Ko‘olau Trek
By Pat Bigold
timing system questioned
Star-BulletinDr. Jack Scaff calls it a widely popular and accurate timing system. He said it could clock up to 1 million runners, although the H-3 race had 17,419 entries, as of yesterday, according to race officials.
But the official timer for Ironman Triathlon said this week that the timing method for the Great Trans Koolau Trek has serious potential for flaws.
"Block timing" has been used for the past seven years in the Great Aloha Run and it will be used in the H-3 race (10 miles) on Sunday.
Most runners who've plunked down high entry fees for the once-in-a-lifetime race may not be aware that race director Scaff's timing method which relies on the alertness of volunteer finish line workers.
James T. Lovell of the Big Island, who owns and operates JTL Timing, official timer of the Ironman Triathlon and 94 other races, said there's a high potential for error in block timing.
He said those errors have been evident in the past few Great Aloha Runs.
"They've never timed an event," said Lovell. "They just collect bar codes -- that's all they do."
Lovell tempered his criticism by saying he hopes the H-3 race is successful.
"I wouldn't want to see Hawaii get a black eye in all of this."
But Lovell pointed out that what Scaff is so committed to using does not offer runners the precise individual timing that the Ironman or Honolulu Marathon provide.
Unlike block timing, the marathon and triathlon actually record the time of every runner who crosses the finish line. Computer workers punch in everyone who crosses the line and that data is cross-checked.
The marathon backs up its results with the use of video cameras stationed at the finish line.
The block timing system that will be used on Sunday works like this:
After the first 100 runners are hand-timed individually at the finish, the race is turned over to volunteers bearing time markers.
Coordinating with a race clock, a volunteer will enter a chute ahead of a group of finishers and place a bar coded time marker on the spindle at the end of the chute. The runners place their pull tags (bearing bib numbers) on the spindle. After 20 seconds, another volunteer is expected to enter the chute with another time marker which he will place on top of the preceding runners' pull tags.
The computer will then mathematically assign each runner in the chute during the 20-second interval a finishing time.
Lovell said the clock is set three seconds fast, in the expectation it will take each runner about three seconds to get from the finish into the chute.
"From the time you hit the finish line until the time you get to the chute, they've automatically said it's going to take you three seconds, no matter how long it does take," said Lovell. "If the volunteers are paying attention, they get out there on time. If the volunteers are yacking with their friends, they might miss it by five seconds or so. So there isn't really anything to say that the times on those bar codes are really the right times. It's just a matter of when that bar code happened to get into the line."
Lovell said the potential for major human error exists with the block timing system.
Scaff said the block timing system is used by the Honolulu Marathon, too, when the density of arrivals at the finish line becomes too heavy.
But Lovell, who knows the system used by Mike Burns Computer Co. in Honolulu, said the marathon times each individual.
"Burns actually times the Honolulu Marathon," said Lovell. "He uses his way of collecting raw data and then he uses his program to process that data."
He said he backed out of helping with the H-3 race a year ago when he found that Scaff was not receptive to his input.
"There was no way I was going to be part of the event if he was going to get experts in the field and then tell the experts how to do their jobs," said Lovell.
In fact, another local timing expert, Sam Aucoin of Timeline, a company with a solid reputation for individual timing, has been relegated to working the spindles at the H-3 race.
"I believe in Jack," said Aucoin. "I think his heart is in the right place and he means well."
Scaff insists he has a reliable timing system.
"The timing is the same as everyone else's," he said. "The timing system is the same as the marathon. Then you take the spindles back and put them in the computer.
"A chute may be open for only six seconds and maybe 30 people or whatever the number is. Then the computer just takes that six-second interval and assigns a time like 1/30th of that time and it comes out even closer than if you did it with your stopwatch."
Asked what happens when a volunteer forgets to jump into the chute, Scaff said, "That can happen anywhere."
Race facts
The Great Trans Ko'olau Trek, a 10-mile foot race on the H-3 from the Windward side to Aloha Stadium, takes place Sunday.Here are the details:
PACKET PICK-UP/LATE ENTRIES Registered participants may pick up their packets and new entrants may sign up at the Foot Locker H-3 Trek Sports and Fitness Expo at Kapiolani Park today through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
(Those who park at Kapiolani Community College must walk to the Monsarrat pick-up site. However, the return shuttle will take runners back to KCC.)
Return shuttles from Aloha Stadium will also depart from the North Kam Gate beginning at 9 a.m.; the last shuttle at 1:30 p.m
