Discussion: What to do in an emergency? No CLEAR

Any suggestions for a training event organizer who finds themselves at the event with loads of SI units, but no clear?

Do you have the master station and a computer with Si-config on it so that you can quickly program one of your standard controls as a CLEAR control?

No, 'my friend' has only the SI units ;-)
Oh, wait - he must have a master station and a results computer.
Good point - I will check. He might be able to reprogram something
Thanks.

Be sure to program it back when you're done. I know of an event where a numbered control, reprogramed as a clear, was used in the field. Not mentioning any names.

I ran in an event where there were at least seven units on course programmed as start bricks. Not quite as dramatic but it involved a lot of map punching.

I do remember way back the first time we used SI. We had the download station programmed as a clear. That is hard to beat for a classic fail ;-) Luckily we realized before too many people came in...

Remember that Thomas?

(Another solution for the problem that took a long time to think is just to go back to old school timing ;-) (and trust everyone did things in the honest order)

We had a problem once where a Clear was reprogrammed as a numbered control. The Check and Start didn't beep and the starter thought that had a problem.

Yes I remember that. The first few M12 finishers had their SI sticks cleared. Luckily we were watching the race unfold from our viewpoint at the start, which was placed 2-300 vertical meters up the hill (and the terrain was so open we could see the runners from afar). If I remember correctly, we were able to recreate their finish times based on when we remembered seeing them finish.

If people have big sticks, they can hold plenty of punches, probably >30 more than however many controls they visited last time they were out. Can you not just use a random box as 'start' and count from there?

Try telling the computer operator to sort that mess out! Mind you if it's a training event, who really cares?

I use an automobile key as a coupling stick if I don’t have a real one. It’s dodgy, but it seems to be better than air.

Touch-free honesty punching.

Tell the runners the box will record if they were there even if it doesn't beep. Maybe its even true, nobody knows this stuff, so it wont matter.

In the early days of SI we (OWA) had an event where a control was programed as a Clear and was half way around the course.

No way back from there

Unless you want to download all of the prior controls to recreate the splits, right? (lot of work)

We use the touchident system for our uni training events.

http://chalmersol.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/To...

Credit: Chalmers OL

@Robbie
The easiest system by far ;-)