Duration-Based Lap Events are Events that are scored not by who has completed a set distance course in the fastest time, but by who has done the most distance or laps over some time set timeframe.


A 6 Hour run is a good example of when you would want to set up Duration-Based Lap Event Scoring. 


You would not want to set up Duration-Based Lap Scoring for a marathon that is four laps because that would be a set distance. 


The main steps to set up Duration-Based Lap Scoring are as follows:


  1. Add/Edit Lap Timing Locations
  2. Set up Scored Events
  3. For more advanced setups, set up alternate Laps in Segments.



Add/Edit Duration-Based Lap Timing Locations


The first thing you need to do to set up Duration-Based Lap Scoring is to add a Lap Timing Location or edit an existing Timing Location to be used for Duration-Based Lap Events.


To get started, navigate to Timing Locations and add a new Timing Location.




Next, indicate that this is a Lap Event Timing Location:



Next, select that this is a Start & Finish/Split Time Location (Or a Finish/Split Time Location if that is what you need). 



Next decide when the last potential start times and first potential finish/split times should be considered. 



Finally, set the Gap Factor (or minimum time considered to be a valid Lap) and click Save at the bottom of the page.



You can delete the default Start and Finish Locations that are made for you unless you have other Events in this Race that are fixed-distance and need to use them.




A note on mixed-event Races. 

When a Timing Location has been marked as a Duration-Based Lap Event Timing Location, it will no longer be able to used for non Duration-Based Lap Scored Events. This means that it's not possible to share a single Timing Location between a Lap and Non-Lap Scored Event. 

If you need to support a Race that has a mixture of Events that use the same readers, like a 6 Hour run and a 50k Run, you would need to create a Lap Timing Location and a Non-Lap Timing Location, with a single Stream connected to both Timing Locations.




Setup Scored Events


There are a variety of new Scored Event settings for Duration-Based Lap Events described below.

Default Lap Distance

Instead of setting a distance for the entire Event, you define the distance for your default Lap. It is possible to create multiple Lap Options if needed in the Segments > Set Up Laps area.


Create Default Lap

This is on by default but should be disabled if you are needing to add more than one Lap Option. For instance, if you have a Long Lap/Short Lap Event where participants can run any combination of different Lap Distances to add up to their Total Distance and time.


Disregard Every Other Lap

Useful if you have a rest period every other lap. Enable this setting to ignore every other lap in the total distance/time.


Maximum Duration

This setting will tell the system to ignore all times for Participants once their Total Time is above some time. So you may set this to 12 hours to make sure that no one has a total time that is greater than that for a 12-hour event. You may want to consider some wiggle room if your laps are pretty long by making this longer than the advertised event length to allow participants to complete a final lap or consider using the next setting.


Use Last Lap After Duration

This setting tells the system to collect one more lap after a Participant has reached the Maximum Duration. So you could set this to be enabled with the Maximum Duration set to 12 hours, and once a Participant has hit 12 hours, the system would accept one more lap from them.


Minimum Finisher Duration

This is an important setting - it will determine when participants should be considered a "Finisher" by unsetting the DNF flag on the participant record. You may want to set this very low, so that once Participants complete a single lap they are considered a finisher, or you could set it to be sometimes a bit less than your Maximum Duration so that Participants are considered finishers only once they've completed say 11.5 hours for a 12-hour event.

The reason this is important is if you are using RunSignup Results Notifications. Once a Participant is considered a finisher, they will receive a finisher notification. So, if you are using RunSignup Finisher Notifications, consider setting this time to be fairly close to the Maximum Duration. If you set this very low and have Finisher Notifications enabled, all Participants will receive a single finisher notification as soon as they hit the time you have set, which may not be a great experience.



Advanced Lap Configurations


Laps are a new concept in RaceDay Scoring. For most Duration-Based Lap Events using the above setting to create a Default, Lap is all you need to do. If you need more Lap Options, you would need to disable the setting to Create a Default Lap and finish your Laps setup in the Segments area.

Laps are made up of Segments that start and finish on the same Timing Location. Default Laps are a single Segment that starts and finishes on the same Timing Location.

You can create more advanced Lap configurations by creating multiple Segments for a Lap Event, then creating a Lap from those Segments, as long as the entire Lap starts and finishes at the same Timing Location.

For instance, you may have a short and long lap Race where participants can complete a short lap that starts and finishes in the same spot, and a long lap that starts and finishes in the same spot, but they must pass a checkpoint in the middle.

For that situation, you would disable the Create Default Lap Option and instead create three Segments. The first would be the entire short lap, and the other two would be used to create your Long Lap. The Long Lap Segments would be something like "Start/Finish to Checkpoint", and "Checkpoint to Start/Finish". 

Next, you would click "Set up Laps" in the Segments area and add the two Segments together to create your Long Lap Option. Because the Long Lap starts and finishes in the same Location (Start/Finish) you are good to go.

Here you can see I have three Segments. The "Short Loop" is marked as a Lap Segment because it starts and finishes at the same Locations and is a Lap by itself. The other two Segments are just parts of a Lap - one going to the checkpoint, and another returning from it. Note how these are not marked as Lap Segments.


To finish setting up the long lap, I need to click "Set Up Laps"


Next select Add Lap:


Next select "Add Segment", name it, and select which Segments to add to this Lap.




Here you can see how I built a Long Lap by connecting two Segments that I created earlier.