Ironman Arizona Swim Placing

As any proud company man would do, with great anticipation I stayed glued to the frequent reports from this year's Ironman Arizona race. The hopeful prize? Our sponsored professional James Bonney coming out of the water 1st and wearing our Rocket wetsuit for all to see.

As soon as the feed reported that James Bonney was out of the water first with another guy right on his heels I sent out emails to everyone and immediately posted on my blog like a marketing maniac! It was time to do a HAPPY DANCE!

I kept checking back for more than 24 hours just so that I could see the official results with his name as numero UNO! But, what's this? Why does it say 2nd!!! I went back and checked the race reports. Still the same. But then why does the official results reflect otherwise? I was horrified!

I got with Marcin and asked him if he knew what was going on. Marcin said no, he hadn't heard from James but did find this lovely picture of him on the Ironman Website...

Flustered and frustrated we called James to first congratulate him on a fine show of athleticism as he finished overall in 7th place. We asked all the standard questions like how did the suit feel and fit, and if we needed to make any adjustments. James asked if we had seen the picture and proceeded to tell us the story behind it.

Apparently both the report and the final results were correct. Huh? What you talkin' 'bout Willis? Even though James was physically out of the water first, PROVING his swimming prowess, the actual spot where the timing chips are recorded from the swim was a short jog away from the water line. Remember the guy that was reported to be right on James's heels? Well as you can see from the picture the guy quickly sprinted around James ducking in front of him for the official 1st place result.

This no doubt seems to be a cheap shot to me, however well done none the less. This guy probably gets some sort of a sweet bonus for his placement out of the water. I guess our budget for placement bonuses for James needs to be reconsidered. A temporary Rocket Science Sports tattoo may not have been enough for him to throw an elbow for. Anyone have any thoughts they'd like to share about this?

Next time we'll be prepared! Other than changing our bonus structure (maybe a Starbuck's gift card?) I plan on teaching James some of my much feared ninja man moves. So watch out all you scurvy nave, James "The Ninja Rocket" Bonney coming through!