Problem — Erroneous Splits

RaceSplitter started life as a split timer for nordic ski coaches. As such, one of its most important features was to automatically add laps (or splits) to a race each subsequent time that a participant is timed. While this is great for coaches, it’s a feature that can cause confusion in event-timing.

Say you’re timing the finish line of a half-marathon race, and you time the racer with bib number 123. A while later, bib number 132 comes along, and you accidentally type in “123” again. RaceSplitter will happily create a second “lap” (or split) on the race, and add the second recorded time for bib 123 to it. This can lead to confusion when the organizer inspects the race results, sees “Split 2” with one recorded time, and listing all other racers as “Did not finish”!

How to correct — This situation is easily corrected within the app by finding the second timing entry, and changing its bib number to the correct bib, 132. If you’ve published results online to RaceSplitter.com and have started editing the results (thereby locking the app out of re-publishing), you can simply delete bib 123’s “Split 2” entry, and then edit bib 132’s time back in Split 1.

How to prevent — The problem can be completely prevented by disabling the “auto-split” mode on the race. If auto-split is disabled, and you attempt to time bib number 123 twice, the second entry will be recorded with the fictitious bib number “100123”—i.e. a bib number too large to exist in the start list, but at the same time letting you know which bib number you attempted to time (e.g. 123 in this case.)