Overview

1. To start, select the appropriate Race Settings to define your race. These settings include the type of race it is and what data you have to report. Click Next to save your settings and continue.
2. Based on the race settings, appropriate forms are then generated for Data Entry. Several fields have aids for quick and accurate data entry as described in these help pages.
3. When you have completed and checked your data, click the Final Submission button to submit your results to RCN.

Some Information To Get Started

• You will enter data into 3 or more tables. (1) Race covers general information, particularly the name of the event and the date it happened. (2) Event is the specifics, particularly the distance run if a fixed-distance event or the time limit if a fixed-time event. Most races have only a single event, but you might have more if, for example, runners can select from multiple distances. You will enter details for each event. (3) Results detail the finish time or miles for each participant in the event. You will have a results table for each event in the race.
• If you need to enter your results over multiple sessions or you want to guard against inadvertently losing what you've entered so far, you can click the Save button below the forms to save a CSV file to your computer. You can then later select Load Saved Results on the start page to continue where you left off.
• You will find more help in the other tabs in this Help window. This includes various data entry aids to make it easier to enter and format data correctly. Any questions, problems, or suggestions to make this better, let us know.

Race Settings

• To start a new results submission, click the Start New Results button on the start screen to open the Race Settings. These settings define your race and are used to create the appropriate data entry forms.
• Select the Race Type for your race. Most races have a fixed distance where runners are measured by the time it takes to compelete the distance. That is the default selection. Other races have a fixed time where runners are measured by how far they travel within the time limit. Select the appropriate type for your event. If you change this setting, the required fields for events and results will automatically be updated.
• Identify whether your race is a Relay. Most races are not so that is the default. If yours is, please select 'yes'.
• Set the # of Events for your race. Most races have a single event where everyone runs the same distance or time. Other races have multiple distances or times that can be run. Each distance or time is considered a separate event.
• Indicate whether you have Splits data. If you select yes, then you will get one or more textareas to enter labels for your splits for each event. If you previously set the number of events to 2, you will get 2 splits labels boxes. You can enter one or more split labels by entering each on a separate line, ie, hit Enter after each label. Labels can be whatever you want. If your race includes several laps around a course, you could record times for each lap and label them Lap 1, Lap 2, etc. Or if you record times at a couple points along a course you could identify them by mile or location or a combination of both such as Goldstream Sports: 8.1mi. Splits can be times (for fixed distance races) or miles (for fixed time races). If you have multiple events in your race, you can set splits for each event separately. If you have splits for one event but not another, you can leave the label textarea blank for the one without splits.
• Select the fields that are appropriate for your race. The required fields are already selected and cannot be changed, but you can add other fields if you have data, such as age and gender of the participants.
• The Event Name field is intended for races with multiple events and can be used as a way to identify them. If you have a race with multiple distances that participants can choose from, you can omit this field and the different events will be identified by their distance. However, if you have a relay, then you can use this field to identify Leg 1, Leg 2, etc, by name instead of distance.

Data Entry

• Once you've checked and set the race settings, click Next to open the Data Entry screen. This will display empty tables for race, events, and results.
• The Race and Event tables each have a single row that is initially empty. Required fields are indicated by a red asterisk in the column heading.
• The Results table(s) initially has no rows. When you edit the event table, enter the number of runners in that event and then either hit Enter, hit Tab, or click the button, to add that number of rows to the results table.
• If you ever need to add more rows later, you can change the number of runners in the event table and then sync the results table with Enter, Tab, or the button.
• You do not need to enter the results in any particular order. When results are pulled from the database, they will be sorted then.
• You can use the Tab key to easily move from one field to the next and then to the next table rather than using the mouse to click on each subsequent field. Do whatever works best for you.
• Depending on how much you have to enter, you can save your progress at any time before continuing immediately or sometime later. Click the Save button below the forms to save it as a CSV file locally on your computer. The default filename will include the race name and date if available or give it any name you like. When you want to come back to it, click the Load Saved Resuts button on the start screen and the forms will open with your saved data.
• If you already have your results entered in a spreadsheet or text file, you might be able to cut and paste it into the results table. Click the Paste Results Data button at the top of the results table. The script should detect the delimiter used so leave that set to Auto. Select the appropriate format for the runner's name. If it's in a single column, select whether it is "first last" or "last, first". Or select 2 columns if first and last names are in separate columns. Then select the column number for each field in the results table. There is additional information in the import window. You can preview how the import script will interpret your settings. Click the Preview button to confirm that the results are interpreted correctly. If so, click Submit to enter these results into the results table. If not, then try specifically selecting the delimiter you are using and then preview. If that fails, you might have to enter to data manually. You can send an email to results@runningclubnorth.org with information of what you are trying to import. We might be able to update the script to accommodate whatever delimiter you are using.

Race Data

• Race Name: Start typing the race name. After you've entered a couple letters you'll get a dropdown list of matching races. You can select a race name from the list or keep typing to narrow down the list of matching races. If this is a new race you can enter the name without selecting any of the matching race names. If it is not a new race, please select a race name without making any changes. If you want to add something like "20th Annual" do so in Comments. One of the things you'll be able to do with the database is pull all your results over time for a particular race, such as the Equinox Marathon. That will not work if one year it's called the 50th Annual Equinox Marathon and the next it's the 51st Annual Equinox Marathon. The name has to be the same.
• Date: Use the datapicker that appears when you click on the date field. The format required is yyyy-mm-dd where yyyy is the 4 digit year, mm is the 2 digit month, and dd is the 2 digit date. You can enter the data manually, but make sure you match this format.
• Location: Enter the race location. After you've entered a couple letters you'll get a list of matching locations. You can select one of those or continue typing to enter a different location. Enter Fairbanks if within the city limits or whatever else makes sense. If it's in Fairbanks, don't bother with it.
• Weather: If you want to make weather observations, enter them here. Things like winter temperature can be of interest so include whatever makes sense. If you want to report the temperature, you can enter a caret (shift-6) and it will be replaced with a degree sign (°).
• URL: If you have a Facebook page or other website for your race, add the URL here.
• Comments: Add any comments you want to make about your race. Think about what will interest future runners 20 years from now.

Event Data

• Event Miles: If your race is a fixed distance event, enter the distance in miles. Only enter a single decimal place if it's needed. If it's a distance set in km, you can either enter the distance in miles or you can enter the distance in km and then enter a "k" keystroke and it will be converted to miles.
• Event Hours: If your race is a fixed time event, enter the time in hours. You can enter up to 3 decimal places if needed. You can also enter a time in the usual h:mm:ss format by only entering the numbers and the formatting will happen automatically. Once you've entered the time, hit the "h" key and it will convert the h:mm:ss time to hours for you.
• Travel Mode: Currently the only travel modes are running and snowshoe. This field defaults to "running", but if it's a snowshoe race, select "snowshoe".
• # Runners: Enter the number of runners in this event. Only numbers are accepted. Then hit Enter, hit Tab, or click the button to add the same number of rows to the results table.
• Event Name: If you have a name for this event that is different from the overall race, enter it here. This is usually only needed if your race has multiple distances or times. If you don't enter an event name, then the distance or time will be used to identify the event. The most common use of the event name is if you have a relay. You can then label the individual events as Leg 1, Leg 2, etc, which might make more sense than the distance of each leg.

Results Data

• Runner Name: Enter the runner's name. After you've entered a couple letters you'll see a list of matching names. Select one or continue entering letters to refine the search. It's probably best to start with entering the runner's last name to keep the number of matching names from getting too large. If the runner's name isn't already in the database, enter the full name with first name first followed by last name. The available names are from previous races which occasionally have names misspelled so watch out for those.
• Finish Time: Enter the runner's time for a fixed distance race. Enter just the numbers and the time will be formatted to hh:mm:ss as you type. For example, if the time is 1 hr, 23 min, 45 sec, enter 12345 and it will format with colons automatically as you type. Minutes and hours cannot be greater than 60. So if you have a time of 68 minutes and 0 seconds, it must be entered as 1:08:00.
• Finish Miles: Enter the runner's distance for a fixed time race. Distance is in miles with up to 1 decimal place. If someone reports their distance in km, you can enter the equivalent in miles or enter the distance in km and then enter a "k" to convert to miles.
• DNF/DQ: If you have runners who did not finish (DNF) or were disqualified (DQ) you can include this column to identify them if you wish. If a DNF, then the finish time/miles must be left blank. If a DQ, then you have the option to enter a finish time/miles as well.
• Bib #: If you have bib numbers for each runner, enter them here.
• Age: If you have the runner's age, enter it here.
• Gender: If you have the runner's gender, enter it here. Acceptable values are M (male), F (female), and O (open). You can enter these letters in lower case and they will be converted to upper case for you.
• Team Name: If your race is a relay or other event with teams, enter the runner's team name here.
• Splits: If you indicated that you have splits data, there will be columns added with the labels you provided on the Setting page. If your race is fixed distance, then the splits will be formatted as times in the same way as Finish Time. If your race is fixed time, then they will be formatted as miles as with Finish Miles.

Final Submission

• Be sure to verify everything is entered correctly. You might even save what you have and then come back later when your eyes are clear and check things over.
• When you're ready to submit, click the Final Submission button to send your results to the server. You'll have the option to back out at this point if you've realized you forgot something. Click OK to submit and if everything looks good, you'll get a message saying that your results have successfully been submitted.
• When you submit your results, several error checking routines will be done on the server and you will get an error message if anything is suspicious. Make any necessary corrections and submit again.
• Once successfully submitted, your results will be sent to results@runningclubnorth.org and an RCN admin will check them over and submit them to the database. This should happen within the next few hours.
• If any corrections or additions need to be made after submission, you will need to contact RCN.