Pre-Sale Questions

RaceSplitter is an app that runs on the iPhone and iPad, that allows you to organize “do-it-yourself” timing of sporting events. Although it’s powerful enough to time complex multi-day, multi-race and multi-split events, here’s how it’s used in the most simple and common scenario:

• Create a start list — either in the app itself, or downloaded from a race you’ve created at the RaceSplitter.com website.
• Start the race — When the race starts, start the timer in the app.
• Time the race — As participants cross the finish line, type in their bib numbers and tap the “Record” button.
• View or publish results — You can view and sort results in the app itself, or publish the results back to the RaceSplitter.com website for even more powerful filtering, sorting and printing.

That’s just the beginning — RaceSplitter supports complex race types, like interval or wave start events, supports categories, can be used in a multi-device configuration to time multiple checkpoints on a race, and much, much more. Be sure to watch our 3-minute introduction video, and then browse through the articles here in our Learning Center.

And of course, feel free to contact us with any questions you might have. We’re here to help!

RaceSplitter is primarily for two groups — race organizers and coaches.

Race organizers

RaceSplitter is a complete “do it yourself” race timing system, allowing race organizers to save hundreds or thousands of dollars on the cost of hiring a professional timing service.

Since timing with RaceSplitter involves manually typing participant’s bib numbers into the app, it’s perfect for endurance races or any event in which large numbers of participants aren’t expected to finish at precisely the same time.

At the same, many organizers of large, fast races—such as local 5km runs—make adaptations to their events in order to be able to use RaceSplitter. These organizers usually corral their finishers into single-file chutes, in which they must get timed before exiting. In this way, they trade-off potential small delays in timing—while participants wait in the chute to be timed—in order to realize great cost savings, guaranteed correct finish order, and all the other benefits of using RaceSplitter.

Coaches

Particularly in interval-start races, it was previously difficult for coaches to know how their individual racers were doing with respect to the competition. With RaceSplitter, coaches can time their racers and key competitors and have up-to-date race standings, including time-from-leader—i.e. competitive information they can give to their racers.

Today, RaceSplitter is the most popular app in the world used by coaches of nordic skiing!

Others

Parents are also using RaceSplitter to time their kids, giving them up-to-date standings during races, and then exporting the data back home for study and analysis.

In addition, many race judges and checkpoint controllers also use RaceSplitter, to replace their manual control of racers at checkpoints.

Since timing with RaceSplitter involves typing in bib numbers and tapping “Record”, the app is more suited to certain types of races than others.

RaceSplitter is perfect for:

• Long- and medium-distance races — In such races—like mountain trail running or half-marathons—in which racers tend to spread out and finish alone or in small groups, RaceSplitter is ideal.
• Interval- and wave-start races — Races in which participants start alone or in waves, separated by fixed time intervals—such as nordic skiing or cycling time trials—are ideal for RaceSplitter.
• Adaptive sport races — Races involving handicap participants, in which recorded times are adjusted by a compensation factor, are ideal for RaceSplitter.
• Multiple-lap races — RaceSplitter automatically detects when a race has multiple laps.
• Races requiring intermediate times — In addition to a timer at the finish line, some race organizers—particularly in trail running events—will send a handful of other RaceSplitter users out to record intermediate times at interesting locations on the course.
• Multi-sport races — Organizers of multi-sport races like triathlons use the multiple-device support provided by RaceSplitter to time each leg of their event.

Here are some examples of race types that are regularly timed with RaceSplitter.

• Nordic skiing
• Mountain biking
• Triathlons and duathlons
• Trail Running
• Half-marathons and marathons
• Small fun-runs
• Multi-stage races
• Desert buggy racing
• Sail boating
• River rafting and paddling
• 2011 Paralympics

With some slight adaptations, even short and fast events, in which large groups finish together, can be timed with RaceSplitter.

Even organizers timing races who expect medium sized groups to arrive together and motivated by the tremendous cost savings of using RaceSplitter have discovered tactics for using RaceSplitter that you can read about here.

RaceSplitter can be used on any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch which is running version 5.1.1 or higher of the iOS operating system.

Finding RaceSplitter in the iPad App Store — Although you can perfectly well run RaceSplitter on an iPad—and in fact we ourselves run it on an iPad mini in our events—it’s technically an iPhone app. When you search the App Store on an iPad, by default only iPad apps are shown in the results, and for that reason you won’t find RaceSplitter. The solution is to switch to the “iPhone Only” tab on the search results screen, where you should find RaceSplitter ready for purchase and download.

What about Android? — At this time, we do not have plans for creating a version of RaceSplitter for Android. Many race organizers and coaches who have Android or Windows phones, have purchased used iPhones or iPads (on eBay, etc.) in order to use RaceSplitter—since the combined cost of RaceSplitter and the device is still far below that of professional timing services.

In very simple scenarios, no internet connection is required at all—as RaceSplitter is a completely self-contained solution.

For complex scenarios—which are more common, such as multi-device timing—internet connectivity will be required for some pre-race and post-race activities, but is not required to conduct the actual timing.

An internet connection is required for:

• Creating races at RaceSplitter.com. You can create races on the device itself, but it's far easier to creating them at the RaceSplitter website and then import them into the app.
• Importing races from RaceSplitter.com into the app.
• Publishing or updating results from the app to RaceSplitter.com. Although results can be viewed within the app, the RaceSplitter website provides a far richer set of features, including printing, complex sorting, etc.
• Export results via email from the app

Example — When we time races in areas without cell/mobile coverage, we:

1. Download the race in advance from RaceSplitter.com
2. Add any new racers directly on the device at the race (no network required)
3. Time the race (no network required)
4. Publish results after the race, when we get back into cell/internet coverage. (Any racers added manually on the device, will get added to the race when you publish results.)

Here’s how a coach (or parent) would typically use RaceSplitter to help her athletes (or monitor her kids) during a race:

1. Locate or create the race. Planning to provide her athletes with mid-course splits at this weekend’s nordic ski race, she visits RaceSplitter.com to check if someone has already uploaded the start list. Many organizations — like NENSA and Chisholm Ski Club — publish their start lists, for the benefit of the RaceSplitter users attending the event. If nobody’s uploaded the start list yet, she might quickly upload it herself.
2. Download the race. Once she’s found the race at RaceSplitter.com, she’ll download it to the RaceSplitter app on her iPhone or iPad.
3. Time her racers. At the race, she’ll time racers as they pass by her position. (Since she’s interested in relative information, it doesn’t matter when she starts the timer.) As she sees a racer coming in the distance, she’ll enter their bib number, and RaceSplitter will instantly show her the racer’s virtual place in the standings. As the racer passes, she’ll shout, “You’re four seconds behind the leader!”

In this way, she can give her athletes split times and relative race standings quickly, accurately, and without fumbling with pencils and stopwatches!

Here’s how a race organizer would typically use RaceSplitter to time his event:

1. Create the race. The organizer will start by logging into his account at RaceSplitter.com, and create a new race, specifying the date and location.
2. Add the start list. He’ll then upload a start list from his computer, exported from Excel.
3. Promote the race. He might send the link to his RaceSplitter.com race page to others, or post it on his Facebook page, since later the results will be posted there.
4. Download the race. To prepare for timing, he’ll download the race from RaceSplitter.com to the RaceSplitter app running on his iPad or iPhone. At this point, he’s ready to start and time the race. (If he plans to recruit others to help him time — say, to record intermediate times — he’ll have them also download the race to their iPhones or iPads as well.)
5. Make last minute changes. He’ll have his laptop or iPad with him on race-day, adding last-minute registrations to his race at RaceSplitter.com. When he’s done, he’ll download and update the race on his iPhone or iPad. (If he recruited others to help him time, they’ll automatically receive a fresh copy of the race to update on their devices.)
6. Time the race. When the race is under way, he’ll start the timer on his iPad or iPhone. As participants finish, he’ll enter their bib numbers, and tap “Record” to record their times. If the awards ceremony happens before the last racer arrives, he’ll check the category standings to see the results.
7. Publish the results. After the race is over, he’ll tap a button to update his race page at RaceSplitter.com with the full results. He might share this link with everybody at the race, so they can browse the results with their smartphones.
8. Edit the results. If he missed a racer or two, or needs to modify a recorded time, he’ll login to his RaceSplitter.com account, and make any needed edits to his published results.
9. Print the results. For results printing, he’ll have two options. He can print results in a nicely formatted page, directly from his webpage at RaceSplitter.com. Or he can open the results on his iPad in the Numbers spreadsheet, and AirPrint from there if he doesn’t have a network connection.

We're guessing you're searching on an iPad. Although RaceSplitter runs just fine on an iPad—in fact, we run RaceSplitter ourselves on iPad minis—it's technically an iPhone app, and as such is displayed in the “iPhone Only” section of the App Store. So when searching for RaceSplitter on an iPad, just switch to the "iPhone Only" section of the search results. You'll find there, and can download and run it on your iPad.

With a single purchase, you can install RaceSplitter on multiple devices, if those devices are logged into the same App Store account used to make the original purchase. You can read more details about timing with multiple devices in this article.