Timing a HS Cross Country Meet

[armyscoti]

Hi all,

Searched the forum for cross country meet info, but couldn't really find what I'm looking for.  We've been timing for about seven months now, with very few issues, but we've been doing smaller (less than 300) races, primarily for churches, schools, HOA's, etc.  Basically, we haven't been timing any big or "serious" races.  However, we've been asked to time two cross country meets this fall, and I know we can't afford any slip-ups for those, so was hoping to gather any advice, tips, tricks, etc. from those of you that have timed cross country meets.  Any and all advice is appreciated; thanks in advance!

Scott

[Thomas Osullivan]

Just keep doing what you have been doing.  If you have not had any problems in the past, then there should be no issues.

We timed a youth XC meet last year consisting of 8 different races with no problems.  AND, we had only used the system once before for a 5K race.

Read all the posts on this site for advice and you should be fine.

[cdwatt3]

Cory Watt here from Northern Indiana, been cross country coaching (6 years) and meet directing for more than 15 years.  Like you only been chip timing for one year.  I know a lot of the coaches in my area and I got sick of them complaining about not having chip timing so I bought it.  This pass cross season I did about 8 invites with 500 plus participates in each event ( races were broken down with boys, girls, varsity and JV). I am sure others have better ways to do this, this is what worked for us.

Getting participates:

-I made up an excel sheet and sent to the host school to send out to coaches on how I wanted the rosters. (Boys Varsity and JV,  Girls Varsity and JV) 

-On the excel I explained that changes could be made the morning of the race.  (easy changes the morning of the race)

-I made sure that coaches send me the rosters along with the host school. If I have any questions I then can make direct contact with coaches. (sorry if anyone here is a Athletic Director but some times they   forget to forward info to the timer.

-I ask for infor one week before event. (again letting coaches know that changes can be made.

Packet pickup

- Remember old school book cassette hanging bags.  My mom gave me a ton of them.  These are great for packet pickup.  One can find them on line somewhere.

I print team rosters, high light team name and make sure the roster page in on top of the bibs, chips and pins (I do not sticker the bibs and I let the coaches know this).  I put the responsibility on the coaches to look at the roster find the bib number and match it with the athlete.  I tell coaches to please return bag (with chips and pins) after the event is over on his or her way to the awards.  I make sure they know to leave this at the team camp and not to bring around during the races.

Set Up

There is a ton of information about this. I don't need t repeat.

One thing - The park where most of the invite are ran is wonderful to work with.  They let me trench along the finish line and I ran pvc tubing with sprinkler valve boxes at each end. I do not have to use any mats to cover the cords I just run the wires through the tube. 

Race Time

-The first race we timed my assistants were like this is all we do?  Until they started coming!  Back up Back up Back up!

-This might be obvious but do not wait until you see runner to click your antennas on. (did this only once)

-Back up computer (I know some of us have volunteers do this, but my computer person has been helping me for years.)  He and I have spent many hour in my truck cab reading through times and bib rip offs. He knows the system well. Some stated this in another post and I agree put your camera on your back up computer.

- Finish Chute (my assistances always make fun of me and tell me its too long)  It never is.  Varsity race go fine.  JV with 250 plus kids coming in a full speed and than trying to have them stand straight up so that the bid writer can get her information down does not always go super fast. We do at times get backed up and I have had to do a make shift chute on the fly (not fun). 

-Chute help -Volunteers  - Have a quick meeting with them and let them know if a kid goes down in the chute roll them out, grab the bib number and take the place of the athlete.  If the help tries to keep the athlete in the chute this can cause a back up or get the athletes out of order.  I have also have had kids jump out of the chute early (don't ask me why).

-Camera back up computer and turn off the flash

-I have an old vhs camcorder (don't laugh) I use it.

After Races

I do not put out a results computer.  Most High School Events do a awards program and times are given out then.

Meet Director results - I print one of each race and hand to the Meet director.

Some coaches still want printed results.  I only print varsity.  JV will be emailed.  I tell coaches that by the time they are back to the home school your JV times will be there. By doing this you will get more time at the event to double check the Varsity results with your back up.  Also you will have sometime at home to look over JV and make corrections if needed.

This real happens?

I have had to run parents, press, student managers and coaches out of my tent.  I let them know that I am running a professional timing system and I cannot have them tripping over equipment or interrupting my assistance.  They are not happy (oh well) they get great results.

The Crew (I am blessed) These three I would trust with my children. Same philosophy I took when I coached.

My back up computer guy knows his stuff and could run the show with out me.

My bib writer know her stuff and was my assistant coach for the 10 years I did track.

My brother in law is a professional Engineer and is in charge of all electronics and making sure hook up is done correct and stays correct.

Back up timer and bib writer is very important.  I always tell them that if the system goes down we can still score a meet based of places(This has never happened thank goodness).   We have had to use back up but not too much.

I know this is a lot of inform.  I hope I posted this correct. Sorry about spelling and/or grammar. If any questions let me know.

Cory Watt

Watt's My Time?

[SportMadeSimple]

I'm by no means an expert at the system yet, but did several high school XC meets this past fall ranging in size from a meet of 700 to one with 1700 (across 6 divisions).  I made a website to collect the coaches registrations which you are welcome to use (just email me directly if you want) called XCRunner.ca (I'm in Canada)  the coaches create a school account and then just add their team and I can download a file from the site to do one import (per division).  Coaches can review, edit, print roster and it also calculates the team's costs for the meet.

As Brian said, I've gone back and forth on assigning the bibs to a specific race but I think I prefer not having them assigned to a specific race and just allowing unassigned bibs.

The one thing that I have liked is having a good finish shute and some backup finish order system (pull tags, someone writing numbers on the capture sheet, video of the athletes exiting the shute ... whatever you prefer) but it saves a lot of headaches to have someone verify finish order before printing / sharing team scores.  I'm not sure if it is only in my area, but we routinely have athletes wear the wrong number (one from their teammate in another division) and those are easily caught when you run though that list.

   

[Brian Agee]

Quick reply for now.

1. Obviously make sure you set the race type to "Track or Cross Country Race" when creating the events in the software.

2. Ask the meet director how many "Scorers" and "Displacers" the system should handle. Typically it's something like 5 scorers and 2 displacers.

3. I send every coach an Excel document and ask them to send me back one document for every team they will bring (so one document for JV Boys, one for JV Girls, one for Varsity Boys, and one for Varsity Girls) once they have everything finalized. Here is the document I send them: Download Link   Notice how I have the Coach's email address in there? That is so that I can use the "Email" feature of the software (select the option that says "Included Personalized Results") to send the coach the performance of each of their athletes.

4. After I get all of the rosters back I import the appropriate Excel files into each race and then print off a roster for each team for each race. For each school I organize and place all of their rosters into a gallon bag for the coach (see attachments).

5. As for programming tags. I've gone back and forth on whether or not it's best to make the tags race specific or not. If you make them "race specific" then you don't have to worry about picking up tags from athletes warming up, cooling down, or standing near the finish to cheer on their school in the other races (assuming they are wearing their tags). However this means that if an athlete is swapping races (going from JV to Varsity the morning of the race) then you'll have to give them a new bib number and change it in the system. Also, if the coach accidentally hands out the wrong tags (which hasn't happened to me yet, but it's possible if they don't look at their roster for some reason) then those tags will be ignored when they pass through the finish line.

If you don't make them race specific and tags in other races are picked up the the worst thing that can happen is that you get a bunch of "Unassigned" athletes in the race. Those are ignored on the report anyway, so it doesn't really hurt anything. This assumes that you don't use the same bib numbers for the different races of course (so if you have a bib #1 in the JV boys and a Bib #1 in the JV girls then you have to make them race specific).

6. In most XC races they run one race at a time. So on race day you'll open up any of the races for that day, click on "Time Race" and select only the race you want. After timing it, use the Quick Print feature to print off Team Results and then close the clock screen and click on "Time Race" again and select the next race. Do this process for all remaining races. If they tell you that they are running more than one race at a time (or at staggered times) then just pull all of the races you need into the clock screen. The system handles timing multiple races very well!

7. One thing that seems to happen (or almost happen) at every XC meet is that the coach will walk up to the finish line with whatever bibs they didn't pass out. Of course as soon as they get within range the system assumes all of those athletes finished the race. It's easy to delete them, but it's frustrating when it happens. So place a tag/packet return box far away from the finish line and instruct coaches on where they should place the tags.

[Nick Preston]

These posts are invaluable! Thank you all very much. One additional question to add to this thread: how much or how do you charge for XC meets? As someone who has only done road races and has now been asked to time XC meets, I don't really know how much to charge. Thank you in advance!

Nick Preston
Chicken Chase Timing

[wisdomandhealth]

Okay, judging from the non-response, maybe I need to rephrase my question.  How do you charge for Cross Country meets - is it based on the number of participants, the number of teams, the number of races, or something else?  I'm not so much looking for precise numbers on how much to charge, but I'd like to get a better idea of how to go about determining how to charge for this service.  Having timed my first meet this past weekend (as a volunteer for my son's team), it is much more intense than the road races I've been doing, and the intensity happens over and over again with the different races that are all part of the same meet.  The level of pressure seems to run a lot higher than it does for road races, but obviously the participants aren't all paying a fee to be involved in a cross country meet, so it seems that the fees for this would need to be lower than what is charged for a road race.  Can you experienced timers please provide some input on how to go about this?  Thanks so much!

[Ohio Race Day]

I'm not an "experienced timer" and have only timed four XC meets.  I priced it as a flat fee of  $650 for the first 300 participants and then $1.50/participant after that.  So far the largest was 299 runners.  :)  Surprisingly.  I like them A LOT.  Not as stressful to me since the runners and coaches know the drill.  They wear their bib number correctly.  They know how to act at the finish line.   There is more "prep" on the front end but the races seem to run smooth, even if overlapping. I'd like to do more small XC meets if they come my way.

[rtspt.usa]

this was actually touched upon a few weeks ago...so as you can see from the responses thus far there is a base charge in addition to the 1-2 bucks an entry.

your time is valuable and you don't want to show up for 40 kids and only get 40 bucks hence the minimum base.

charges should be by entry since bib/chips etc will be built on the entries not the finishers.

as mentioned xc is a little more stressful. you've got multiple races, some overlapping of finishers and need to get things right the first time for team scoring so order of finish is critical.

then travel (outside of say an hour's drive??). hotel.