Race Administration Software

"..dozens of runners breathing down your neck."...............ooooooh,
scary.

On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 14:39:48 +0100, Marcus Webster <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

What I am wondering is, is there any software out there to assist in
producing results and the administration?

Hello Marcus,
There are several "Race Results" programs around. Some are free or shareware and
others are professional products which can cost a few hundred dollars.

The program will allow you to enter the "runner information" into a database
prior to the race. You should be able to "Import" runner information from other
sources (such as Active.com or a spreadsheet) or be able to enter the runner
information directly into the program.

During the race you have one finish line volunteer (or volunteers) remove the
tear-off tag from each runner's bib number as the runners cross the finish line.
Each of these tags is placed on a "spindle" so the order of tags on the spindle
reflect the runners finishing order.

Another finish line volunteer (or volunteers) keeps a list of each finishing
time. This can be done with a "tick-sheet", printing stop watch, etc. The
objective is to later match each bib tag with it's corresponding finish time. Of
course, sometimes the bib numbers and finishing times get "out of sync" because
things can "happen" (like a bandit runner crossing the finish line without a bib
number or the timing volunteer missing a time). Therefore, it is useful to have
another finish line volunteer recording random bib numbers and their associated
times (like the paper and pencil method you described). This sheet can be used
to get your bib numbers and times "back into sync" if a problem occurs.

Now, let's discuss the software. You will enter each bib number into the program
from the spindle. This alone establishes the finishing order and results can be
calculated by the software. Also, you will want to enter each finisher's time
into the program and have that time be assigned to the proper finisher. The
software will allow you to insert finishers and/or times so you can print a list
of all finishers and/or award winners with their correct times.

Of course, there are many "details" I did not go into...but the above
description gives you a pretty good idea of how most Race Management software
works.

The "Race Results" software I wrote is currently in Beta test and you're welcome
to give it a try, if you wish. Just sent me an email if you want to try it out
and I will send you the .msi file so you can do an installation. After that you
can download the latest executable from the www.ChipResults.com web page.

hope I've been of help,
Ken
--
Kenneth Raich, Webmaster
Southern Colorado Runners Club
www.socorunners.org

Quoted message said:

"..dozens of runners breathing down your neck."...............ooooooh, scary.>

There it goes again Anne. You give me a boner with every post...

write a Python script to handle it.

www.python.org

Marcus Webster said:

I am involved in the administration of a charity 10k race in the UK. At
the moment we collect the times using a pencil and paper (not the
problem) and then enter the results into a spreadsheet, which is quite
laborious and stressful as there are invariably dozens of runners
breathing down your neck waiting to see if they've won something.

There is also the laborious task of entering entrants' details,
collecting entrance fees and posting out race numbers, which isn't
particularily stressful, but has to be done.

What I am wondering is, is there any software out there to assist in
producing results and the administration?

Marcus Webster said:

I am involved in the administration of a charity 10k race in the UK. At
the moment we collect the times using a pencil and paper (not the
problem) and then enter the results into a spreadsheet, which is quite
laborious and stressful as there are invariably dozens of runners
breathing down your neck waiting to see if they've won something.

Only enter the minimal information on-site: you need to enter bib number,
age and gender (the latter two for tabulating awards). That also would take
care of the runners who want to know if they've won anything -- you could
incrementally post bib number/place/time and post it from the moment the first
10 or so runners cross the line. Then you might as well go through and enter
the names of the award winners.

Quoted message said:

There is also the laborious task of entering entrants' details,
collecting entrance fees and posting out race numbers, which isn't
particularily stressful, but has to be done.

What I am wondering is, is there any software out there to assist in
producing results and the administration?

Assist in what ? What do you want the software to do ? Data entry ?
The main problem you've got here is an on-site data entry problem.
Everything else is pretty easy.

One way around this is have preregistration -- greatly reduces the
amount of onsite work. In fact almost any large sized race uses
preregistration, because handling data entry for 4000 or so runners
is pretty tricky.

I suppose another way around it would be to have some sort of
computer-readable entry form. Makes the form harder to fill out, but
it potentially simplifies the data entry operation.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/