For a road race, a Category is the individual grouping into which racers will be divided for purposes of awards. An example might be "M30-34", which would represent male runners of ages 30 through 34. Although many categories will include a sex, as in this example, some will not, e.g. "Team" or "Corporate Relay", etc. In cross-country races, "categories" are much simpler - they are simply the name of the team, e.g., "Homestead."
In order to make it easier to enter lists of categories on the desktop, and also to facilitate having multiple sets of categories for different races that can be quickly loaded, you do not enter categories directly into RaceBase. Instead, you use the standard Palm Memo Pad application to create the list of categories in a separate memo. Go the the Memo Pad application (you can do this either on the desktop, and HotSync the results to the handheld unit, or do it directly on the handheld unit, as you prefer) and press New to start a new memo. The memo you create will simply be a list of the category names, like this:
M15-19 F15-19 M20-24 F20-24 M25-29 ...
Once you have entered all the categories into a memo, check them over twice, because if what you enter here does not match the information entered for each racer in your registration database (described in the next chapter), the race scoring will not work. That is, you can't have "M20-24" in one place and "M20-25" in another, or even "M 20-24" in another (that is, with a space between the M and the 20). So make sure you read over the list of categories more than once and be abolutely sure it's correct. Once you have, you need to copy the list to the clipboard. Using the Edit menu in the Memo Pad application, first select Select All, then select Copy to copy the contents of your memo to the clipboard. Now tap on Applications and return to the RaceBase application. Once there, tap on the Menu button, tap on the Import menu, and then tap on Categories:
You'll see this screen:
The top half of the screen will show you a list of your categories and their associated handicaps (which will be discussed later). If, as usual, there are more than five categories, scroll arrows at the lower right will let you scroll through them.
If this is the first time you're setting up categories, the top part of the screen will be empty. Tap on Add from Clipboard at the bottom, and the categories on the clipboard will be added to the list. If there are old categories from a previous race, you can tap on Clear first to get rid of them.
When you're done, tap on Done.
Often there is more than one race being run at the same location. If the races are large enough, you'll undoubtedly want to have separate PalmPilots to time and score each race separately. If the races are smaller, though, it's perfectly reasonable to use one PalmPilot to handle them both simultaneously. RaceBase is designed with the capability to score more than one race simultaneously, such as a 10K and a 5K race run with a single start and finish line. If you want to do this, to begin with you'll need separate names for the categories of the different races, such as "F25-29, 5K" and "F25-29, 10K". This would be enough to produce the correct results for each category, but if you were to display the overall results, of course the people running the 5K would occupy all the top spots! Obviously, this isn't what you want. A similar situation can occur with relay teams in triathlons, if you don't want the relay teams to show up on the overall placings and displace individual triathletes. Likewise, when you have a wheelchair category in a 10K race, you'll want to treat that category as a "separate race" so that the wheelchair racers don't show up as the overall winners.
To use RaceBase to score more than one race simultaneously, each category not only has a name (like "M40-49") but also has an associated number, 1 through 7, which indicates the race with which that category is associated. Thus in our example of the simultaneous 5K and 10K with wheelchair racers, we might actually have four "races" associated with different categories. "F25-29, 5K" and similar entries might be in race "1", "FWheelchair, 5K" might be in race "2", "F25-29, 10K" might be in race "3" and "FWheelchair, 10K" would be race "4". When you set up the categories, you'll add a second column of numbers, following the name of the category, separated by a tab, like this:
M15-19, 5K 1 F15-19, 5K 1 M15-19, 10K 2 F15-19, 10K 2 M20-24, 5K 1 F20-24, 5K 1 M20-24, 10K 2
When you copy and paste this list of categories and races into RaceBase (see the picture of the Category screen above), note the bottom half of the screen. This part of the screen basically affects the scoring of the race, which will be discussed later. For the purpose of setting up categories, however, you'll want to know that if the All Racers box is checked, all the categories will be displayed on the top half of the screen. If the Race # box is checked, then depending on which number is set (1 through 7), only the categories associated with that race will be displayed. If you are scoring more than one race at a time, you should definitely view the categories for each race in this way, to verify that you have things set up correctly.
In addition to having an associated "race," a category may also have an associated start time. With our timing software (PocketTimer), there is only one "race clock." However, in some races some racers (such as wheelchair racers) might start a few minutes before the official time. In other races (typically triathlons), different age groups start at regular intervals behind the first group ("wave starts"). RaceBase can handle these situations, by associating a handicap time with each category. The handicap time is subtracted from the recorded time, so it will be positive for the case of groups who start after the race clock, or negative for the case of groups starting ahead of the race clock.
To handle this situation, we add a third column of numbers to our list of categories when we set them up, this one containing a time, again separated by a tab from the previous column. Here's an example of a race where the females start 5 minutes later than the males:
M15-19 1 0:00 F15-19 1 5:00 M20-24 1 0:00 F20-24 1 5:00 M25-29 1 0:00 ...
Note that although you could always list a category as being part of race #1 with a handicap of 0:00, if there is only one race and only one start time, the last two columns are optional, and can be omitted for simplicity.
In some longer races such as marathons and ultras, some slower runners are given permission to start before the main field. Unlike the wheelchair racers, however, who are all part of a category which is all starting with the same start time, the "early starters" in a marathon or ultra are members of categories whose "official" start time is later. To score these racers properly, they need to be given individual handicaps, so that their headstart can be added to their recorded time at the end of the race. This is accomplished using the individual handicap field of the racer database. As with category handicaps (discussed in the previous section), individual handicap times will ultimately be subtracted from the recorded time, so an early starter will have a negative handicap, e.g., "-30:00" for someone who starts a half-hour early.
Three things that might be helpful to know are the Graffiti strokes for dash, tab and colon. To do a dash with graffiti, tap the stylus (to get into "special character" mode) and then make a simple right-stroke. To make the tab, again you tap the stylus to get into special character mode, and then make an upside-down L, that is, an up-stroke followed by a rightward stroke. The colon is actually optional in setting up the handicaps, but as a human being you might find it disconcerting to read "500" and think "5 minutes 0 seconds", so we suggesting putting the colon in. The Graffiti character for colon again requires that you tap the stylus to get into special character mode, and then make a quick down-stroke followed by an up-stroke. All three of these characters - dash, tab, and colon - can be made on either side of the graffiti area (that is, in the letter area on the left or in the numeric area on the right).
Copyright 1998-9 by Stevens Creek Software All Rights Reserved