while we were still on the streets and by the time we got to the narrower trails people had already settled into the conga line and it didn't bunch up to a complete stop like in years past.  With a process to re-seed the few individuals who can provide evidence that they may be faster than their initial seed, I think you are well on to the most efficient way to funnel 1800 people through a skinny trail in time to get them off of the mountain before the afternoon storms hit!

momma1934

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Re: Wave Starts Worked for Me
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2015, 02:06:22 PM »
I loved the wave start and loved that the congestion was alot easier to maneuver at the end of Ruxton and onto Barr...