From the Middle of the Pack: Technology and Running

If you ran races back in the 80's and 90's, you probably remember the timing process.  There were no timing chips, so there was no such thing as “chip time”.  Instead, there was a clock at the finish line that displayed the official time, and the organizers recorded your bib number and finishing time when you crossed the line.  To get your results, you had to hang around until they were printed out and posted in the finish area.  Big races usually published them in the local newspaper.

Developments in wireless technology and the Internet changed all that.  Today, we sign up for races online, we view our results online, we wear wireless GPS devices to track our pace and distance.  In short, technology has become an integral part of the running experience.

Consider the advantages of chip timing.  Everyone gets their own exact finishing time.  And not only do they capture a finishing time, they can capture your time at various locations along the race course.  And if you have any length of drive to get home after you finish your race, chances are pretty good the race results will already be posted online when you get home.  The results may even include some charts that show you interesting information such as how you did against others in your age group, or how many people you passed during the race (or how many passed you).

Another nice thing technology has given us is that many marathons are now offering real-time tracking of participants.  This technology leverages timing captured by mats along the course.  To track a runner, you simply sign up at the race website to receive text messages for a certain bib number.  As that person crosses each mat, you get a text message indicating their location on the course, and time to reach that point.  When this technology first debuted a few years ago, there were issues with the networks getting overloaded, causing messages to be late or not arrive at all.  But that seems to be getting better each year.

I run a lot of races, and like to keep track of my results.  The Internet makes it very easy.  To keep trackof my races, I started using a website called Athlinks.  It has a great search tool that will find race results matching your name all across the Internet, then present you a list of finishing times that may be yours.  You can then “claim” the ones that belong to you, and it will link them to your file.  I was really impressed when it located my finishing time from the 1985 Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, SC.  I had searched for it myself several times and never located it.  By the way, it's a nice race, so give it a try if you are in the area on race day.

On personal note, on Saturday I ran my 14^th marathon in Brookings, SD.  This was state #9 in my goal to run all fifty.  The diet change paid off again, as I had my second fastest finish ever.  I'm still a middle of the pack guy, but considering I was a back of the pack guy as recently as last October, I'm quite happy with the result.  I have wrapped up my spring running season and will be switching over to cycling for a few months, until I ramp up the miles again in preparation for Chicago Marathon.

See you in the middle of the pack!