Gun Time or Chip Time?

Chip Time?

Most people by now will have entered a race where chip technology has been used. The chips are usually tied onto your laces but are sometimes incorporated with your race number. The Barnsley 10k is one such event, and you are allowed to take the bib home with you. Liversedge on the other hand was a lace chip and these had to be given back. Why the difference? Is one cheaper than the other? Can the card ones be used again even if they are wet through?



or Gun Time?


We've all entered races where the runners have been asked to take their place at the start in relation to their ability. And DO they? No. How many times have you had to adjust your stride and move to one side because of the slower runners who have positioned themselves at the front? It can be a bit annoying, but maybe like you; they are trying to achieve a PB.
You cross the line and due to your position at the start of the race, there is a difference of 20 seconds between your gun time and your chip time. The chip time gives you a PB and a club record for your age group, while the gun time leaves you 3 seconds off your PB time and 10 seconds away from that record that has stood for the last 15 years.
So, what do you think? Personally, I think that you need to compare chip times with chip times and use these for your own records. Gun time records from the past are a different thing altogether, is it up to the club to decide what to do?

Here are the times for the first two runners in the V55 category from the Liversedge Half Marathon

147	90	David	Hudson	M55 to 59	Pudsey Pacers	67.58	01:41:37	01:41:38
148	238	David	Hewitt	M55 to 59	Steel City Striders	69.98	01:41:17	01:41:43

Dave Hudson won 1st prize in his age group, five seconds in front of David Hewitt. Yet the Steel City Striders runner was actually twenty seconds faster when you compare their chip times. If only he'd pushed up a bit further at the start.

What's the biggest difference you've had in your chip time and gun time?
Please feel free to have your say using the comments box below.