Chip Timing doesn't always work - Is Plan B ready

Member

The New York Road Runner's Club had the misfortune of their chip system malfunctioning this weekend and 3/4 of all times were lost.

I've never thought about what happens if the chip timing system doesn't work. If there is no backup, it can be problematic, to say the least.

http://www.marathonguide.com/news/Exclusives/NYRRC-CoogansChipFailure.cfm

Gone Fishin

I have yet to meet a runner that really cares about their finish time and doesn't wear their own watch. Yeah, official results are probably about as a high a priority as a race director has, but if the chips fail, the time on your wrist s/b just as good, no?

Adjunct

I really do not care about my "official" time. my official time is what I say it is. Since I always properly seed myself in the middle and have to wait a minute or two anyway. I am never a factor in the big races anyway.

Backups should be in place though.

Member

I'm never a factor in the races either and I don't get overly concerned if my times are off. For that reason I don't even bother wearing a watch on my races, although I have started wearing the Garmin Forerunner just for mile split comparison purposes. I'm real easy going when it comes to races as long as they have water on the course. But I do like to see how I compared overall to others within my division and age group. So from that standpoint, the times are important to me.

I really like the chip system but I guess sometimes it's good to have the manual system available for backup.

Member

this year was the first year the Athens to Atlants skate marathon used a chip system. they loved it since results were done, computated and all the fun stuff. HOWEVER they did have one person still taking times down.

Member

I'm just curious what very large races did before the chip. Clearly you can't manually time a huge race, and races like the NYC marathon were over 10,000 runners back in the mid 1970's, way before chip technology. I do remember getting an offical time at a race in the mid 1980's with about 15,000 runners, but I was pretty near the front. I think the official results cut off after the first 50-100 runners, and everyone else was on thier own. Given the size of the race and the fact it was fairly short (6 miles), you could get several dozen runner crossing the finish line every second, and no manual system can handle that.

Gone Fishin

So the question that begs to be asked is if you're the NYRRC and you make the promise to have official results, should you limit a 5km race to say 500 runners, so the manual backup could work should the chips go out? Do you run a race like this with 2000 runners in four heats?

The conventional timers out there are typically a handheld unit that is running the official clock and someone punches in race numbers as they approach the finish and then another person simply clicks a button as people cross the line. The handheld syncs the two together. Then any last minute changes in finish position at the line are determined by the order of the tear off bib tabs which make staying in order of finish in the chute important.

So it seems to me, the biggest part of the problem is the size of these races. 2000 for a 5km is definitely going to be the most problematic. Hand timing a marathon, halfM or 10-miler even shouldn't be too bad.

Member

How about 60,000 folks running down Peachtree St in the Peachtree Road Race (10K) on July 4th in Atlanta? Smile

Member

i hear they are allowwing only

55,000

they dont chip the entire field though. only time group 1 i understand.

Chip Timing doesn't always work - Is Plan B ready

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