Personal Champion Chip (Read 635 times)

Recently went to a race, things got sort of screwed up. Seems the timing company was not prepared and so not everyone got a timing chip. Then there were other issues, but it made me wonder about the purchase of my own Champion Chip for future races. I am curious how many people actually purchase their own, and the benefits and pitfalls of doing so. ie Lace in shoes and forget about it, don't have to stop at end and take it off, one less thing to do "pre-race". Or if they can goof up on numbers and have duplicates in the same race, or if you sign up on line and give the number do they always "get it right". Just curious what others do.

I was given a Champion Chip as a gift this winter. I've used it in a couple of races. It's not really much of a benefit. It is nice to just leave it on your shoe but that's about it. People seem to think you are some sort of elite runner if you own your own chip. At one race they had a free-beer tent after the race. To make sure chips were returned they had mats in place to find chips as you entered the tent. I walked over the mats and set off alarms followed by "Who's got the chip?! Where's the chip?!" For the most part though all of the race people I've encountered understood that the yellow chips are not theirs and leave me be. I used the chip during the Miami Half Marathon this January. I brought the chip with me to the expo, which was a good thing, because they had given me one of their chips and I had to have my chip scanned. Greg

I bought one several years back. Very glad I did. Here are the benefits as I see them Plus side: No problem if there aren't enough chips at a race (though I've never experience that) No stopping to take it off at the end --which can take a while/get crazy since most of the races I run have 5-,10-, 40-thousand or more runners I've had people cut my laces in the past when trying to cut my chip off I've been to races so late that I showed up and went straight to the starting line, ran with no number, still had my chip, still got my results recorded (this has happened 3 times, sadly). This is the best benefit I think. You always have it on your shoe One less thing to worry about 90% of the races I run use championchip I like having it/having one with a nice little special image on it (mine's of NYRRC, some are of marathons people have done, etc) I feel special :-) Down side: Bring the wrong shoes, you're screwed. You pay for it, then again, it was like 30 bucks or something. ~ADDED~ Also, I think that Championchip supposedly tracks all the races of people with their own chip. So, somewhere on their site might be a record of all my races, though I've never looked for that. Maybe I should.