I've organised a social thing, what would you do.

[Lollysoup]

I've arranged for a very low key event, doing something my club usually does as a competitive thing, but making it a social, with a pub lunch at the end. I'd made it clear it's suitable for everyone and we'll move at the pace of the slowest participant. Faster ones can go ahead and loop back if they choose. I've done a few of these events and they work well.

By coincidence, there is a competitive event close to our start point on the same day, with a start time that means most people could do that and then join the social. One of our faster people suggested those who want to could do that first and then meet the group.

It was a good idea, means the faster ones still get a challenge and might slow them down for the social! There's a 50/50 split of those who will do both.

Now, probably the slowest member at the club, has said they can't do the social (he could want, but they are very slow and would slow the group, so I understand his reluctance), but will do the competitive event first. Which is absolutely fine, but if we wait for him to finish, we'll be late meeting the rest of the group/have to delay the meeting time.

We're an inclusive club. We wouldn't usually leave before everyone's finished, but I also don't want to tell everyone "slow coach is coming so we need to meet 30 mins later".
WWYD?

Is it cycling? Or running? Why can’t he do the social one?

Surely him doing the social one is the better option?

He could but he'd be very slow and hold up the group, which would be fine, but I understand why he doesn't want to.

Probably. He sees it as in the competitive one everyone's doing their own thing so he won't be holding anyone up.

I'd just put back the start time for the social event a bit. If the slowest member isn't coming to the social one, it won't take as long so you don't need to start as early to be done in time for the pub lunch. You don't have to tell everyone why you're meeting slightly later.

This sounds sensible to me if it's possible

That doesn't make sense. Surely he'd be more comfortable doing the social one. I'm not at all sporty though so maybe I just don't get it.

I think that the difference is that in the competitive one, every one runs their own race at their own pace. In the social one, they are running as a group, so other people will have to slow their pace to his. I agree that the social is probably better, but I can see why he thinks that.

Substitute whatever the right verb is for run.

Ah, I see. It doesn't really matter if he comes last as an individual in the competitive one (other than some personal pride I suppose). Whereas in the social one he will let team mates down.

So e.g. running, there's a 10km race starting at 6pm at point A, and the OP is looking to organise a social run followed by a pub lunch nearby, at about the same time. Speedy McGees can run 10km in half an hour and then come over to their pub lunch. Most runners would finish in an hour or so. Slopoke McLokes may take 90 minutes or more. If everyone from the club waits until Slopoke has finished to go on to the pub, it will delay things.

Do you have a time booked at the pub? Can you just front with him and say look the table at the pub is booked for 7pm so that's when we're aiming to be there. If he knows he won't finish the competitive event till well after that, he should draw his own conclusions about trying to fit that and the pub both in.

I don't think it's letting teammates down, it's that at the social event, everyone is going to run/cycle/whatever at the pace of the slowest member, which is him, whereas everyone runs/cycles individually in the competitive one. But they will have to wait an extra half an hour for him to finish, because they don't leave until everyone's finished.

No, Slow Man isn't planning on doing the social event at all, it's just that their practice is not to leave the competitive event until all members have finished, so they will be hanging around waiting for someone to finish rather than going directly to the social event, even though he isn't going to be joining them.

The issue is that if we wait for slow man to finish the event, we'll be late meeting the rest of the group at the start of the social, mixed pace group. We go to the pub after that.

He's not coming to meet the others anyway, but for our club it's normal to wait to see the last person finish.

I still think I would put back the start time of the social event, but an alternative would be to move the start location (if convenient) to near the finish point of the competitive event. Then club members can run back along the race route and cheer on slower finishers including their own slower member.

Obvs this only works if it's running, can't imagine it would work well on bikes!

Not let them down (it’s not a race) but limit their enjoyment/activity since they’d have to run more slowly than they’d like. Again, it seems that they wouldn’t actually mind but, as a slower runner myself, there are groups I prefer not to try to do “we’ll pace with the slowest runner” runs with, so I’m imagining his logic.

Message him individually to ask for his understanding e.g. "hey John, I know that as a club we normally wait for each other at the finish, but I wouldn't want event 1 members to miss out on event 2, if you happen to finish later than the start time. Is that okay with you? Sorry it's not our usual ethos."

I imagine it's something like:
1pm - 2k outdoor swim - individual participation for fast people.
2pm - 1k outdoor swim - as a group, average speed for everyone.

He knows the meeting time for the social event, and I think it would be rude of him if he expected you all to change that just for him. Yeah it's nice if someone's there to hold your towel at the end, but he'll survive.

For sake of argument I'll assume it's a run.

I don't really understand the issue, he wants to do the competitive run which started earlier and not do the fun run, some others will be fast enough to run the competitive race and then run the slower paced fun run, some will only do the fun run, and after the fun run finishes you all go to the pub.

It seems obvious to me that his intention is to do the race, and then the pub, so why would you delay the fun run until he's finished the race? He's expressly stated he's missing the fun run so as not to hold people up, he's not going to want everyone to wait for him to finish the race before the fun run starts, he'd be mortified!

Just tell him you'll see him after the social so he is not expecting you to wait? Seems a bit silly to wait for him when he's not even coming for the next ride / run whatever.

So he’s not even coming to the second event but you think he will expect you all to wait about until he finishes the first event?