Clonliffe Christmas Cracker 22nd December

Ososlo

website : http://clonliffeharriersac.com/xmas-cracker-5k/

Nice start time for this one - 11am so no need to get up too early for the brekkie. Online entry currently 15 euro and goes up in 2 days (not sure to what price).

Weather forecast: Looking like around about 8 degrees with 35km/h winds so that section out the back of Northwood up the Ballymun road might be tough.
G'luck all!

belcarra

I think it increases to €20 on the day.
Looking like it should be dry anyways with the predicted wind easing off (25kph). Be prepared for it to be cold though (4 deg).

AdpRo

Entered this earlier on in the week but can't see anything about number pick up, I presume it's at the track around 10ish on sunday morning if any can confirm?

Ososlo

Weetabix wrote: »

Entered this earlier on in the week but can't see anything about number pick up, I presume it's at the track around 10ish on sunday morning if any can confirm?

Well I am going to register on Sunday morning and collect number in the club house so presume it's the same if you've preregistered. I rang a few days ago and was told from 10am to register

thirstywork2

Ran this last year and well organised and good course.Pity about the weather but what can you do?

Ososlo

thirstywork2 wrote: »

Ran this last year and well organised and good course.Pity about the weather but what can you do?

I don't think it'll be too bad. The wind won't be anything like it is currently and it probably won't be raining. It'll be cold alright but that's the lesser of 3 evils!

ecoli

Great race

Christie, Mulhare, Coghlan, Fitzpatrick were top four

Kinda one of them races I wish I could have watched instead of racing but had a very good performance so can't be too peeved

Ososlo

Don't know how I did as wasn't wearing a watch. Any idea when we'll get times?

menoscemo

Ososlo wrote: »

Don't know how I did as wasn't wearing a watch. Any idea when we'll get times?

http://www.championchipireland.com/results/index.php

Looks like only gun times so far

drquirky

Good fun out there but insane hail/ cold etc… cool down will be making an appearance in the rant thread later. Happy enough w/ my run and fun to watch the big guns light it up on the track to start the race.

Tallaght may need a clinic on how to properly attach timing chips but perhaps thats a discussion for another day

ecoli

drquirky wrote: »

Good fun out there but insane hail/ cold etc… cool down will be making an appearance in the rant thread later. Happy enough w/ my run and fun to watch the big guns light it up on the track to start the race.

Tallaght may need a clinic on how to properly attach timing chips but perhaps thats a discussion for another day

2 races in a row my lace has come loose. Guess I should take lessons

ChampionChip

Times on www.championchipireland.com are gun times only, we had no start mats as the field was small and the track is wide for the start line.

With less than 200 starters everyone would have crossed the start in under 10 seconds. 8 metres wide start line will cope with almost 1200 runners a minute and the track is over 8 metres wide.

I usually have fine cable ties with me at races to attach the chip if you ask me next time if you don't want to undo your laces.

zefer

ChampionChip wrote: »

Times on www.championchipireland.com are gun times only, we had no start mats as the field was small and the track is wide for the start line.
.

No offence here but that sounds ridiculous. Why bother with mats at 2k and finish if that's the case??
Plus, if you can have mat at finish, you could easily have done same at start and forced everyone over starting mat..

Ososlo

zefer wrote: »

No offence here but that sounds ridiculous. Why bother with mats at 2k and finish if that's the case??
Plus, if you can have mat at finish, you could easily have done same at start and forced everyone over starting mat..

Must say I'm a bit perplexed by that too. There was a start mat last year and a similar sized field. I didn't wear a watch so was relying on my chip time today.

ChampionChip

The field this year was smaller, there were 261 finishers last year, 90 more than this year.

We only use mats at the start where the field is large and the start is narrow. According to IAAF rule 165 your chip time ie from start mats to finish is not your official time. Its for guidance only. The race always starts when the guns goes no matter how far back you are. Putting intermediate mats and finish mats is easy compared with setting up mats at the start and forcing all the starters to cross them. Much better to let the smallish field start unhindered as was agreed with the organisers.

We know that just less than 1200 runners will cross a start line 8 metres wide in a minute which is 200 every 10 seconds. There were 172 today spread across the track which is 12 metres wide so the max time it would take to cross the start line would have been less than 10 seconds for even the runners at the very back.

The purpose of the mats is to help accurately record the finishers and get the results generated asap, texts sent out and results uploaded to the web.

Ososlo

ChampionChip wrote: »

The field this year was smaller, there were 261 finishers last year, 90 more than this year.

We only use mats at the start where the field is large and the start is narrow. According to IAAF rule 165 your chip time ie from start mats to finish is not your official time. Its for guidance only. The race always starts when the guns goes no matter how far back you are. Putting intermediate mats and finish mats is easy compared with setting up mats at the start and forcing all the starters to cross them. Much better to let the smallish field start unhindered as was agreed with the organisers.

We know that just less than 1200 runners will cross a start line 8 metres wide in a minute which is 200 every 10 seconds. There were 172 today spread across the track which is 12 metres wide so the max time it would take to cross the start line would have been less than 10 seconds for even the runners at the very back.

The purpose of the mats is to help accurately record the finishers and get the results generated asap, texts sent out and results uploaded to the web.

Fair enough but as I got a chip time last year, I presumed I'd get the same this year so it should have been stated in race literature that we'd get gun times only as then I may have worn my watch or stopwatch. I understand the race advertising is not your concern. Cheers.

vinny1313

ChampionChip wrote: »

The field this year was smaller, there were 261 finishers last year, 90 more than this year.

We only use mats at the start where the field is large and the start is narrow. According to IAAF rule 165 your chip time ie from start mats to finish is not your official time. Its for guidance only. The race always starts when the guns goes no matter how far back you are. Putting intermediate mats and finish mats is easy compared with setting up mats at the start and forcing all the starters to cross them. Much better to let the smallish field start unhindered as was agreed with the organisers.

We know that just less than 1200 runners will cross a start line 8 metres wide in a minute which is 200 every 10 seconds. There were 172 today spread across the track which is 12 metres wide so the max time it would take to cross the start line would have been less than 10 seconds for even the runners at the very back.

The purpose of the mats is to help accurately record the finishers and get the results generated asap, texts sent out and results uploaded to the web.

I know that chip timing is sometimes gun time only and figured that would be the case today when there were no mats at he start, so I'm not complaining, I always wear a watch anyway.

Out of interest, did we really use the full width of the track at the start? Especially when it was in everyone's interest to get into lane 1 or 2 as quickly as possible, which in itself would slow things down. I was perhaps 5 or 6 rows back and by my watch it took me 5 seconds to get to the start line, so I find it hard to believe the people at the back reached the start line in 10.

vinny1313

I should also add that I enjoyed the race today, especially once we got out of the headwind with a couple of km or so to go. I competed a lot on the track in my younger days, so I really enjoyed the finish, brought back great memories.

Ososlo

vinny1313 wrote: »

I was perhaps 5 or 6 rows back and by my watch it took me 5 seconds to get to the start line, so I find it hard to believe the people at the back reached the start line in 10.

i was near the back and that's what I'm thinking (hoping)

Last year there was a difference of 18 seconds between gun and chip for me.

pistol_75

I did this race for the first time yesterday. To be honest I expected a little bit more from a club like Clonliffe. For €20 it offered a chip timed 5K and I assumed an accurate course (didn't have watch). There was water at the finish and a goodie bag which didn't contain a whole lot to be honest (not that your expecting a whole lot).

My main gripe given the time of year and day that was in it was that there wasn't a cup of tea or anything of the sort layed on afterwards. Most people were soaked to the skin and could have done with something to warm them up. We are quick to praise other clubs who put on great spreads after a race and maybe this is something they could look at in the future.

I know some people were able to get a cup of tea beside the bar on an individual basis but there was nothing provided to cater for everyone.

drquirky

pistol_75 wrote: »

I did this race for the first time yesterday. To be honest I expected a little bit more from a club like Clonliffe. For €20 it offered a chip timed 5K and I assumed an accurate course (didn't have watch). There was water at the finish and a goodie bag which didn't contain a whole lot to be honest (not that your expecting a whole lot).

My main gripe given the time of year and day that was in it was that there wasn't a cup of tea or anything of the sort layed on afterwards. Most people were soaked to the skin and could have done with something to warm them up. We are quick to praise other clubs who put on great spreads after a race and maybe this is something they could look at in the future.

I know some people were able to get a cup of tea beside the bar on an individual basis but there was nothing provided to cater for everyone.

In fairness in return for the quality of the top 4 or 5 in the field I'd happily sacrifice a useless goody bag! I guess people have different priorities but really liked toeing the line with several of the best lads in the country! Thought the race was good and have no problem with the timing set up. Love the track start/ finish!

pistol_75

drquirky wrote: »

In fairness in return for the quality of the top 4 or 5 in the field I'd happily sacrifice a useless goody bag! I guess people have different priorities but really liked toeing the line with several of the best lads in the country! Thought the race was good and have no problem with the timing set up. Love the track start/ finish!

Agree with you regarding the goody bag and as has been said already the numbers didn't justify the need for a start mat really. Nice to finish on the track as well as you have already said.

Ososlo

drquirky wrote: »

have no problem with the timing set up.

pistol_75 wrote: »

the numbers didn't justify the need for a start mat really. QUOTE]

That's all very well for you guys at the front as your gun time is more than likely same as your chip time. Different perspective for us slow coaches down the back :rolleyes: Guess we don't matter as much though And people wonder why we're put off small club run races! I don't know whether to subtract 8 seconds, 10 seconds or 18 seconds to my time! If you had that quandary you might feel differently about having a proper starting mat.

Besides all that I loved the track start / finish myself and the support from the stewards was great. I'll do the race again for sure but I'll have to time it myself. Don't care about goodie bags but the oversized high viz vest is just ridiculous. What am I supposed to do with it?

pistol_75

Ososlo wrote: »

That's all very well for you guys at the front as your gun time is more than likely same as your chip time. Different perspective for us slow coaches down the back :rolleyes: Guess we don't matter as much though And people wonder why we're put off small club run races! I don't know whether to add on 8 seconds, 10 seconds or 18 seconds to my time! If you had that quandary you might feel differently about having a proper starting mat.

Hey don't class me with all those fast guys I'm just an ordinary midpack runner at best. Where there's no mat and I don't have a watch (like yesterday) I just count how long it takes me to cross the line and take it off my finish time.

Ososlo

pistol_75 wrote: »

Hey don't class me with all those fast guys .

sincere apologies

AdpRo

I missed my target by 5 seconds and stupidly started my watch at the gun so will never know if I actually got my time or not! I started around the middle of the pack so I think I would have just missed out anyway even with start mats! Hopefully will set it right at the Phoneix Park race on New Years Day!

ChampionChip

In 2012 we used mats 4 metres wide and all the starters bar 6 were over the mats in 21 seconds. We had some stragglers who took their time, in fact 2 crossed the mats 92 seconds after the start.