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Alan Shank here, AKA "The Mad Splitter". Unlike the regular lap races, which are pretty easy to project with a little base-60 arithmetic, the steeple presents the problem that the laps are not 400 meters, being either shorter or longer depending on the location of the water jump. If you take lap splits at the starting line:
A) they're not particularly meaningful of themselves, being for an unknown distance and over hurdles
B) the first lap is not like the others, because it includes the segment with no hurdles between the starting line and the finish line AND
C) there's going to be that last segment between 7 laps and the finish.
OTOH, if you wait for the kilometer mark:
A) it may not be marked
B) there may not be an announcement of the kilo split (Larry Rawson and Lewis Johnson wouldn't know a kilometer from a thermometer, not to mention Carol Lewis or Tom Hammond.)
C) even if you get it, the race is 1/3 over already.
The key is, of course, that once the runners have covered the distance from the start to the finish, there are seven equal laps, all with four hurdles and a water jump, to go. Once you have the time of that segment, it's a constant, and you can take times at the finish line and project the final time each lap.
As some of you may have guessed, I have a program for doing that, not just for the steeple, but for 800, 1500, 3K, 5K, 10K as well. Here's how it works for the steeplechase:
The user interface consists of a menu of races, radio buttons, only one of which can be "selected", an "OK" button,an "Exit" button and a space where text is displayed.
The user checks the "3000-meter steeplechase" button and clicks "OK". A popup message box appears with the text "Press the OK button to start the race" and, you guessed it, an OK button. When you see the flash of the gun, click the button to start the timer. Another popup message box appears, saying "Push OK button to take next split, at finish line with 7 laps to go". When the lead runner (or the runner you want to split) hits the finish line, click the OK.
In the text box, you will see:
Cumulative time is <whatever>
Split time is <whatever>
Obviously, the split time will be the same as the cumulative time.
At the same time, yet another message box with the text, "Push OK button to take next split, at finish line with 6 laps to go". When you click it, the new Cumulative and Split times are shown, as well as the "Push OK button to take next split, at 1000 meters" message. Click that when the runners reach the kilo point. NOTE: YOU MUST TAKE A KILO SPLIT, EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THE KILO MARK IS. OTHERWISE THE PROGRAM WILL GET HOPELESSLY CONFUSED. JUST ESTIMATE. The next message box says, "Push OK button to take next split, at the finish line with 5 laps to go". When you click that, you will see:
Cumulative time is <whatever>
Split time is <whatever>
If they continue average pace, time will be <projection1>
If they continue current pace, time will be <projection2>
For example, here are some times I took in Osaka in a mens' SC heat. The water jump was outside the track, so the laps were longer than 400m, and the starting line was on the homestretch. The time from the starting line to the finish line was just 5.8 seconds. The time with 6 laps to go was 1:21.3, so the lap took 1:15.5. Seven laps at that pace plus the 5.8 comes to 8:54.3. There's only one lap to go on, so average pace and current pace are the same. With 5 laps to go, the time was 2:37.7, so that lap was 1:16.4. The average projection is now (2:31.9 * 7 / 2) + 5.8 = 8:57.5, while the projection of the current pace is 2:37.7 + (5 * 1:16.4) = 8:59.7. (The kilo time was 2:58.9.) The rest of the splits were:
F-4 3:51.6 (1:13.9)
F-3 5:01.8 (1:10.2) proj1 8:43.8 proj2 8:32.4
2K 5:46.8 (2:47.9)
F-2 6:13.2 (1:11.4) proj1 8:40.2 proj2 8:36.0
F-1 7:24.6 (1:11.4)
8:29.5 (1:04.9)
Now nobody is going to do this stuff in his/her head or even with a calculator while watching a race (you wouldn't see much), but that's what computers are for.
After the last split is taken, the message box says, "Press the OK button to stop the timer". When the race is over, another message box says, "Press the OK button to display splits", and the entire set of splits appears in the text box, which has a vertical scrollbar. The program also saves the splits in a file with a timestamp filename, so you will have a different file for each session, i.e. all the splits for races taken from the time you launch the program until you quit the program.
I have a windows version and a Linux version. On Windows, I used Borland C++ Builder to generate the code for the GUI; on Linux, I used Trolltech QT, which is supposed to be able to generate code for the Mac, as well. I don't have a Mac, however. I am taking my laptop to Berlin, which has a dual boot, Windows Vista and Linux, so I will have both versions with me.
This would be an excellent tool for someone in the pressbox to use, I would think, not the announcer, but a "boot-licking lackey", so to speak, to feed info to the announcer that could be passed on if notable.
I will try to get some photos of the GUIs and put them on a site you can link to.
Cheers,
Alan Shank, "The Mad Splitter"
Woodland, CA
A) they're not particularly meaningful of themselves, being for an unknown distance and over hurdles
B) the first lap is not like the others, because it includes the segment with no hurdles between the starting line and the finish line AND
C) there's going to be that last segment between 7 laps and the finish.
OTOH, if you wait for the kilometer mark:
A) it may not be marked
B) there may not be an announcement of the kilo split (Larry Rawson and Lewis Johnson wouldn't know a kilometer from a thermometer, not to mention Carol Lewis or Tom Hammond.)
C) even if you get it, the race is 1/3 over already.
The key is, of course, that once the runners have covered the distance from the start to the finish, there are seven equal laps, all with four hurdles and a water jump, to go. Once you have the time of that segment, it's a constant, and you can take times at the finish line and project the final time each lap.
As some of you may have guessed, I have a program for doing that, not just for the steeple, but for 800, 1500, 3K, 5K, 10K as well. Here's how it works for the steeplechase:
The user interface consists of a menu of races, radio buttons, only one of which can be "selected", an "OK" button,an "Exit" button and a space where text is displayed.
The user checks the "3000-meter steeplechase" button and clicks "OK". A popup message box appears with the text "Press the OK button to start the race" and, you guessed it, an OK button. When you see the flash of the gun, click the button to start the timer. Another popup message box appears, saying "Push OK button to take next split, at finish line with 7 laps to go". When the lead runner (or the runner you want to split) hits the finish line, click the OK.
In the text box, you will see:
Cumulative time is <whatever>
Split time is <whatever>
Obviously, the split time will be the same as the cumulative time.
At the same time, yet another message box with the text, "Push OK button to take next split, at finish line with 6 laps to go". When you click it, the new Cumulative and Split times are shown, as well as the "Push OK button to take next split, at 1000 meters" message. Click that when the runners reach the kilo point. NOTE: YOU MUST TAKE A KILO SPLIT, EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THE KILO MARK IS. OTHERWISE THE PROGRAM WILL GET HOPELESSLY CONFUSED. JUST ESTIMATE. The next message box says, "Push OK button to take next split, at the finish line with 5 laps to go". When you click that, you will see:
Cumulative time is <whatever>
Split time is <whatever>
If they continue average pace, time will be <projection1>
If they continue current pace, time will be <projection2>
For example, here are some times I took in Osaka in a mens' SC heat. The water jump was outside the track, so the laps were longer than 400m, and the starting line was on the homestretch. The time from the starting line to the finish line was just 5.8 seconds. The time with 6 laps to go was 1:21.3, so the lap took 1:15.5. Seven laps at that pace plus the 5.8 comes to 8:54.3. There's only one lap to go on, so average pace and current pace are the same. With 5 laps to go, the time was 2:37.7, so that lap was 1:16.4. The average projection is now (2:31.9 * 7 / 2) + 5.8 = 8:57.5, while the projection of the current pace is 2:37.7 + (5 * 1:16.4) = 8:59.7. (The kilo time was 2:58.9.) The rest of the splits were:
F-4 3:51.6 (1:13.9)
F-3 5:01.8 (1:10.2) proj1 8:43.8 proj2 8:32.4
2K 5:46.8 (2:47.9)
F-2 6:13.2 (1:11.4) proj1 8:40.2 proj2 8:36.0
F-1 7:24.6 (1:11.4)
8:29.5 (1:04.9)
Now nobody is going to do this stuff in his/her head or even with a calculator while watching a race (you wouldn't see much), but that's what computers are for.
After the last split is taken, the message box says, "Press the OK button to stop the timer". When the race is over, another message box says, "Press the OK button to display splits", and the entire set of splits appears in the text box, which has a vertical scrollbar. The program also saves the splits in a file with a timestamp filename, so you will have a different file for each session, i.e. all the splits for races taken from the time you launch the program until you quit the program.
I have a windows version and a Linux version. On Windows, I used Borland C++ Builder to generate the code for the GUI; on Linux, I used Trolltech QT, which is supposed to be able to generate code for the Mac, as well. I don't have a Mac, however. I am taking my laptop to Berlin, which has a dual boot, Windows Vista and Linux, so I will have both versions with me.
This would be an excellent tool for someone in the pressbox to use, I would think, not the announcer, but a "boot-licking lackey", so to speak, to feed info to the announcer that could be passed on if notable.
I will try to get some photos of the GUIs and put them on a site you can link to.
Cheers,
Alan Shank, "The Mad Splitter"
Woodland, CA
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