Two questions comes up frequently to support for RaceDay Scoring: How do I practice setting up and testing a race and How do I get my newer staff more experience using the software? The reality is that there aren’t many good substitutes for actually scoring a real race when it comes to getting experience and gaining confidence in the timing world. Practice Scenarios are designed to come as close as possible to a real-world timing experience to help fill that need.
At launch, there are four scenarios to work through. For newer timers, it will make the most sense to work through these scenarios in order, though this is not required. The scenarios are:
- Universal Start/Finish – One of the most common setups we see with RaceDay Scoring, this is a setup that uses a single start/finish line for two different events (10K and 5K)
- Full Marathon/Half Marathon I – This scenario is focused on building segments for two distances and using multiple split points for reporting.
- Triathlon/Duathlon I – Building a race that includes an Olympic and Sprint distance Triathlon and Duathlon in a way that teaches the principles, setup, and reporting for multi-sport events.
- Basic Lap Race – Build a basic lapping race that goes for distance completed over a given time (6 hours) and deal with common stumbling blocks for this format.
What’s Included?
Each scenario begins with a prompt in the form of an email from the Race Director, Ron (who is totally not the much loved but very-much retired Ron Synup, why do you ask?) outlining the distances, age groups, and race-specific reporting or setup requirements. Provided with this prompt are either the participant database or a starters RaceDay Scoring folder, read files, and any additional materials such as a list of pacers or a file of returned chips that may be needed. All of the reads are edited and curated from real-world events and saved in the Mylaps Readlite format – instructions for importing them into RaceDay Scoring can be found HERE.
Beginning a scenario provides users with a series of prompts in the form of phone calls or texts from Ron and other timing/race staff as well as common issues like swapped bibs, missed reads, or reporting requests made on the fly. There is also a more challenging “Extra Credit” prompt for each scenario that can be completed or skipped with no penalty to overall grading.
Getting Feedback
Once a scenario has been completed and all prompts addressed they should be submitted via the Get Help button from within RaceDay Scoring. Support will then grade the submission and return a score and the correct solution with an appropriate method for solving the issue so that users learn from a missed item. These are challenging setups, so don’t expect to breeze through all of them!
Going Further
Because most of these scenarios are a bit more challenging, don’t hesitate to reach out to support with questions (raceday@runsignup.com) and make good use of the Solutions guides for RaceDay Scoring to try to solve these yourself first.
The Timer Utility Stream Playback can be used to simulate scoring the race in real time, as it drips reads out based on their actual time of day and is designed to work with the ReadLite files used in these scenarios.
Launch Webinar
Join us on April 28th for a Timer Tip Tuesday centered around launching these Practice Scenarios and walking through importing a scenario and reads, following prompts, and an open forum for any questions or ideas you may have!
Timer Utilities
JOIN the Timer Utilities Membership Organization for updates on all of the offerings, as well as a head’s up any time a new Practice Scenario is released. You can learn more about Timer Utilities on its homepage.