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It's not exactly magic, but with the wave of a wand participants in Sunday's 34th Honolulu Marathon will be able to display proudly their race time on a special sticker almost immediately after they finish the race. Thanks to a new portable chip reader and printer being used by ChampionChip USA, runners can have a printed record of their result before leaving the finish area in Kapiolani Park.
"Even though we have timing mats, microchips for the shoes and quickly posted results, runners have had to walk away from Kapiolani Park with nothing in their hands to show what they've accomplished," said Honolulu Marathon media director Pat Bigold. "They've been able to find their names on a board of results if they could jostle through the crowd viewing that board."
Now, after completing the race, runners can walk up to any race official who has been equipped with the "magic wand," thrust his or her foot forward, and have the ChampionChip on their shoe read with a wave of the wand. Data from the chip is transferred through the wand to a portable computer worn on the waist of the race official. That computer is connected via a wireless broadband connection to the race's timing computers, which immediately retrieves the runner's finish time allowing a self-stick label to be generated on a portable printer. The runner can affix the sticker to his or her bib number for all to see.
"And this is free," Bigold points out.
This will only be the second time in the United States where the wand will be in service, and it will certainly be getting its largest test. The Honolulu Marathon is the third largest marathon in the United States in terms of finishers, behind only New York and Chicago. In the 2005 edition 24,295 crossed the finish line.
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