Mark and Linda Toretsky, of Lin-Mark Sports, entered the race timing business over 23 years ago through their experience with the sport of running. Over a span of three years Mark completed twenty one marathons with his personal best being just over three hours for the 26.2 mile jaunt. As an avid runner Mark began to get frustrated when at the finish of every race there was some error or snafu keeping the race from being scored correctly. After a few years of frustration, Mark and his wife Linda chose to take matters into their own hands and start Lin-Mark Sports, a full service timing company.
Linda’s diverse background as a business woman experienced in logistics and management, coupled with her credentials in running which include being named the USATF’s Mid-Atlantic Master’s Runner of the Year, provided Lin-Mark Sports the perfect platform for success. The Toresky’s passion and zest for active sports has lead Lin-Mark to over fifty events a year, including 15 or more Triathlons.

CT: What has your experience been with the new ChronoTrack Tri-Tag?

Mark: We time about 15 or more Triathlons a year and have for several years now. We love the Tri Tag! The Tag works very well. The key is to follow ChronoTrack’s recommended usage guidelines when athletes use wetsuits and the reads are excellent.

CT: What has been your experience with the swim leg of your Triathalons?

Mark: This is where the technology really shines. I am able to deliver instant live swimmer updates and accountability reports to the race director and Coast Guard to make sure the event is safer. We timed the 4.4 mile Chesapeake Bay Swim and swimmer accountability was the number one thing. We were able to provide a service, which is unmatched, to our race director using the ChronoTrack Technology and the Nano station.

CT: How are you putting the NanoStations to use?

Mark: We have used the Nano stations for many of our Triathlons. For The Flat As A Pancake Triathlon in Staten Island where the finish was on the board walk at least 700 yards away from our parked timing truck, we nailed all the finish results instantly with the Nano station. We also found a great inverter/battery combo unit that powers the Nano all day long.

CT: With all these Tri’s have you ordered your MiniTrack system?

Mark: We are ordering six MiniTrack systems to use for all our Tri’s. The work crews are excited about the smaller light weight gators and controller. This will be a perfect solution for our races and we are excited to get them.

CT: Do you have any other ChronoTrack success stories?

Mark: Yes, we had a great B-Tag experience in Downey Town, Pennsylvania at the Good Neighbor Day Race. This race uses a USATF certified 5k course and offers three distances, a 5K, a 10K, or a 15K distance. They traditionally have about a 25% error rate where racers don’t run the race they signed up for and it was really a timing nightmare before they hired us. The first thing we did was to start with a big start line and directly after the start we split the line it into a “Lap counting gators section” and “Finish line gators.” The B-Tags worked flawlessly and we were able to upload the lap data instantly to provide an error rate calculation and accurately verify each race winner was correct.