Forums >Running 101>Gun time vs. Chip time
#artbydmcbride
In my running club I am competing with about 300 others racing and getting points based on official AG placing. This is critical crucial stuff! This means the difference between getting or NOT getting a construction paper award at the annual Banquet!! So you can see why I get worked up if the mats don't function or the results get messed up. This is life or death important, people!
Runners run
Are we there, yet?
I've won various items and gift certificates including one for dinner at a nice restaurant, and once won actual cash for winning my AG.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
No more marathons
Pay attention here people - ileneforward speaks truth.
Seriously - we all race for different reasons. To determine our current level of fitness, to work towards a new PR, to support a local cause, some just to finish their first race. Overall winning is out of the question for most of us, so pick your motivation. I know it's unlikely that I will set too many PR's, (even PhOM ones), so my current goal is to run as well as I can on that particular day, finish in the top 10%, and if I get an AG - all the better.
Boston 2014 - a 33 year journey
Lordy, I hope there are tapes.
He's a leaker!
Yeah, Tanya, you old hag. Take that.
Bite me.
But I really really really really WANT an AG award!!!
Dream Maker
Since I'm slow(er) and don't race often, I'm going to ask a dumb question.... What do you win if you win your AG? Other than the pride of placing, does anybody really care about the 4 inch trophy or the chotzky (sp?) that you get when they call your name?
Since I'm slow(er) and don't race often, I'm going to ask a dumb question....
What do you win if you win your AG?
Other than the pride of placing, does anybody really care about the 4 inch trophy or the chotzky (sp?) that you get when they call your name?
Hey, that box sitting in my closet isn't going to fill itself....
For age group (not overall), I've gotten coffee mugs, medals, ribbons, trophies, plaques... I've given a lot of coffee mugs away since I don't drink coffee but have some, and the rest pretty much go into the box I keep in my closet. (Well, I've lost a good number over the years but I kept a good number, too. If I were reasonable I would have just trashed them) A lot accumulates over 15 years of running, most of it in the very easy young female age groups.
BUT,
the box does come down when my little 4 year old has friends over sometimes. They think the box of trophies is awesome!
So, I'm going to go with --- small children care.
If a race has waves/corrals, I think age groups should be chip timing. Most small races, it doesn't matter. Line yourself up. It doesn't take that long to cross.
Overall should never, ever, ever be chip timed. Cross the finish line. It's tactical.
flashlight and sidewalk
I finished a race 3rd across the line. When I checked the results, I found I finished with the 4th best time. Another runner had started 10 minutes after the start time and finished with a faster time. It pissed me off to see my name listed 4th (no awards given regardless)...I'm not usually up front but when I found myself there, I was racing. Me vs. Everyone else...if I finish ahead of you I beat you fair and square. I vote gun time for everything except PRs and personal measuring. As for lining up...you will get slowed down if you start too far forward or too far back. If you start on the line and get passed by 50 people, the Xsecond headstart you took on the guy who lines up properly probably won't make too much of a difference.
**Ask me about streaking**
I finished a race 3rd across the line. When I checked the results, I found I finished with the 4th best time. Another runner had started 10 minutes after the start time and finished with a faster time.
10 minutes is pretty suspicious, was the other runner Kip Litton?
how long of a race was this? Anything less than a 1/2 and I'd be suspicious.
Right on Hereford...
It's not at all uncommon for people to cross the start line minutes after the crowd, even in a race as short as a 5k. As a racer, I never saw this, but as a race timer, I see it regularly. They get there late and know it's chip timed, so they don't feel any rush. Of course, if the start and finish are in different locations, we usually take the starting mat down about 5 minutes after the last person in the pack crosses the line. So, you won't get a chip time if you're too late in that situation.
Realistically, how many times does someone win/place/show AG and actually race a fellow AG'er to the finish line? If it's some podunk race and I'm fast enough to finish high, I'm racing for all I'm worth. Regardless of who's around me. If the field is strong or deep enough that I'm out of the top 5 (the norm!), then I'm racing for all I'm worth. I can't remember ever seeing someone ahead of me -- but close enough that I had any chance of reeling him in -- and knowing he was in my AG. YMMV.
"I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."
-- Dick LeBeau
Some of the races around here are thousands of participants! To make racing at all feasible they have to spread out the starts. Having chip timing is the only fair way to settle placing in the results.
For me that's most of my races. I run almost exclusively small, local races and know many of the runners at least by sight, especially those in my AG, so I'm well aware of where my AG competition is. Once in the race, though, I don't care what AG a person is in, I'm still in competition with them.
Options,Account, Forums
In local races I generally know who my AG competition are.
But for large races, anyone who thinks gun timing is a fair measure is probably unfamiliar with the older age groups.
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
It was a half...like I said though, pretty informal.