A system of programs for runnning foot races

Without computer assistance, the timely processing of data for a foot race with between two and three thousand finishers would be slow and tedious, if not impossible. During 1983 and 1984 a system of programs to process data for such a race was developed and refined.

Processing was divided into two phases, pre-race processing and race-day processing. Before the race, the system was used to assist in data entry and verification and to generate reports about the entrants- On the day of the race, the system enabled race personnel to rapidly enter and verify information about finish order and finish times. It was then necessary for the system to merge the finish time and finish order information and to locate and remove erroneous data. Finally, the system computed values for missing or removed data based on existing data, and generated reports supplying finish results for all finishers.