On Sunday, November 1, nearly 44,000 runners gathered at the base of the Varrazano-Narrows Bridge in Staten Island, New York to celebrate –and run– the fortieth New York City Marathon. This year, after vetting over 100,000 applicants, the New York Road Runners hosted the world’s largest marathon in history, breaking records for both the number of entrants and the largest number of finishers. In addition to drawing a record amount of runners, they managed it all with a brand new timing system: invented and produced by eighteen month old ChronoTrack Systems and featuring a device called the D-tag, it is the race world’s first and most successful disposable timing system.

The ChronoTrack timing system utilizes an adhesive tag, printed on and numbered according to the runners’ bibs. Athletes remove the tag from their own bib, and loop the D-tag through their shoe laces, forming the signature D shape. Although significantly different from its predecessors, “It’s a simple system to use,” says New York Road Runners VP of Administration and Operations Ken Winell. “It doesn’t require an engineering degree. We basically trained our finance team, among others, to score races for us.”

Prior to the race, many had expressed concerns about employing such a new timing system for such a major event. “The truth is, our concerns with [switching to] ChronoTrack were whether they could handle the density [of participants],” says Winell. The Indiana based company conducted several tests on races of comparable size throughout 2009 to demonstrate the D-tag’s ability to handle similar volumes. After witnessing the ChronoTrack D-tag system handle over 50,000 runners in Atlanta’s Peachtree 10K on July 4th, and comparing ChronoTrack’s financial analysis to that of its competitor, Winell said, “The benefits of the ChronoTrack walk-off were superior… in every way.”

One issue with the logistics of a race of this size is how to eliminate crowd back up, particularly at the finish line. Where previous timing systems required athletes to return each individual device, the D-tag is the most reliable of its kind that can be safely thrown away. “People are looking for a disposable solution and ChronoTrack was the first one on the scene with a really good one… that worked. Given the systems, the ease of use, and the demand for them among events, most of the larger timing companies I know have made the switch,” says Bob Teschek, owner of Granite State Racing Services.

Another potential issue was switching technologies; many runners, particularly veteran racers, have become familiar with the older timing system that had been in place for fifteen years or more. In order to subvert any confusion about using the D-tag, “The New York Road Runners invested heavily in communications about how to properly install the [D-tag] and that was very effective,” says Ken Winell. “There were a few instances where people contacted us [with issues]… We asked them to take a photo of their shoe and it would turn out to be operator error, but that allows us to make a manual update to the instructions for next year.” He continues: “We’ve had fewer incidents, fewer complaints this year. I’d have to say we couldn’t be happier, both with the technology decisions that we made, and with the overall performances of our systems.”

With event logistics becoming even more complicated in recent years thanks to a broadening interest in racing competitions, it’s difficult to understand why coordinators and timers endured a substandard system for so long. According to Dave McGillivray, Race Director for the Boston Marathon, “We tolerated [shortcomings in previous timing systems] because we so enjoyed the technology. It’s all there was. Now you can put systems out on the course, track people, just a host of things that weren’t possible before.” Teschek concurs: “The more numbers and the more variables you add, the higher the percentage of something, anything, going wrong.”

Transitioning to a new timing system like ChronoTrack’s was a risky venture, especially for so large an event as the New York Marathon. Winell remarks, “I’d have to say we hit it out of the park… We scored well over 43,000 runners.” Furthermore, “The ChronoTrack system, was superior [to its predecessor] in every way. It was a well-executed, organized event. It actually was the smoothest marathon –from a technology perspective– that we’ve had in the last [several] years.”

Though the ChronoTrack D-tag is still a relatively new timing system, the company is already working on the next wave of race timing technology: the bib tag, or B-tag. According to McGillivray, the race world has been looking for such a thing for nearly fifteen years: “When all of us were looking for [electronic] technology, right off the bat we were looking for the [technology] in the bib,” he says. “We knew what we were looking for, it just wasn’t there yet. Now we’re ever so close to it.”

ChronoTrack announced at the NYC Marathon the development of its B-tag, which will be used in a major marathon before the end of 2009.

Photos from the NYCM: