Introduction
Basics of Scoring a Race with RaceDay Scoring
By their very definition, races need to have a scoring mechanism – who finishes where. Checking the dictionary:
Race – /rās/ – noun
- a competition between runners, horses, vehicles, boats, etc., to see which is the fastest in covering a set course.
There are an amazing amount of variations, but this guide will give the newcomer an introduction to using RaceDay Scoring a quick overview of a simple race.
There are several key parts of a race, and the corresponding RaceDay Scoring Component:
| Race Terms | RaceDay Scoring Term |
| Race | Event |
| Participant | Participant |
| Timing Equipment | Stream |
| Start / Split / Finish | Timing Locations and Segments |
| Scoring | Reports |
To setup RaceDay Scoring for a race:
Create a Race – A Race is made up of multiple Events – like a Marathon and 5K held on certain dates. There are lots of ways to do this. Manually in RaceDay Scoring, Importing from RunSignUp, Importing from The Race Director, setting up via the Open API, and more.
Scored Events – This is where the elements below will be associated – For example, the Participants in the 5K, the Streams of timing data and the Timing Locations, as well as the definitions used for the scoring reports.
Importing Participants – Participants will have information associated with them like name and email address. They will also have certain information that will be used for scoring like Gender and Age. Having this information will allow the scoring software to determine top female finishers between 20 and 29. RaceDay Scoring imports participants by having quick data entry, importing spreadsheets or automatically syncing data with RunSignUp or other registration companies who support the Open API.
Streams – are a set of timing data coming to RaceDay Scoring through our Connector. It is usually a time and a bib and/or chip number(s). This can come from a file that we read whenever there is a change, directly from most timing controllers, or even by hitting the Enter key on the keyboard. RaceDay Scoring has a Stream Setup page with many options and configuration of custom data streams to make it easy for timers to have multiple equipment types working together.
Timing Locations – are points in a race where times are collected. One or more Streams can be configured at each Timing Location as backups.
Segments – The simplest Segment is defined by the Start at one end and the Finish at the other. RaceDay Scoring automatically configures the Event level Start and Finish since those are required Timing Locations. Additional Segments can be set up by defining additional Timing Locations as start and end points of a Segment. Triathlons are a common type of race with a need to define segments: Swim – Transition – Cycle – Transition – Run. Another common segment definition might be mile splits a halfway point on a marathon course.
Reports and Scoring – RaceDay Scoring has a set of report options that make it simple to create a set of results. There are common tools for setting up Age Groups and Gender, as well as defining award winners and definitions like whether there is double dipping or not (eg. when a 40 year old wins their age group as well as the overall race). This is also where the output of the reports is configured. They might automatically sync with RunSignUp Results, triggering automatic TXT notifications and a nicely formatted results display on on the race website, or it might be an HTML file posted to Dropbox that the timer’s website displays, or it might be a leaderboard or finisher kiosk display.
Please see http://help.rdscoring.com/support/solutions for more in depth documentation and examples.
There is Certification Training available in January, 2019. There will be another training session at the RunSignup Symposium in July, 2019. We also anticipate introducing online training at some point in 2019.