Coaches & Athletes: Would you attend a XC invitational that wasn't timed?

Concentric Hero - Eccentric Zero wrote:

Paying for timing adds a considerable expense to hosting a meet and I question whether it adds value at all when it comes to learning how to race for the high school athlete. Conditions change and times change along with them, even from the beginning or end of the day compared to the middle of the day.

My question for the coaches and athletes is how you'd feel about coming to such a meet. Can you imagine doing a race and not having an official time? The meet would still be scored properly and completely.

Depends who is at the meet. If I am going against a rival yes. IF I am hiding my fitness/ teams depth or strength then still yes. If it is just some random dual meet no unless my team made it a workout. If I have a young team that needs to develop. I would take them to pretty much anything. They have nothing to lose.

Concentric Hero - Eccentric Zero wrote:

Paying for timing adds a considerable expense to hosting a meet and I question whether it adds value at all when it comes to learning how to race for the high school athlete. Conditions change and times change along with them, even from the beginning or end of the day compared to the middle of the day.

My question for the coaches and athletes is how you'd feel about coming to such a meet. Can you imagine doing a race and not having an official time? The meet would still be scored properly and completely.

Why wouldn't you want to time a meet? Timing the gaps between your runners is useful information and you also want to track improvement. When I was in school, stopwatches were used and there was never a problem with accuracy.

just use a stopwatch!!

I think it is a great idea for all the reasons already posted. But clearly there are enough people in the sport that put a big enough emphasis in timing that it could be a flop. Coaches, if you are so interested in times, can't you time your own runners?

Concentric Hero - Eccentric Zero wrote:

speasdj wrote:

If u. Would change the usual rules and allow gps watches to be used I think it would work out fine

No problem wearing watches or having unofficial times. The point is to get away with a PR meaning everything to kids nowadays. So many kids don't even care about racing the person next to them anymore they just want a PR and don't even take into account the course or weather conditions.

It's been awhile since I ran in school, but it's hard to believe that runners aren't going to race the person next to them. Even with teammates, it's human nature to kick it in. It was that way even during interval training.

team Unruly Bush wrote:

Coaches, if you are so interested in times, can't you time your own runners?

No. This service should be provided by the race. I am too busy to time my own runners, and every other race in existence provides timing, so no I'm not coming to your race and providing my own timing system with it. GFY.

would rather just go to a race with timing wrote:

team Unruly Bush wrote:

Coaches, if you are so interested in times, can't you time your own runners?

No. This service should be provided by the race. I am too busy to time my own runners, and every other race in existence provides timing, so no I'm not coming to your race and providing my own timing system with it. GFY.

Too busy to time your runners? WTF? What do you do, count while their running?

Start your watch and then watch.