When you receive your race pack you’ll find your race number with a timing tag attached. It’s important to take care of these two items – they are vital for your participation in the event.

Read on for more information on your race number and timing tag.

It is essential that you wear your race number throughout the event. Your race number should be worn on the front of your top, using a safety pin to secure it in each corner. If you don’t have any safety pins, come and see us at the registration desk on race morning and we’ll fix you up.

Pimp Your Bib

When you register, you can choose to have a nickname or other message on your race number, instead of your first name. Just look for the “nickname” question when entering. There is limited space on the bib and we want your nickname to be big and easy to read, so this field is limited to a maximum of 20 characters. Some participants prefer to keep things on the down-low. If you’d rather that your name was not printed on your race number at all, just put a full stop into the nickname field and we’ll use that as our signal to leave the space empty.

Due to the lead time required to print and prepare the race numbers, if you enter in the final week prior to the event it is unlikely you will have a name or nickname printed on your race number. Feel free to get the sharpie out and get busy with your best artwork.

It’s also important to remember that if your entry was transferred from another person, it’s possible that the race number was printed with their name on it. In these cases, you can either go with the flow, or put some tape over the name to cover it up. Either way, the race results will correctly show your name, even if your bib does not.

Your timing tag is used to calculate your time and place for the race results. To work properly, the tag must be tied into the laces of either shoe. We will place timing mats at the start line and finish line of your event which will read the exact time that your timing tag passed across these points. From this, we can calculate:

• your gun time – the time taken between the starting hooter firing and the time you cross the finish line
• your net time – the time taken between you crossing the start line and the crossing the finish line.

We use gun time for our top 3 merit awards in each race because we believe that an athletic competition is a head-to-head contest and the person who crosses the line should be declared the winner. However, we also understand that the vast majority of participants will take some to cross the start line and the time that matters to them is their net time. For this reason, the official results we publish on the event web site will show and be ordered by net time.

Running Events use the timing services of our sister company, Timing Sports – one of the largest and most experienced race timing providers in the world. With Timing Sports, you are in good hands.

Wearing Your Tag
Your timing tag should be tied into the laces of your shoes. It doesn’t matter which foot you put it on, but it is very important that the tag sits flat on the top of your foot and not bouncing around or dangling on the side of your foot. This is because the orientation of the tag relative to the ground (and the timing mats) determines how likely it is to be properly recorded. If the tag isn’t sitting in an approximately flat position on top of your foot, it may not register at all and you may not get a result. The video below shoes how to correctly tie your tag into your laces for optimum comfort and security.

What if I don’t have laces?
Many of the kids in our dash events have velcro lace up shoes. We also have some people take part in vibram style shoes without laces. In these cases, we will have cable ties and/or duct tape available at the registration desk for you to use. However you elect to secure the tag, please just remember that it should be secured to the top of the foot if at all possible.

Returning Your Tag
Your timing tag is an expensive electronic device which is loaned to you for the duration of the event by Timing Sports. It is extremely important that you return your tag after you finish, using the tag return bins provided. If, for whatever reason, you do not take part in the event, you must still return your timing tag. Timing Sports track the status of all tags and a fine may be levied if you do not return yours – this is something you agreed to as part of the event waiver when you registered for the event.

Your tag can be returned in a standard envelope. You do not need to send your race number with it or any other information. Timing Sports will scan the tag and record its safe return. The address is:

Timing Sports – Tag Return,
PO Box 30-1431,
Albany 0752
Auckland