I don't know much about how e-punching actually works, but maybe some of you do. Looking over the results from the US Champs at WinSplits, there are some obviously bogus times here and there. Not many, but some. For instance, it's tough to run a leg in 0 seconds, but at least 2 blue runners managed that superhuman feat on Sunday.

How does that happen? Could it be a sign that batteries are running low at the punching unit? Or would it be a sign that the unit is just plain screwed up?

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), May 17, 2001

Answers

For those of you who don't have a book mark to winsplits, here is the URL:

http://147.14.243.23/winsplits/online/

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), May 17, 2001.

Tack så mycket for that link to the Svenska page on Winsplits, Spike.

I'll obcerve that the two hper-runners in question were Brian May and Robert Molnar. I know Brian had a very late start, and I'll speculate that Robert did as well. I'll further speculate that the e- punch at control #11 gave up the ghost shortly before they arrived, and that they punched on their maps with the pin punch, and were given credit, but no split was available. This would explain why they both appeared to have "boomed" the next control -- it was the combined split for the two (although it looks like Robert really did have a time loss in there).

I do know of another case of a wacky e-punch -- one of the units at the US Champs last fall was not keeping proper time. The splits all looked weird, and when compared to the times that a few of us recorded on our watches, it was clear that the clock had to be drifting (i.e. it wasn't just set incorrectly).

Another interesting thing about that WinSplits file from the CNYO event is that it seems to indicate that virtually everyone blew #19. Now, there are some people (myself included) who did lose time there, but it appears that the software got confused when it failes to handle Rick DeWitt properly. Rick was very ill that weekend, and DNFed both days. The way he did this on Sunday was to get around as far as #10, then shortcut over to #19. Since #10 was very close to #19, he appeared to have a blazing split on that leg, and everyone else tanked by comparison -- though the software should have been able to see that Rick wasn't coming from #18!

-- J-J (jjcote@juno.com), May 21, 2001.

Upon further examination, I will question my speculation. First, there were a bunch more runners (seven?) who also had splits of zero for that control. That makes it sound even more like a punch that died, especially since they were all non-TeamTrials people who would have been running late. But there are also two people who ran it in 5 seconds, and one who ran it in 22 seconds. This makes it tougher to explain. Maybe the clock on that control was drifting backwards, and the software knows enough to not let you have a negative split, so the later runners who arrived before they had left the previous control were given a zero. (Could also be that the previous control was drifting forward.) But if it were a clock problem like this, I'd expect to see more split times that were just superhumanly fast (but no instantaneous), as the drift was happening.

-- J-J (jjcote@juno.com), May 21, 2001.