"D" race timing tag

I used one about 3 weeks ago for a half. IMHO:

Pros: simple. it came attached to my bib. just slide under top two laces, double it over on it's sticky self. at the end of the race, no need to worry about turning it back in like championchips, etc. just cut off it off the shoe, and you're good to go.

Cons: The adhesive left my laces sticky as shhht. it went away in a few days, so no sweat.

I thought they were fine. Comparable to chips, and if its cheaper for the race, even better. i wouldn't change your race plan over it...

Talked to some timing company officials and they said they work great for road races but aren't good for Cross Country. I'm not sure why.

Compo wrote:

Talked to some timing company officials and they said they work great for road races but aren't good for Cross Country. I'm not sure why.

The mud or dirt might impair the functioning of the technology.

Good luck!

My first and only experience with them was unsatisfactory.

The system registered only two of six mid-race splits and missed me crossing the finish line. Fortunately, a simple inquiry got my time inserted into the results, but it was irritating that such an effort on my part was even necessary.

philly distance run used them. i liked it a lot better than the championchip due to no returns. no adhesive stuff got on my shoes.

I used one this past Labor Day at a 10K.

Worked fine.

I used at a local turkey trot and it did not record my time. A race representative blamed me for the malfunction, it did not matter for this small race, but if it was one of the races below, I would be pissed. It seems like it would be less expensive (not that the races below will pass on the savings).

Here are some races that have/will be using this technology:

Recent ChronoTrack Events

08/03 San Francisco Marathon

08/10 Falmouth Road Race

08/24 CRIM Festival of Races

08/31 New York Nike Human Race

08/31 Rock N Roll Half Marathon Virginia Beach

09/06 Race of the Americas - Key Biscayne FL

09/06 Mackinaw Island 8 Mile

Upcoming ChronoTrack Events

09/14 Chicago Half Marathon

09/21 Philadelphia Distance Run

09/27 Akron Marathon

09/28 Tunnel To Towers Run, NY

10/04 Komen Race for the Cure Oklahoma

10/04 Komen Race for the Cure Houston

10/05 Portland Marathon

10/05 Rock N Roll San Jose

10/19 Free Press Marathon

i was skeptical when i used one at races 2 weekends in a row. but both times it worked great. results were up by right after noon and were accurate. the other advantage was not having to hang out in the chute to have your chips cut off.

i give it 2 thumbs up.

Shark Fighter wrote:

I used at a local turkey trot and it did not record my time. A race representative blamed me for the malfunction.

Why did the race rep blame you for the manfunction?

I like the idea of the Dtag/Chronotrack, but have seen a ton of problems with them. Check out the results from a Turkey Trot in my city:

http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?rsID=73523&orgID=234626&pubID=2

(Give the link a few seconds to load the page)

If you look at the top 30 or so runners, you can see that almost all of them have the exact same chip time as their clock time. I was in the top 20 and started at least 1-2 seconds behind the gun. My watch time was actually 2 seconds slower than the reported chip and gun time. Also, the start line was narrow and only about a dozen runners were actually on the line when the gun went off. I have heard that the Dtags have a lot of trouble when there are a lot of runners passing at the same time and will sometimes use some sort of averaging function to keep up. With reusable chips, this was never an issue. I can recall differences of as little as .7 at a start with a reusable chip. Not so with the Dtag.

Also, there are bizarre failures. I ran a half marathon with a Dtag. Started about 2 seconds after the gun. The Dtag reported me as waiting for 80 seconds to start. It didn't take anyone 80 seconds to start the race.

I think recreational and amature runners are getting the shaft from chip timing companies. The Dtags cut down on prep time by hours and save the timing company lots of $ (no sorting chips, collecting chips, etc.). But the technology is not as good as the reusable chips. I think they figure that anyone who cares will have a watch and tell the race officials to correct their time. But there are lots of people who don't run races often who won't bother. Until the technology is ready, timers need to bring back the reusable chip.

I've worn the "D" tag in 3 races. At Crim, official time was 40+ seconds slower than it should have been. Another race had official time 15-20 seconds slower. One race was accurate. At all 3 races I saw a few tags along the road side and in one race, in a heavy downpour, there were several tags lost.

I've had nothing but bad experiences with this technology, starting with the Philly Marathon 2007.

Not to mention, the environmental impact of throwaway tags vs. reusable championchip tags makes me kind of sick.

I hear you rankler. As someone who produces races, we are hearing all the time from the general public to get more green, whatever that exactly means. Until you answer an "info" emailbox you don't realize how much that matters to a certain portion of the running population. Off that feedback we decided to stick with Championchip, or something similar.

Anyone know what the Philly Marathon used for their timing system this year? I had 5 friends who ran the half. Their initial finish times were adjusted +8 or +9 seconds a day or two later, and their places were changed. Funny thing is their times were changed to slower but their places moved up, and not insignificantly. One guy's place went from mid 50's to low 40's. They all finished between 1:23 and 1:38. Any idea what caused the changes?

If you are looking for input, I strongly second rankler. While the disposable tag worked fine for me this weekend, the idea of yet something else I use for racing ending up wasted after one use disgusts me. I am now reusing race safety pins.

I do chip-timed races fairly infrequently so I have not bought a champion chip. Maybe a good way to push their adoption (so race directors do not have to worry with distributing and collecting them pre- and post- race) would be to do a $5 entry fee increase, with a perpetual $5 race fee discount for using your own chip. I have not jumped for the $1 discount that has been offered at a few races, but $5 would make me do it.

While many will howl at my suggestion of a $5 entry fee increase, I think race directors should plow some of it back into every race. Perhaps in the form of raffling away 20-50 free champion chips at every race to those who don't own them yet. Thus, the runners are subsidizing their adoption, and helping you eventually reduce logistical demands. Publicizing why there is the increase, and what you are doing to alleviate it should be part of any effort like this. Running stores affiliated with races could give free chips to those who spend $200 or more.

Ideally, in a couple of years most runners will own a chip and very few will be paying the $5 "surcharge". And race directors do not have to worry about handling the chips themselves.

I guess the big hurdle would be getting enough race directors on board with this scheme.

The responder to my email, a running club president, replied that I probably fastened it to my laces wrong. I'm not sure what he imagined I was doing with it.

I'm quite sure I didn't, and I don't know why the tag failed.

It was an odd response to a race customer from a race organizer. I actually thought I was giving him some useful feedback.

I don't know about Philly this year (although reports I've heard make it seem even worse than last year), but last year I was in both the half and full results for a month or so after finishing the full. The finishes were next to each other, and either the chip or the mat sensitivity was off and some people read as finishing the wrong race, others as both. Of course, a lot of people didn't read at all.

A lot of people who had no read this year, from what I heard they took their place and then gave them the median time of the person on either side of them. That may not matter at 3:30 when people are coming in every second, but at 2:30 that could make a huge difference.

Championchip is tried and true, and I would be wary of any race using an alternative until that alternative is just as tried and true. I was amazed that Philly was the first race to use D-tags last year, and they didn't think to implement a backup system.

I RD an Earth Day race, and the environmental impact is very much an issue. My race has tried to follow the green race movement by using organic cotton shirts, no plastic bottles, compostable cups, and so on. I am afraid that we will have no choice but to use Dtags. Once thrown away, they will sit in a land fill for thousands of years.

My understanding is that the old championchip and the Dtags aren't compatable. The Dtags operate on a different and weaker frequency, which is why you have to make the loop--the singal gets blocked by your foot.

I think the system may be around for good. Most RDs are not competitve runners and welcome not having to be responsible for chip distribution or collection. Timing companies save a lot of labor time not having to hand assign each chip and deliver on race day. The occassional complaint about a missed time won't bother anyone. I think people need to ask for a refund of their race fee if they want to make a difference. It used to be that your race fee bought accurate timing. If the Dtags don't deliver, then you should get your money back (you won't, but it will rangle RDs into questioning the system).