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Road Running Technical Council
Road Race and
Finish Line Management
Note: This material was originally posted by Jim Gerweck in November
2001 in webspace provided by his AOL account. Interestingly, even though
Jim terminated his AOL account soon afterward, that copy on AOL's website
remained online for many more years, until it finally disappeared when
AOL
shut down all of their "AOL Hometown" member websites on October 31,
2008. Meanwhile, as we hadn't trusted AOL's copy to remain online
indefinitely, we copied it to this rrtc.net site in October 2005.
We haven't copied it to the USATF site,
due to the unfinished nature of this material.
- Introduction
- Chapter I: The Start
- Timing Requirements
- Watches and Timing Devices
- Official Times and Provisions for Alternate Times
- Synchronizing the Primary Timing Device
- Reporting Times from a Running Watch
- Handling Automatically Truncated, Rounded or Rasied Times
- Official times when Fractions of Seconds are Unavailable
- Timing the Start
- Multiple Starting Lines
- Auxiliary Watches and Digital Display Clocks
- Managing the Start
- Pseudo-Starting Line
- Starting Command and Countdown
- Seeded Runners
- Starting the "Wave" Start
- Chapter II: Finish Line Theory
- The Ladder
- Arrival Rates and Processing Rates
- Estimating Peak Arrival Rates
- Estimating Chute Build-Up
- Finish Line Back-Up
- Processing Runners in Batches
- Ideal Chute Length
- The Wave System for Handling Mega-Races
Chapter III: Finish Line Sub-Systems
- Time versus Bib-Number or Name
- Manual Select Timing
- Tape Recorder
- Video-Tape Recorder
- Direct Computer Entry
- Time versus Place
- Tic Sheet Recording
- Select Timing Only
- Printing Timers
- Direct Computer Entry
- Place versus Bib-Number or Name
- Place Stick
- Place Card Only
- Place Card/Pull Tag
- Pull Tag/Spindle
- Manual Recording
- Bar-Code Reader
Chapter IV: Design of the Finish Line System
- Toll-Booth versus Multi-Plex Systems
- Combining Sub-Systems
- The Pre-Finish Line Area
- The Finish Line
- Judging Close Finishes
- The Deceleration Zone
- Single Chute Operation
- Multiple Chute Operation
- Two Chute Operation
- Four Chute Operation
- Six Chute Operation
- Eight Chute Operation
- Processing Chute Design and Construction
- Processing Chute Dimensions
- Chute Construction
- Handling Interlopers and Other Problems
- Example of Finish System Design for a Large Race
- Example of a Short Race of Medium Size
- Example of a Small Race
- Example of a Really Small Race
Chapter V: Race Registration
- Entry Forms
- Race Flyer Information
- Entry Blank Information
- Pre-Race Registration
- registration for a Manual Recording System
- Number Blocking
- Letter Coding
- Registration for a Pull-Tag Finish System
- Peelable Pull-Tags
- Pull-Tags for the Spindle System
- Color-Coding
- Pull-Tags with Bar Codes
- Packet Pickup
- Using Computers to Facilitate Packet Pickup
- Organizing Packet and T-Shirt Pickup
- Late Registration
- Number Blocking and Color-Coding
- Handling Entry Fees
Chapter VI: Award Search and Posting Results
- Manual Recording Systems
- Place Card Systems
- Pull-Tag Systems
Chapter VII: Race Result Preparation
- Preparing the Data
- Using Select Times
- The Select Only Mode
- Results Format
Chapter VIII: Scoring Races By Computer
- Race Setup
- Recording Times and Select Times
- Processing Results with the Computer
Chapter IX: Verification of Performances
- Types of Cheating
- Course Cutting
- Failure to Start at the Start
- Impersonation
- Course Monitoring
- Start Check-In Procedure
- Video-Tape the Finish
- Awards and Disqualification
- Appendix A: USATF Rules of Competition
-
Appendix B: Glossary of Terms
Proceed to first section of manual:
Introduction
Last revised
2001-11-22