How does chip timing normally work? If I start in the 3rd wave, and there are 4 minutes between waves, is my chip programmed to automatically start 8 minutes after the first wave goes? Or is there someone there on shore who starts each wave’s chips when the official says “3 - 2 - 1 - GO!”?
The reason I ask is that my timing was screwed up last weekend. It was only a sprint race for fun, but I PR’ed, and I want to know what my real time is. I started my watch when I heard “GO!” and the first time i saw on my watch after I crossed the finish was 1:01:49. They didn’t have any results for me at all (a large # of chips malfunctioned), but later my results were posted online, and they have my 5K run time as 1:20:xx!!!
I got in touch with the timing company, and my run time was corrected, but my finish time is listed as 1:02:56 - more than a minute off my watch time. The timing guy told me 2 different answers about how the chips are started, and blamed the discrepancy on me starting my watch at the wrong time. I’m damn sure I didn’t start it 1 minute into the swim, though! A 10-20 second difference I would say is human error, but a minute…?
Anyway, it’s no big deal. Most likely, my whole wave (women age 25-49) had the same issue, so the OA results weren’t effected. I’m happy with my race. I accomplished everything I wanted to do. I’m just puzzled…
I *think that they start all the chips at the same time, and then just deduct the time differential between when the first wave went off and when yours did after you cross the first mat.
Maybe someone who’s been an RD can confirm this, or tell me I’m way off base.
Normally, the timing software accounts for your wave. Therefore, if the clock starts at time 0 and you’re in wave 3, which starts 8 minutes later, the timing software will automatically subtract the 8 minutes from the time you crossed the finish mat. There’s no ‘intelligence’ in the chip - all it does is transmit the serial number assigned to the chip. The timing software takes it from their. Of course, this assumes that the timing software was correctly programmed to know that your wave started eight minutes after the gun.
I’m not sure what ;a large number of chips malfunctioned" means. Maybe the timing mats didn’t pick up the signal when you crossed the finish line.
a significant number of people didn’t have results at the conclusion of the race. i’m not sure what happened exactly. a friend who was at the site early as a volunteer witnessed the chip timing guy trying to set up the system and having problems but not alerting the race staff. when i talked to the chip guy on the phone he said something about a brief power failure and someone plugging another piece of equipment into the same electrical socket. my gut says that the timing guy was full of it…
that’s kinda what i figured… sucks that stuff like this happens. they might as well have just timed it the old-fashioned way. it probably would have been more accurate…