Photos available from
Jan. 16, 2010 will be the date of the 14th Annual Marathon. Please check back on this website periodically for updated information.
Thanks to all the runners and volunteers who came out in the extreme cold weather to support the 2009 Museum of Aviation Foundation Marathon/Half-Marathon and 5K Run/Walk. Records were set for number registered (almost 1100), 5K finishers (478), Half-Marathon finishers (287), and low temperature at start time (18.1 degrees F.) With the assistance of Event Technical Services, Inc. (Event-Tech), we introduced chip timing this year. The chips simplified the awards determination process overall, but did cause a few problems. The biggest headache was caused by runners who registered for the full marathon but decided to switch to the half-marathon in mid-race without notifying the race officials. They wouldn’t be able to do that in most races, but with our double loop configuration it’s easy to quit after one loop and run across the marathon/half-marathon finish line. They were initially credited with awards for the marathon.
Once we figured out what was going on and placed them in the proper category, it caused a large ripple effect in the overall, masters, and age group trophies. There were three cases where the chip wasn’t detected at all because it was improperly attached. We also had two data entry errors where runners were entered into the database with the wrong gender.
Results have been posted on active.com and we believe all errors have been corrected as of Jan. 27. If you see any errors/omissions, please send email to robinspacers.org@robinspacers.org. after reading the Chip Tips below.
Click here to view the 2009 race results on active.com.
The legend continues -- Alabama/Georgia runner Roger Keel completed his 13th consecutive Museum of Aviation marathon!
Chip Tips: "Gun time" is the amount of time between the start of the race and the detection of a chip crossing the finish line. "Chip time" is the amount of time between the detection of a chip crossing the starting line and the same chip crossing the finish line. With over 600 runners crossing the starting mat en masse, some chips may not be detected at the start of the race. In those cases, the timing software will default to gun time and the recorded chip time will be identical to the gun time. Since the starting line and finish line were the same for our marathon and half-marathon, we were able to provide chip times for those two races. Since the start for the 5K was different and no detection mat was placed there, we were only able to provide gun times for the 5K.
You will notice that all runners for all three races are listed in the order of their gun times. This is in accordance with USATF policy. The winner of a race (and by extension the winner of the various age categories) is the runner who crosses the finish line first. Chip timing gives you the ability to start late and perhaps finish with a faster chip time than the one who crosses the finish line first, but under those circumstances, you haven’t really been in a race with the winner. You were in a race with the clock, but not with the other competitor. If he had known you were running faster, maybe he would have run faster, too.
So what is chip timing good for? The main benefit is to automate the entry of gun times into a database so software can sort everyone into the proper order of finish and the proper award categories. Chip times are provided as a benefit to runners, to allow them to judge how fast they actually ran the course after compensating for delays getting to the starting line. But perhaps the most important benefit is that some races that require a runner to qualify (like the Boston Marathon) will allow a runner to use his or her net time (chip time) to qualify for their race.