Road Running Loses An Iconic Figure

On Wednesday, November 20, the running community awakened to the sad news that Colleen McNally, an iconic figure in the athletics community, had passed away after a long battle with cancer.

A school teacher by profession, McNally was not a runner herself, but became an integral part of the running community as an experienced and highly-regarded race referee. According to The Citizen, McNally was a workhorse who sacrificed a large amount of her personal time to serve the sport she loved. For decades she held various positions, from referee to chairperson on the Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) Road Running commission. However, her influence extended far beyond this as she also sat on the Athletics South Africa Road Running Commission and was a committee member of the International Association of Ultrarunners.

But what really set McNally apart from other officials, was not only her very impressive CV and dedication to the sport of road running, but how much she was loved and respected by the running community.

CGA Acting President Karabo Mabilo described her as “not only a committed leader, but also an inspirational figure whose contributions have left an indelible mark on our organization… Beyond her professional accomplishments, she will be remembered for her kindness, integrity, and the genuine care she showed to everyone she worked with.”

Jacek Bedkowski, IAU Director of Communication, described McNally as unforgettable, saying that “Her remarkable personality and warmth brought people together, creating a sense of unity around her.”

In their tribute to McNally, Athletics South Africa said: "She will be remembered for her unwavering passion and love for athletics, her sincerity, warmth and humanity whenever she interacted with members of the athletics family."

There is no doubt that Colleen McNally left an indelible mark on the sport of road running. She will be deeply missed.

Recently the Sportsmans Warehouse Winelands Marathon was held in the quaint university town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. I had not participated in a running event for a while, but a few gentle runs and I couldn’t resist the thought of running through the historic town, with its Cape Dutch architecture and oak-shaded streets lined with cafes, boutiques and art galleries.

When I arrived, I was delighted to see that FinishTime were the time keepers – for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I knew that with FinishTime doing the timing, I would most likely be able to see both my “gun time” or "finish time" as well as my “net time” on the results.

So, what is the difference between these two?

Gun time   is the time from when the race or an entrant's batch officially starts (ie, for us oldies that is when the gun goes off to signal the start of the race) to when you cross the timing mat at the finish. Net time, also known as mat-to-mat time, is the time taken from when a runner crosses the start line to when they reach the finish point.

What’s so nice about also getting your net time, is that it gives you an accurate indication of how long you actually took to run the race, particularly at bigger events when it may take a few minutes to cross the start line after the gun goes.

Your gun time is in most cases your official race time, allowing the leaders to race each other for prizes, although there are some events that will use net time for results – for example time trials and races that may have an open start line, where you can start at any time within a certain time period.

Interestingly, at the Winelands Half Marathon, the competitor that had the fastest overall net time only recorded the fifth fastest gun time. This is presumably because he arrived late and started over four minutes after the official start but passed all but four runners over the 21km route and crossed the line just over two minutes behind the winner.

A second reason for me being happy that FinishTime were timing, is because their results are normally loaded in almost real time. My husband missed me crossing the line (he claims it is because I was so fast), but by checking the results, he knew I had finished and could look for me outside the finish chutes.

Thirdly, FinishTime has this really great feature on their website where you can generate an official results certificate to use for bragging rights on your social media platforms. The only thing better than recording a PB and being able to post the official result on your Facebook or Instagram, is being able to post a time better than your spouse and posting that on your socials – and it is also a good way to give sponsors some extra mileage.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, the reason I am always so pleased to see FinishTime at an event, is because their timing is reliable and accurate, and in the rare instance you have an issue with your race time, they efficiently deal with any queries through their ticketing system, ensuring “It always ends with a FinishTime”.

The FinishTime sporting calendars below come with a warning to check with the event organisers to ensure events have not been postponed or cancelled.

More event information, a regularly updated events calendar and results of all events timed by FinishTime can be found at www.finishtime.co.za and all results of events timed by FinishTime at results.finishtime.co.za

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SPORTSMANS WAREHOUSE WINELANDS MARATHON: November 30, 2024

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