I didn't realize this. Why is gun time required for men and not women? Personally I think chip time makes the most sense for both. I get that gun time is important for placing, but not time, especially when time is as important as it is here.
Check out a photo of the starting line. A 2:18 man will be on it or very close to it; a 2:37 woman will be behind it, and sometimes well behind (here, enough behind it that she can miss the Olympic trials because of it). In that scenario, a gun time for a man and a chip time for a woman makes perfect sense.
Right. And if I recall, historically women needed gun time to qualify. They changed it because races were getting so much deeper at the front that it was no longer feasible for likely qualifiers to start right on the line. In 2009, 2:37 would've gotten you around 40th place. This year, closer to 400th.
Also, as a practical matter, they do accept chip times for men. Just not if there's a big gap. And if there's a big gap for a 2:18 guy, then something fishy is going on. There's zero reason someone like that shouldn't be very close to the starting line, and it's way easier to cheat if you go by chip time and you didn't have to run the whole race with people at your pace who would can confirm that you actually did it.
This post was edited 6 minutes after it was posted.
If you are in the first corral then you have to use gun time (why? I don't know), but after that it's chip time. I know a guy who ran sub 2:18 at CIM and they used his gun time which was six seconds SLOWER than his chip time. Thankfully he was still under the 2:18:00 standard.
Something I never know for sure, does the finish time happen at the first or second of the two mats. She crosses the first at 2:37:02. You could call it 2:37:03 by rounding, but definitely not 2:37:04. So I guess it’s the second? But that’s werid since it’s technically past the finish line.
I’ve also had races where I definitely cross the first barrier at a certain time and my official is a second or so slower.
I was in seeded field at CIM last year and it took 7 seconds to get to start line after gun went off. I was surrounded by OTQ hopefuls, with some even further back than me.
How is it that someone actually runs 2:37.00, right on the dot? There's a video of a woman, Bib #56, Tammy Hiseh, coming through in a time of 2:37.04 and originally her time was posted at 2:37.04 which does NOT make her an Olympic Trials Qualifier. Then, CIM changed it and her time magically becomes 2:37.00. Now, you look at her chip time and she somehow starts 4 seconds after everyone else in the Elite field? So, did she fall asleep for 4 seconds and then start? Why does the woman wearing Bib #54 (Jennifer Sandoval) and bib #57 chip times say they started .03 seconds before #56 at 7:10:01am? #54, #55, and #57 should all be right next to each other. Heathre Kampf who came in right before #54, her chip times says 7:10:02am. No times were changed for Allie Kieffer and Grace Kahura who were well under the OTQ. Their times are actually reflected in videos, and on the dot (see CIM IG page). The results are still unofficial , yet #56 and Kim Conley claim her time is 2:37:00.
Are we not paying attention to the cheaters here??? There have been plenty of people this year AND people writing on this message board who have just missed qualifying by 2 seconds, but we didn't do them any favors.
I think the best part of this idiotic post is this: " Why does the woman wearing Bib #54 (Jennifer Sandoval) and bib #57 chip times say they started .03 seconds before #56 at 7:10:01am? #54, #55, and #57 should all be right next to each other" like this moron expects race officials to have everyone lined up according to their bib number.
I was in the seeded section and it took me about 5 seconds to get to the mat. We basically had to walk up because we were so crowded in that corral. No surprising to see his chip time like that.
The 6th place woman had a gun time of 2:35:50 and a chip time of 2:35:45. Did she "fall asleep" at the starting line, too? Why did CIM officials adjust her time five seconds if it didn't make any difference in hitting the OTQ?
Something I never know for sure, does the finish time happen at the first or second of the two mats. She crosses the first at 2:37:02. You could call it 2:37:03 by rounding, but definitely not 2:37:04. So I guess it’s the second? But that’s werid since it’s technically past the finish line.
I’ve also had races where I definitely cross the first barrier at a certain time and my official is a second or so slower.
2 things:
First the clock is not 100% exact. It is set by someone who does their best to sync it with the gun time of the race. Generally, there is no mechanism that connects the clock with the actual start time. This can mean the clock can be 1/2 to a full second different than the actual gun time of the race.
Second, if your time has ANY hundredths (i.e. 2:18:00.01) it is rounded up to 2:18:01.
So between the combination of those two things, the time you see on the clock as you pass, may not be the time that is in the results.
Check out a photo of the starting line. A 2:18 man will be on it or very close to it; a 2:37 woman will be behind it, and sometimes well behind (here, enough behind it that she can miss the Olympic trials because of it). In that scenario, a gun time for a man and a chip time for a woman makes perfect sense.
Right. And if I recall, historically women needed gun time to qualify. They changed it because races were getting so much deeper at the front that it was no longer feasible for likely qualifiers to start right on the line. In 2009, 2:37 would've gotten you around 40th place. This year, closer to 400th.
Also, as a practical matter, they do accept chip times for men. Just not if there's a big gap. And if there's a big gap for a 2:18 guy, then something fishy is going on. There's zero reason someone like that shouldn't be very close to the starting line, and it's way easier to cheat if you go by chip time and you didn't have to run the whole race with people at your pace who would can confirm that you actually did it.
This is true. They altered the rules to accept women's chip times because women are often not on the front lines in mixed start races and therefore tend to have more (legitimate) discrepancy between chip and gun time. I would argue though that they should also just accept chip times from men. What's the harm in it?
The women's long distance committee favors increasing participation. The men's long distance committee favors "increasing excellence". Or something akin to that.
That still doesn't make sense. How is gun time more excellent than chip time outside of placing? To qualify, your place does not matter, only your time.
It's pretty obvious, really.
Potential female qualifiers are much more likely to be starting further behind the absolute front-of-field than men.
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