medium_pace wrote:
reasoning wrote:To add to the point about the timing mat: It seems like a short timeline for picking up the mat. The race starts, it takes 2-3 minutes for everybody to cross the line (including walkers at the back), and then, 2-3 minutes later, they pick up the timing mat?
...There were only 300 people in the race. It should not have taken more than 30 seconds for everyone to cross the line. It is possible that seven minutes after the start they had already starting taking down the mats and/or the mats were turned off...
30 seconds MAX. I work the start line for a marathon that has a ~25' wide start line. Our first ~400 starters take about 15-17 seconds to cross the start line, based on the chip data for their start corral. I also work the start line for a 600 runner half marathon with a 30' wide start line. All those runners (some walkers) cross the start line in about 35 seconds.
As for the timeline of start mats being picked up, it's different for every race, but the marathon I work for our last starter crosses the start line about 4:45 after the gun. We might have a few stragglers coming out of the portos but the last of the continuous starters is at about 4:45. At 4:46, i.e. as soon as the last starter we see crosses the start line we start disconnecting the start mats and start getting them out of the street. We need to do it that quickly because we need to get that road partially open to traffic, and we have our racers coming back through the start line at mile 3.2. The wheelchair racers take about 11:00 to return, so we know we have a 6:00 window to get the mats and boxes disconnected, loaded in the trucks, and out of the start zone. It's wicked tight but we get it done. We do have someone manually recording the bib numbers of any stragglers so that we know they actually crossed the start line.
No idea if the race Dean did has any similar issues that require them to remove their start mats quickly.