Triathlon - Triathlon timing issues?

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TechKnowGN
04-24-09, 09:49 AM
So I competed in my first triathlon last weekend, and I feel it was a huge success. However, they had "power surge" problems that causes many of the split times to be lost. I have my full race time, and my final split time, but they have neither my swim nor bike times. I can approximate based on how I feel I swam, and the couple of times I was able to see the clock in the pool, but thats as close as I can get.
is this something that happens often?
cjbruin
04-24-09, 10:10 AM
I don't think it happens often but it's not unheard of. I think they use generators to power that stuff and they are probably susceptible to power surges.
They had an issue with one of the timing mats at IMAZ last April and it freaked out the people who were tracking athletes online. It made people think that their friends/family had dropped out or were having trouble. My wife got about 30 calls asking her if I was OK.
Get a good waterproof watch - Ironman comes to mind, with all kinds of buttons and features. Great way to track your own time, just in case. I have a basic heart monitor watch and I use the stopwatch function and just reset after each event... great for running to check my pace.
Psydotek
04-24-09, 03:16 PM
Hasn't happened to me yet and i've done a bunch in the last few years.
msu2001la
04-30-09, 01:49 PM
Get a good waterproof watch - Ironman comes to mind, with all kinds of buttons and features. Great way to track your own time, just in case. I have a basic heart monitor watch and I use the stopwatch function and just reset after each event... great for running to check my pace.
You don't really need a "good" watch to do this. Even a cheapo heart rate monitor will suffice and likely has a stopwatch/timer function.
My cheapo Polar HRM can switch from displaying HR to time elapsed simply by holding my wrist up to my chest. Perfect for when I crawl out of the water and want to peek at how long I was in there. :thumb:
Still, I'd be sad if I didn't get an "official" time simply because it's interesting to compare my splits to others, and I'm not always thinking right during a race and might forget what my times were.