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Getting caught in the crowd..
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Don't knock yourself over.
🙂
Do what I do and just shout "f*cking move knobchops". Tends to work.
That's what I'm going to shout at you at the end of Manchester.
My observation of the few hundred races I've been involved in, is that front runners tend to be on balance, a little more feisty than your average Joe.
So plodding along in front of them, "because you have just as much right to be at the front" could be considered an act of provocation.
Physical appearance can also be one sign of whether or not 'you mean business'.
The upshot of this is, if you don't look as though you can run fast and you prove it as well in the opening few seconds of a race. You ought not be too surprised to get a few jolts and obsentities sent your way, should you start at the front and obstruct people.
The pens for runners are for reasons of safety. Common sense dictates that competitors are realistic. So slow runners are obliged for those reasons to suffer slower 'gun times' than 'chip times'.
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not everything is based on gun time, David. I'm pretty sure when you get your VLM good for age qualifying time they will accept a chip time.
No need to panic then Dave.
I've been listed in results in this way, at the Wokingham Half last year, In my case, I stupidly forgot to wear my chip. Given that they have plenty of photographic evidence at that race, and I also had the backing of a runner who ran much of the race close to me, I cheekily asked to be in the results, fully expecting to be told where to go. Luckily for me, they agreed, and I was listed with gun time only (which was visible from the photos). Had it not been a massive PB, I wouldn't have bothered asking since it was my own stupid fault. So your other runners may have done similar.
He has done the same thing in previous years at Wokingham. Click on his name on the Sport Systems results to see his previous gun to chip differences (0, 1 and 7 seconds). That's clearly how he rolls.
Re gun vs chip, the only sensible way to list race results is by who crosses the line in which order. That's what a race is isn't it? I've been in a race where the guy in fourth was faster on chip than the guy in third. Should he have been given the third place prize? Of course not. He shouldn't have been fannying around so far back at the start.
When I started racing, there were no chips in races anyway, and I'm not even that old. You had a 'chip' time on your watch, and that was your lot. You people don't know you're born etc etc,..
What does a 'fast runner' look like anyway?
A Little bit like me.
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David, every runner who runs takes the chip time as their actual time, and pb.
Results need to be ordered by first over the line, as otherwise it's not a race it's a time trial. Otherwise someone could start 10mins late, take advantage of an empty course and win!
Dachs, that chap needs a gentle word from the organisers. If you're running 1hr 50 for a half, why start alongside the 1hr 05 men. You just look a clown.
Yes, Its a race not a time trial. And that usually means running head to head with other runners.
If anyone checks the results of last years Staines 10k you will see that the chap who finished 1 second behind me actually ran the distance several seconds faster according to chip time.
A picture from my last race.
In this one, out of the most six most prominantly featured runners came the first five in the race. Guess who wasn't amoung them.
For what it is worth. My Garmin trace showed the pace at this point as being about 5:40 min miles.
🙂
Any race using chips would have to have the ability to add results manually - the mats don't detect chips with 100% reliability (that's why VLM has two rows of mats, but even then some are missed), some come off during the race etc. Fairly easy to sort out, my local race set up a video camera at the finish line so that claims of being missed in the results could be verified.
Best HM I did was when I arrived late due to car issues, crossed the start line about 200m behind the back of the pack and spent the whole race overtaking people. Huge psychological boost
Usually not hard to spot someone on race photos who is in full hi viz, limbering up, to go smash the course record and err, come 2078th... There's a girl who does it at Conwy Half too, has full dayglo fairy gear on, standing on the front line, arms ready like Usain Bolt going for the world record and then is swept away by the elites. It's a bit narcissitic I suppose.
In my local paper the results of the local half are printed with the first 100 ordered by gun time and the rest by chip time. Maybe you should do one like that, David, then you won't be 'disadvantaged' unless you come in the top 100?
I don't really care where I come in the race results, whether they list them by gun or chip, I care about the race I did, how strong I felt, and whether I PB'd or not, I am racing myself. Only time I would be anal about it would be if I were aiming for top 5 but then I would on the front line, in me dayglo tutu and be in it, to win it... Frankly that ain't ever happening.
When you're a mid-pack runner (sorry DF3, just above mid pack or you don't get a medal right?) do you honestly care what your exact position is and whether you actually ran a bit quicker than the person ahead of you in the list? I just don't get why this is a big deal. You know what you really ran by your watch / chip, so that's what your PB would be based on. Why does the placing matter?