Race clock

[Mike Davis]

Hi All,

I am putting together our second annual relay race for the NH Air
National Guard. While it's not a large race, it's growing. Our Wing
Commander has entertained the Wing possibly purchasing a race clock
and I have to come up with the best price as well as best bang for the
buck! I saw on with 9 plus hours and 6 inch letters for a little over
a thousand dollars. How do these things work? Do I need a long
extension cord or do I have to buy the cable? Is there any particular
place I might get a decent clock for a reasonable price? Any help
that might given would be great. Thanks,

Mike Davis
NH Air National Guard

[veteran.runner]

Just to be clear. A clock only is a clock. It provides no race timing other
than the obvious elapsed time from when you turn it on. Almost all clocks
are battery operated and some don't work while they are charging.

You can rent them from Star Systems Georgetown MA. Buying a clock of a one
time per year race is very long dollars.

http://www.starsystemsco.com/Star_Systems/Home.html

Regards
Steve Moland

[Mike Davis]

Thanks Steve. Our intent is to ogranize multiple fun run and utilize
it as a start/ end time. More professional than stop watches.

> NH Air National Guard- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[veteran.runner]

About the only time the finish line clock can be used to record times is
when there is only one runner finishing within a few seconds. Anything more
than that and things will get screwed up. People cannot view, call, hear,
see bib numbers and times during a rapid crush of runners without,
transposing, just writing them wrong, noticing they just wrote them wrong
and then they get behind, forget the next 1 or 2 or 3 that were called and
not writing down yet.

A finish line clock only lookS professional to the spectators. It is hardly
professional in doing the job. And in practice the finish line clock is
almost never the official time. The lead stopwatch or a device called a
timemachine is the offical time. The finish line clock at races is there as
a very close ball park time for the runners and spectators.

It must be recorded in some form that you can go back over to fix and check.

You should always have multiple stopwatches being pushed (the splits being
pushed) by others as a back up. That doesn't tell you who finished but it
does tell you the time somebody finished.

Even professional timers (at least the ones worth hiring) start stopwataches
as a last ditch effort at a back up plan. At USTAF races stopwatches are the
only official times on the winners for winning and/or course or distance
records.

You NEVER have the same person writing down the bib numbers and the times.
It is not necessary. Races don't do that because it does not work. People
can not do 2 things rapidly and continuously at once. It seems like the
thing to do by the uninitiated but it isn't.

To time a race you push a split time on the stop watch as a runner crosses
the the finish line but you do NOT write down the bib numbers at the finish
line. You have a chute cordoned off with ropes and record the bib numbers at
the end of the chute 50 or so feet or more behind the finish line after the
runners have had a chance to stop and you can the read the numbers. At the
finish line they are moving full speed and sometimes they are so close
together with one behind another that you can't see the numbers.

One person writes down bib numbers and aother watches and verifies what is
written on the sheet. Then later you take a stop watch and use recall to
display the splits and match the bibs written to a time. It's very basic.
The first time goes with the first bib, the 12th time goes with the 12th
bib. Etc. etc.

You do not need to know who finished at the finish line at the moment, only
that somebody finished at a particular time. The who is done by a separate
but equally controlled process, assumming you keep the runners in order for
10 to 20 seconds. That's why the chute.

I would suggest you go to a few non-chip timed races and observe what
actually goes on and pretend in your own mind that you are trying to do it
the way I think you may have planned to try. It will be quite surprizing.

Very few races, even the smallest race, seldom attempt to do their own
manual timing for more than a year or two because it seldom turns out very
well. Even competent people who know how to manually time can not produce
results in a reasonable time for more than 100 or so runners. This assumes
you have age and gender categories.

Steve

[Stearns, Guy]

Mike,

If you decide that you want to buy a clock as we have for the GI5K, Bob Gibb at Star Systems also sells clocks cheaper than you will pay online from the manufacture. He also services the clocks and can assist you with any questions. I would call him at (978)352-6586 if you have any questions.

Good luck!

Guy

[Mike St Laurent]

Hi Mike

It might be to your advantage to rent one if is only for one day.
Maybe my friend Mike Amarillo can help you out. He has a clock and does smaller races
Mike
Email cc.. Mike.

--
Mike St. Laurent
LOCO Sports, Inc.
603 659 2824

[Barbara Massar]

Mike - Hi. We work with an outside source for our clocks - he places and
sets them and I do not have to worry.
Clocks are expensive to buy and maintain and, on race day you have to set up
a really good system of people to set each clock up and note the exact
starting time.

We use Star Systems - Bob Gibb (sta...@verizon.net) Bob and his team are
terrific...

Best of luck with your event -
Barbara

Barbara Massar
Executive Director
Pro Portsmouth
P.O. 967
Portsmouth NH 03801
www.proportsmouth.org
603-610-5521

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-----Original Message-----
From: road-race-directo...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:road-race-directo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of
Mike Davis
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 7:41 PM
To: Road Race Directors of Northern N.E.
Subject: Race clock