RFID timing
Times you can prove, and no corrections to chase afterwards
Timing a race is not hard because clocks are inaccurate — a stopwatch costing a few thousand baht keeps good enough time for a road race. What is hard is being able to say whose time a given reading was, when runners cross the line several at once.
Events timing by hand end up with one person on the stopwatch and another writing down bib numbers as fast as they can, and the two lists are matched up afterwards. Every group of runners finishing together is a place where that matching can slip, and usually nobody knows until somebody objects.
The real cost lands after the event, when a runner says the time does not match the watch on their wrist and the organizer has nothing to point to but numbers in a file their own crew typed. The argument has no end, because neither side has evidence — and it usually ends in the correction being made as requested, which moves everyone else’s placing too.
Events that hire a timing company hit a different version: a few runners have no time at one of the points, and nobody can say whether the chip genuinely did not read or the system was configured too tightly and discarded a reading it did have. Those two are fixed in completely different ways, but they look identical from the organizer’s side.
And over all of it sits a deadline that cannot move, because the prize ceremony has to happen before people go home. So you choose between announcing early without being sure, and being sure but handing out trophies once half the marquee has been packed away.
The timing crew works with you while the course is being planned: how many points, which kilometre each one sits at, and which distances share them. Points with dense traffic or where a miss cannot be tolerated get several receiver sets stacked at the same location, not just one.
Bib numbers for the whole event are prepared in advance, every bib comes with its timing chip already fitted and paired to that bib number in the database one by one, and the set is checked for anything missing or paired twice. Events wanting extra certainty can have two chips per bib. You receive bibs that are ready to hand out, with no chip work left to do at the venue.
Start, finish and every checkpoint in between are installed before the gun: timing mats, receiver poles, reader boxes, batteries, point signage and the finish-line video camera are all our equipment and installed by us, then tested to prove every point reads before the first runner arrives. All you provide is a spot the vehicle can reach — and none of your own people have to be stationed at any of them.
Each time someone passes a point, that time enters the system immediately — no waiting to collect the equipment and download from it. The crew can see who has reached which point, who has not made a cut-off, and where something looks wrong, while there is still time to act on it.
Total time, splits and category placing are calculated and appear simultaneously on the results screen at the venue and on the results page online. Runners scan a QR at the results point and look up their own name or bib immediately instead of queuing to ask, and your crew works from the same table — so the winners can be checked before names are called, rather than announced and checked afterwards.
The finish-line camera records throughout as a backup to the chip times. It is not reviewed for every placing — it is opened when there is a reason: places separated by a fraction of a second, a formal protest, a chip that did not read at the line, or a doubt about whether the runner who came through owns that bib, for instance a gender that does not match the category entered. The crew opens it in a system RunLah built for the purpose, calling up that bib’s moment directly instead of scrubbing through two hours of footage — so matters that used to be parked get settled before the prize ceremony.
Intermediate points tell you who is still out on course and where they are, so cut-off decisions come from real data instead of guesswork, and finishing runners can be confirmed to have passed every point. And when a runner asks which section they slowed on, the answer is already on their own results page without anyone having to look it up.
Every runner gets both a time from the start signal and a time from when they actually crossed the start line, so events starting in waves or by category do not have to choose. You decide which of the two settles the overall placing, the category placing and each individual prize — and they can differ within the same event.
During the race, runners are ranked first by the furthest point they have reached and only then by time, so someone past point 3 always sits above someone who has just passed point 2. The leaderboard on the screen and on the web is meaningful from early on, rather than sitting empty for two hours and filling all at once at the end.
The same times appear everywhere at once: runners scanning a QR to open their own result on a phone, the TV screen showing live results and placings, the slip printing point handing out a paper result to take home, and the A4 lists your crew prints for the reporting desk and the prize stage. All of them read from the same data, so two channels cannot disagree about a placing.
Every chip read is stored — the time, the point, which pole read it and the signal strength — so you can look up an individual and see exactly which points they passed and when. Questions that used to end in a correction simply because nothing could be proven now have a clear answer within minutes. And if a recorded time really is wrong, it can be corrected with a record of who changed it.
When a placing is protested, or there is doubt that the person who finished owns the bib, you already hold both the finish video and the per-read chip history. Nothing has to be decided from the memory of whoever was standing there, or by conceding to whoever argues loudest. And because it can be checked quickly, the answer arrives before the ceremony — the only moment when fixing it does not mean asking for a trophy back.
A backup receiver set at the same point is used automatically when the primary has no reading for someone. Points still missing can be filled from the finish video or from neighbouring points before results are published. And afterwards it is still possible to separate runners whose chip genuinely did not read from readings the configuration discarded — two problems with different fixes, and knowing which one you had is what actually makes the next event better.
The equipment, the crew at each point and all the configuration come with the service, so there is no timing provider to contract separately and then coordinate with about how the results file gets handed over. The results flow straight into the results page, certificates, result slips and the venue screens, which are already the same system.
- Who configures it
- RunLah’s timing crew configures everything before race day; you review it and tell us about any changes — there is nothing for you to set
- Timing points per distance
- No limit. Choose which kilometres each distance is timed at, and let several distances share the same point
- Starts
- A mass start per distance, or waves and per-category starts where each group has its own start time
- Ranking mode
- Use the time from the start signal or from crossing the start line, set separately for the overall placing, category placing, age-group placing and individual prizes
- Prizes
- Unlimited prizes at category and age-group level, with the number awarded and the number of reserves, and a rule preventing one runner from taking a second prize
- Per-runner status
- Mark individuals as did not start, did not finish or disqualified — including disqualification from a particular prize while remaining in the overall results
- Untimed distances
- Walks and fun runs can be set as distances with no results, so they need no chips and do not appear on the results page
Somewhere to set up each timing point that a vehicle can reach and where equipment can stand, plus entrant data settled enough for chips to be paired before race day. Equipment, chips and the crew at each point are all ours. Internet at the timing points is not required: points in areas with no signal still time normally, because readings are stored on the device and sent up once signal returns — the only difference is that those results appear later than points with constant coverage.
Every point that did read is stored, so the crew can see who is missing which point, and points with a backup receiver set fall back to it automatically. Points still missing can be filled from the finish video or from neighbouring points before results are published. A missing intermediate point does not take the total time with it, because the next point is calculated against the previous point that was actually recorded, not the one that comes next in sequence.
Times reach the system within seconds of a runner passing a point, and the results page and leaderboard update immediately. Results treated as official should be checked by the crew first, particularly the list of prize winners — which takes a few minutes per category, not a wait for the whole event to be processed.
Disposable chips fitted to the back of the bib, so there is no return point to staff and no deposit to handle. Runners do nothing with the chip beyond wearing the bib on the front as usual. Events wanting extra certainty can have two chips per bib, which adds a layer of redundancy on top of the stacked receiver sets at each point.
All of them. Start times can be set per category or per wave. A course that passes the same spot several times is configured as multiple timing points at different cumulative distances, so the system knows which lap a read belongs to. And events sharing a start and finish line can separate start times from finish times without confusion.
You can open that individual immediately and see how many times the chip was read, at which points, at what times, and which read was used as the time for that point. Most differences come from the runner starting or stopping their own watch before or after actually crossing the line, which this data explains directly. If the time the system chose really is wrong, it can be corrected with a record of what was changed and by whom, and the affected placings are recalculated automatically.
Yes — our crew sets up a camera at the finish as a backup to the chip times, so you do not have to arrange a camera or an operator. It records throughout but is not reviewed for every placing, because the chip time settles things normally. It is opened when there is a reason: a formal protest, someone reporting that a placing does not match what they saw, a chip that did not read at the line, or a doubt about whether the finisher owns the bib, such as a gender that does not match the category entered.
It depends on the distance and what the event needs to be able to answer. The minimum is start and finish. From the half marathon upwards, at least one intermediate point usually pays for itself: it shows who is still on course, it is evidence that a runner covered the route, and it is the part runners most enjoy looking at on their own results page. The timing crew will propose a layout when the course is discussed.
Permanently on the event’s results page, searchable by name or bib, with a shareable individual result page for each runner. It is the same data used by certificates, result slips and post-event statistics, so you never receive a results file that then has to be handed on to somebody else.