Joe DeSena, operator of the Spartan Race series of obstacle course events, decided to tweak his finishers medal.
To encourage repeat customers, Spartan races are offered in three distances. These are tough recreational athletic events, he says: “We’ve got people crying just to finish the thing. … And you get these emails on a daily basis where people say their lives have changed as soon as they’ve done a Spartan Race and become a Spartan.”
But “it’s not as exciting for us if somebody just does one Spartan Race, right?” DeSena says. “We have something called the Trifecta where you complete the Sprint, which is shorter distance; the Super, which is middle distance, 8 miles; and then the Beef, which is a half-marathon. So if you complete all those in the calendar year, you get the coveted Trifecta medal.”
For 2014, he decided to drop Sprint, Super and Beef medals and instead give finishers of each distance one part of a three-part magnetic medal representing the Trifecta.
“People went crazy. I personally responded to over 2,100 emails.” Protesters showed up at his headquarters in Vermont. He heard from people “who said the medal, the Spartan medal they have hanging above their bed, helps them wake up in the morning.
“One guy was covered in Spartan tattoos, and his car was wrapped in a Spartan logo, and his dog was wearing a Spartan vest. And he sent me a picture, and he said, ‘Now that you’ve changed the medal I’m not going to do my planned six races this year.’”
DeSena hadn’t meant to lose business.
“So after talking to everybody, we came up with a great solution that everybody really seems to love. The solution is that if people really feel like having the other medal that they liked is going to make that much of a difference in their life, then they can get that medal, too. And so we have both medals, too.
“The only thing they have to do extra is, at the finish line, if they really need that extra medal - the original one - they have to do 40 burpees,” he said. “If they really, really need that medal, they’re going to work for it.”
DeSena says he’s looking for a host site for a Spartan Race in Arkansas but hasn’t cut a deal yet. If he does, details will be at Spartanrace.com.
ActiveStyle, Pages 28 on 03/10/2014