Chip Timing Debacle (Read 496 times)

Today marked my first race ever which required that I wear a chip timer around my ankle. I wasn't thrilled about the idea but once I strapped it on, I barely knew it was there. I should have known that something was amiss when the start of the race was signalled by a countdown by a person standing behind the pack of 339 runners about to embark on the race. It wasn't until the cameraman (positioned in front of us where the starter should have been) told us that the countdown had begun that we all readied ourselves on the starting line. 4, 3, 2, 1... and we were off! The weather was perfect. Sunny and cool with a temperature in the high 60s. The course itself was quick... to begin with. The entire first mile was a slight downhill and that caused a lot of us to go out much quicker than anticipated, myself included. The good news is that I didn't see the 1 mile marker so I wasn't aware of the fact that I had run a 5:34 first mile until after the race was over. Unfortunately, the second mile was a trip back up that slight incline which resulted in a significantly less favorable second mile time of 6:21. The final 1.1 miles of the race leveled itself off and I surged to the finish line with a strong finishing kick to pass 2 runners that were just within my reach. 18:16 is the time I thought I saw as I crossed the line. Overall, I was quite happy with my race despite the inconsistent splits. I had dropped 24 seconds from my time only a week ago (which itself, was my modern day PR). It wasn't until after the cooldown when the award ceremony began that the chip timing disaster began to unfold. The announcer started announcing the times for top 3 females and top 3 males... only they weren't right. They weren't anywhere close to right. In fact, they were an entire 2 minutes off! When they announced the top 3 for my age group, I ended up finishing second in the 30-34 age group... with a time of 16:16! Wow, that would have been nice. Maybe some other day in some other life... but certainly not today. I wrote it off and figured that no harm was done. Just add 2 minutes to the time they posted on the results page of their website. Only it wasn't over. The two runners that I passed in the final 100 meters of the race were given credit for having placed in front of me! Needless to say, I'm a bit disheartened by the end result of my first experience with chip timing. Both my time and place in the race were incorrect (the latter of which bumped me from having a top 10 finish). When my buddies ask me how I ran, should I tell them that I finished 10th? 12th? That I ran an 18:16? Maybe it was 18:19. Oh well. It's not the end of the world. I'm just a stickler for numbers and stats and this will probably drive me nuts for a little while. Just thought I would share the experience and see if anyone else has ever had a problem with a race that was chip-timed.

Did you cross a mat at the starting line that recorded your "start" time? Or were they using chips just to record finish times? It is possible that they based awards on "chip time" rather than "gun time", assuming they used a start mat to collect start times. Again, I don't know enough about the size of the race, or the situation, but it is possible that the 2 guys you outsprinted in the race actually started behind you, and their "chip times" (which is their time from start line to finish line) was faster than yours. USATF rules call for awards to be based on physical finish order, or gun time, but some races choose to do it the other way. I am not sure what they could have done to goof up the 2 minutes...maybe they started the antenna reader too soon, and it picked up those of you at the start before the race actually started...weird. Or, it could all just be a jumbled job by the timers. That kind of thing happens. Not all chip timing systems have a built in backup system to account for the 1-3% of chips that are not identified when they cross the line. Like I said, I don't know enough about what happened, but, just throwing out some possiblities... I would encourage you to email the race director, or the timing company, and just express your concern/inquiries. Often, they can fix such things, or at least offer an explanation. I always do when people email me. Hope that helps.