Race-chips not registering

frash

I haven't done too many races yet but have done 2 half-marathons (Clontarf in July and the race series one in the Phoenix Park at the weekend)

For both races my chip didn't register at the start.
Luckily they were able to give me my chip time as on both occasions my running mate's chip was registered at the start.

Is this a common problem or am I doing something wrong?

The guy from Saturday said :
"The most common reason for this is runners wearing a jacket, water belt or similar over the number at the start of a race."

but all was wearing was a t-shirt (& shorts obviously!) with my phone on my arm (nowhere near the bib).

Downtime

frash wrote: »

I haven't done too many races yet but have done 2 half-marathons (Clontarf in July and the race series one in the Phoenix Park at the weekend)

For both races my chip didn't register at the start.
Luckily they were able to give me my chip time as on both occasions my running mate's chip was registered at the start.

Is this a common problem or am I doing something wrong?

The guy from Saturday said :
"The most common reason for this is runners wearing a jacket, water belt or similar over the number at the start of a race."

but all was wearing was a t-shirt (& shorts obviously!) with my phone on my arm (nowhere near the bib).

Sometimes if you start your watch with your arm over the tag it may not register. Has happened me twice. Start my watch before the line now or behind my back.

frash

Downtime wrote: »

Sometimes if you start your watch with your arm over the tag it may not register. Has happened me twice. Start my watch before the line now or behind my back.

Hadn't thought of that but it's not it in my case as I have a 15 second countdown on my app so that I can start it before the start line.

Timmaay

You didn't happen to see what sort of chip timing system it was, or who was doing the timing? There can be a huge range in the capture rate of tags between different systems, and indeed even between two identical systems but with the antennas or mats placed in different locations! However in general the systems with a little plastic shoe tag, and a timing mat tend to be much more reliable for when you want to capture startline times.

frash

Timmaay wrote: »

You didn't happen to see what sort of chip timing system it was, or who was doing the timing? There can be a huge range in the capture rate of tags between different systems, and indeed even between two identical systems but with the antennas or mats placed in different locations! However in general the systems with a little plastic shoe tag, and a timing mat tend to be much more reliable for when you want to capture startline times.

On both occasions it was a chip on the bib on the t-shirt. Clontarf was RedTagTiming and the race series was TLD.

whelzer

This happened to me on a recent 5K, organisers got it sorted very quickly, they were able to see me on video crossing the start line. I did not get an explanation however. Strange thing really - I knew my time, my mates did - showed them on Garmin Connect, but it drove me insane for 24 hours that MY time was wrong on the website...fairly new to this running business so I'm putting it down to that...

BeepBeep67

I don't believe any system achieves a 100% capture rate, although the failure rates can vary, though most are sub 3%.
You just have to put it down to luck, however I did see a handful of runners on Saturday with their numbers on their back, following the instructions will improve your 'luck'.

frash

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

I don't believe any system achieves a 100% capture rate, although the failure rates can vary, though most are sub 3%.
You just have to put it down to luck, however I did see a handful of runners on Saturday with their numbers on their back, following the instructions will improve your 'luck'.

My concern is that it happened on both of my half-marathons (I've only done 2!) so hoping it's not something I'm doing wrong.

Maybe I should just make sure I have chest out & arms down?