Round Rotherham Trail Race - with electronic punching.

Posted on the O-newsgroup

Full results for this year's Round Rotherham are now posted on our web site at http://www.hmarston.co.uk/rhac/res_sum.htm (as you will have seen!)

For those who missed it, the Round Rotherham is an ultra-distance cross country trail event following the approximate route of the ROTHERHAM boundary, for 50 miles / 80 km

along footpaths, towpaths, tracks and roads, based on an idea from club secretary Ralph Rowbotham. There were 135 starters, walkers, slow and fast runners and an 8-stage relay.

This year, we experimented with electronic timing, using the SI system. 'Why bother?' you ask. It can't be too difficult to manually record the times of 135 competitors. Of course, the electronic timing made it quicker to process results on the day, to sort out individual and team competitions, and later to produce full results with split times from each checkpoint. But that was not a decisive benefit.

The routine procedure in many off-road races is to monitor progress of the event by recording competitor numbers at each checkpoint. At quiet times, the competitors who have passed can be checked off against a list of starters to check for missing competitors. Problems are that it is

1. difficult to be sure to get the race number from every competitor (especially if a large group is pestering or refreshments!)
2. difficult to write down each number accurately (e.g. 698 can easily be written as 689) and
3. difficult to keep the record legible under adverse weather conditions. The 'sweeper' can't be totally confident as to the identity of missing competitors.

With electronic timing, using the SI system, control box can be interrogated to check who has passed each checkpoint. More usefully, the download computer was used to produce a list of missing competitors - not just the race number but the name and (based on times at previous checkpoints) the expected arrival time. Thus, the sweeper had definite data to work with.

Features of electronic timing for off-road non-Orienteering events

Progress of the event can be monitored by downloading numbers and times from SI stations at the checkpoints - note the Emit system control boxes cannot be interrogated, I understand.

Competitor information can then be used to generate lists of missing competitors for meaningful sweeping. To get this information, it was necessary for a mobile computer (with master SI station) to reach checkpoints when approx. 90% of the competitors had passed.

There were some complications linked with the operation of the SI system, e.g.

• an SI station has to be set to time itself out before it can be read, so a second station has to be prepared to take over during interrogation and
• the SI system rolls over every 12 hours, precluding the use of standard orienteering results software. These problems were resolved.

If you are planning an off road event it is certainly worth considering electronic timing, especially if you wanted to monitor progress. If you are asked to act as a checkpoint officials, ask if electronic timing is being used; it can relieve you of the responsibility/difficulties/hassle of recording competitor numbers, allowing you to concentrate on supporting competitors with refreshments, etc.

Grateful thanks to:

Michael Napier for providing expertise in the electronic timing system / printing certificates / all sorts of assistance.

North West Orienteering Association for supplying the hardware (and having the foresight to have adopted the system for it to be available)

Checkpoint officials for keeping an eye on the SI boxes in addition to other duties (notably feeding participants!)

and you the participants for making the effort of putting on the event worthwhile.

Date for the diary: 9th December 2000