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Category Archives: Stories

Gun or chip: a timing paradox

30 Thursday Sep 2021

Posted by deshon in Race Results, Stories

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5K, chip timing, deshon, gun timing, rose

There are many who relish the accuracy of chip timing, as a measure of exactly what their time was for a particular distance. Indeed, the technology that has become commonplace in competitive running is a great thing. For many purists, however, trying to compare races run “pre-chip” with those using chip timing is an undeniable mystery—very much like comparing apples and oranges. Both are fruit but very different from one another.

“gun or chip” graphic

Creek Road Runners, from its earliest days (“prehistoric” in terms of timing technology—e.g., the use of a stopwatch), has held to a standard of posting “gun times,” as opposed to “chip times” for just this reason. It is fair to compare gun times over the years, though they don’t necessarily reflect accurate time over the stated distance. Who’s to say what one’s chip time would have been in a race of tens of thousands back in the day, if it took up to a few minutes after the gun went off just to get to the starting line?

Today, nearly all race organizers/timers do what is easiest and most efficient in posting results, i.e., using chip times, which is totally understandable. However, how do race directors decide who earns awards in various competitive categories? This can be quite paradoxical.

photo of Bill Rose

Speaking of paradox, CRR Bill Rose competed in the Grape Stomper cross-country 5K this summer at Paradocx Vineyards in nearby Pennsylvania. Finishing eighth overall, Rose won his age group. The paradox involved here is that Rose’s chip time was actually faster than the competitor who finished just two seconds ahead of him and who walked away with the award for fastest men’s masters runner—a more prestigious accolade, to be sure.

Upon further inspection, there were a number of inconsistencies in how runners were ranked—most placed strictly according to chip time, and yet some weren’t, like Rose, who turned in a 23:13.

photo of Mark Deshon

CRR Mark Deshon remembers a 5K several years back, at the finish of which he was certain to have won his age group, having not seen his main rival at any point during the race. Upon checking the results board, he had placed second, not first. How might this have happened? Well, he found out that his competitor, who gladly accepted the age-group win, actually had a faster chip time but had spent too long in the Porta-Potty and had gotten to the starting line about 45 seconds after the gun had sounded.

So, this illustrates a problem with competitions, which are essentially what “races” are. One can complain about Creek Road Runners’ stance with respect to not posting the faster (i.e., chip) time in its race results articles, but we’ll argue that when the gun sounds, the official clock begins, no matter where you are in relation to the starting line—even if you’re still in the Porta-Potty!

An Olympic postscript

10 Tuesday Aug 2021

Posted by deshon in News, Stories

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olympics, parsons, robinson, rose

The 2020 pandemic Olympic Games came to a close on August 8, 2021. Now we can look forward to the 2024 games in just three years!

For many, the extra year of training and preparation for these games was a hindrance; for others, it was a blessing in disguise. There were certainly a lot of surprises along the way. It seems the rest of the world is catching up with the USA in many sports.

In particular, the men’s track and field team, with a few notable exceptions, did not have the broad success that most of us expected. The USA women’s T&F team performed better, relative to their competition.

Champion gymnast Simone Biles brought a stark new awareness of the mental aspect of this level of competition, dropping out of the gymnastics team competition and a few of her individual-specialty apparatus events due to her unreadiness mentally.

photo of Sam Parsons making eye contact with an Ethiopian competitor
CRR Sam Parsons competed in the World Championships in Doha in 2019.

How difficult, both physically and mentally, it is just to get to the Olympic stage was highlighted in a pre-Olympics article in the New York Times, which focused on this subject and featured CRR Sam Parsons.

Parsons, who trains with Colo.-based Tinman Elite and was competing for a spot on the German national team in the 5,000m (his mother CRR Christina Parsons is German), had been battling a nagging injury leading up to the German trials. Unfortunately, with little more than a lap left in his quest to qualify, he had to pull out of the race—his Olympic dream deferred.

The good news, father CRR George Parsons tell us, is that his son is recovering well physically and is staying positive, despite the disappointment.

> See New York Times article

Another almost-made-it was Michaela Meyer, who won the NCAAs this year but finished fourth at the Olympic trials. Meyer was a former UD student of CRR Bill Rose.

Yes, the world does seem to be catching up to the USA in many respects. Could this be the natural evolution of globalism, or is there something behind this?

photo of Matt Robinson
CRR Matt Robinson

We’d like to think that the efforts of (self-proclaimed Creek Road Runners CEO) CRR Matt Robinson are making a difference for other nations that may not have the coaching expertise that we enjoy in this country. He literally coaches Olympic coaches.

This effort is funded by the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Solidarity Fund, which designates money generated from Olympic broadcast rights to sport development and education programs around the world.

In the runup to the Olympic Games this summer, Robinson was interviewed by a University of Delaware UDaily reporter for the following article.

> Read “Going for Gold”

Saying “bye” to 2020, with Roses

01 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by deshon in Stories

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Tags

fair hill, rose, Wring Out the Old

photo of Bill RoseTwo other runners, CRR Bill Rose and his daughter Ally also made it out to Fair Hill yesterday to help close out 2020 by running the “Wring Out the Old, Ring in the New” 4.67-mile trail loop.

The elder Rose had done ten of these annual runs from 2006 to 2019. This was his 11th. This was Ally Rose’s fourth, having participated in 2015, 2017, and 2018. She missed the run last year because she was on a plane to China. Fortunately, she was back this year and really wanted to run it again, if for no other reason than to keep her dad honest!

photo of Bill and Ally RoseThey wondered if they would see other CRRs while there. They didn’t, so, in essence, it became great father-daughter time—finishing stats unimportant.

“We thought we would be running in the rain, but the rain ended just before we started,” Bill commented. “With no rain and no wind, we were overdressed for the 46-degree temperture. The uphills on this course get bigger every year. We had a very nice run, even though there were no doughnuts or sparkling cider at the finish. We look forward to seeing everyone next year!”

Rose plans to organize the 2021 run, to include the doughnuts and bubbly.

The old, completely wrung out

31 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by deshon in Stories

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Tags

deshon, duathlon, fair hill, individual, tague, trail run

Closing the Book on 2020
 

The novel coronavirus has certainly changed the behavioral landscape in 2020, particularly in terms of event cancellation. The Creek Road Runners annual trail run, traditionally held on Dec. 31, was no exception.

photo of Mark Deshon

Not to be completely deterred, however, was CRR Mark Deshon, who, along with four other “millennium men,” began this holiday tradition in 1999. In an effort to exercise (or is it exorcise?) away the effect of all the holiday food that is ever-present and so tempting while sheltering in place, he decided to make good on the last decent-weather day of the year (Dec. 30) by engaging in a duathlon pilgrimage, biking to and from the Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area and running the course.

The 4.1-mile bike—4.67-mile run—4.1-mile bike effort was both a challenge and a good way to close out what had been a great year of training for Deshon. With some transition time in between, mostly to change gloves and headgear, his times were 17:52, 40:26, and 15:35, respectively.

The wind from the southwest was substantial, accounting for the big time difference on the bike, while the “monster” of New Muenster hill gradually slowed him to a survival jog.

Deshon missed the company of triathlete and CRR Steve Tague, with whom he had been bike training since May. Tague was also trying to take advantage of the good weather by finishing a deck-building project.

Another year, another trail run in the book, and another year of “wringing out the old.” And, yes, the old was completely wrung out in 2020. Time to ring in the new!

For a sample chronicling of past years’ events, check out the following:

  • Veni, vidi, vici! (it was warm, it was foggy, it was muddy!) – 2002
  • 10th annual run ushers in a cold and windy day – 2008
  • No Victor, but not without a winner – 2012
  • El niño, another record breaker in 17th annual – 2015
  • Good times highlight 20th annual event – 2018

Half of New England, three New England halfs

29 Saturday Aug 2020

Posted by deshon in Stories

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half marathon, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, schultz

photo of Dave SchultzYou might also call it “Dave’s excellent adventure.”

There’s nothing like running on vacation trips in beautiful locations. But three half-marathon distances in ten days? That’s a bit on the crazy side, but CRR Dave Schultz seemed to have a good time anyway.

graphic map of northern New England showing locations of 3 runsSchultz’s adventure began on August 2, during which he completed a 13.1-mile distance while running from West Peabody, Mass., to Salem, Mass., and back in a time of 1 hour and 57 minutes.

Next up—beautiful Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island in Maine. Beginning in Bar Harbor on August 8, Schultz did a mostly-trail run through the park. By his own admission, the time was slow (2 hours and 44 minutes), but, hey, it was a trail run in and he put in an extra half mile or so (13.7 mi.).

After visiting the White Mountains in New Hampshire and hiking up and down the 6,288-ft. Mt. Washington, Schultz completed his New England half-marathon trifecta on August 11 in Nashua, N.H., covering a 13.3-mi. distance in 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Quite the accomplishment and quite the stamina! Well done.

So, what did you do on your summer vacation?

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