TIMING RACES
Here you will find more detailed information how we set up the hardware for a race and processing of the results...
Point-score of CCXC races - How does it work?
Each race is individually timed using the Trident TimeMachine with timing mats and your shoe tag. Each tag is assigned to a specific distance as indicated with the first digit of the tag. For each distance (Short, Medium, Long) a ranking is made on the basis of the chip-time, that is, the difference in finish and start time of each tag. The finish time after the wave-start is called 'Gun-time'. The ranking of chip times is the basis for the season point score...
At the beginning of the year the participant makes a choice on what distance will be his/her point-score distance. If one is running more than one race (using multiple tags) only one point score is used at end of season for awards. This choice is made clear using the distance indication after the last name.., for example “John Doe 2K” on the Short and “John Doe” on the 4K with the 4K being his original distance. However the position and points of his 2K are still important for his fellow runners. So, if he is running only a 2K for one particular weekend the points on John's 2K will increase but no points for his season competition on the Medium distance.
For a complete overview of the points obtained one can refer to the PDF overview in both compact and detailed mode. The detailed overview will give you all rankings and associated points, the compact list will only present the total number of points. A special module within the RaceDirector software is used to calculate the points for each race for each participant per distance, the PDF printout is updated every week.
For each race/distance the first, second and third runner will be awarded with 3, 2 and 1 point respectively. Then points will be given to all participants on the basis of their ranking, the last runner obtains 1 point, the second last 2 points, etc., etc., up to the first runner obtaining the maximum number of finishers. In formula the “point distribution” is as follows:
1 (N+3) points, 2 (N-1 + 2) points, 3 (N-2+1) points, 4 (N-3) points, .... So if 39 participants in the race number 1 will obtain 42 points, number 2 obtains 40, number 3 obtains 38, number 4 obtains 36, ... number 39 obtains 1 point.
Any point score ranking has its benefits. You will see that this point score / ranking is influenced by the number of participants (more points to distribute) per race and the distance loyalty (someone always 2K versus running 2K and 4K fifty fifty). Next to absolute points one will also make age and gender specific rankings as presented at presentation day, that is, race day 22.
SETTING UP THE START/FINISH LINE
Connecting to time machine
Two lines of purple mats with a 25 cm spacing between the lines. One mat has two connectors that connects to (RX#, TX#). It is found that best results are obtained if the mats are connected along the orientation of the labelled connectors on the TimeMachine box. The top row of connectors are connected to the mats closed to the TimeMachine box, the bottom row of connection points are used for the mats that are the furthest away. As a results the lines when connected to the top row of connectors on the box have the most slack in length.
After the mats are connected the TimeMachine can be switched on using the red-button. For life-results the TimeMachine is hooked up to a local network a LAN cable is used to hook it up to the 193.168.0.1 .
Placing the mats
Special positioning in order not to miss tags
It is important to make sure your tag is registered at start and finish at all times. To ensure this we have chosen to place 2 x 2 mats: 2 mats wide (6 meter) to conveniently start more than 150 runners at once and two mat-lines in series with an 'one-shoe-length' gap. The gap between line one and two is deliberate to make sure the shoe with tag hits the mat at least once. That it is in the details is demonstrated by the slight shift of the mat lines to even catch shoes/tags that hit the ground just in between two mats, as indicated by the red line on the photo. How do we obtain this knowledge you say? Well, by the introduction of webcams at the finish lines over many races we observed 'faulty tags' that were not being detected. Taking these precautions made them disappear.
Two other handy features are the option of retrieving race information after use (photo left) when no computer is used, or temporal disabling mats prior to the race whilst the TimeMachine is on (photo right).
The latter should be used with caution as, if one forgets to remove this connector during the race no data is collected.
