Has anyone noticed a substantive difference in their watch time vs official race time in 70.3 (or other) events that have the rolling swim start? At the four rolling start events I've participated in the past year, my watch time was between 20 to 49 seconds faster than official time. At first occurrence, I chalked it up to operator error. Figured I might not have pressed watch buttons when I thought I did. However, three races later, I see a trend. Pretty sure now that I start my watch right at the 'go' bleep in the swim corral and stop it at the timing coils right past the finish banner. A several second difference wouldn't seem out of the ordinary. However, the consistent discrepancy I've experienced indicates to me that it's possible that the timing mats at the swim might be registering chips early while queuing in the corral. And, if that is so, it seems like it could breed a little uncertainty into the true finishing order between peeps with very close times.
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Yes, I have noticed something along the lines you describe. I always start my watch before I reach the starting mat and after I cross the finishing mat. I want my official time to be a pleasant surprise versus my watch time. At Ohio 70.3 last year, I was extra purposeful in doing it because I was trying to break five hours and knew it would be close. I really didn't want a watch time of 4:59:55 and an official time of 5:00:01.
Yet somehow my official time was about 15-20 seconds slower than my watch. It wasn't a huge deal since I missed my goal anyway, but I thought it odd. I guessed it was because at that race you first get a beep that tells you to step up to the shoot. As you do that, people in front of you are leaving the shoot, crossing the mat, and hitting the water. You then wait in the shoot for a few moments and then there's another beep and you're off. My guess is that my official time began with the first beep when I stepped into the shoot. The discrepancy seems about right, even if it seems odd that a mat would detect me before I stepped on it.
Yet somehow my official time was about 15-20 seconds slower than my watch. It wasn't a huge deal since I missed my goal anyway, but I thought it odd. I guessed it was because at that race you first get a beep that tells you to step up to the shoot. As you do that, people in front of you are leaving the shoot, crossing the mat, and hitting the water. You then wait in the shoot for a few moments and then there's another beep and you're off. My guess is that my official time began with the first beep when I stepped into the shoot. The discrepancy seems about right, even if it seems odd that a mat would detect me before I stepped on it.