Start times

Audience: Event organisers allocating start times to competitors.

A competitor's start time is the clock time their race is measured from — their race time is simply finish minus start. This page explains where a start time can come from, how Manager decides which one to use when there's more than one, and what happens when you change a start time after competitors are already running.

Note: This page is about the rules — the sources of a start time and which one wins. The start draw (the tool that spaces individual start times at a regular interval and randomises the order) has its own page: Drawing start times.

The four sources of a start time

A start time can come from any of four places:

Source	Where it's set	Applies to
Individual allocated start	The start draw, an import, or the competitor's Edit competitor dialog	One competitor
Class mass start	Edit Class dialog → Start time section	Everyone in a class
Event mass start	Event details → Starts tab	Everyone in the event
Punched start	The competitor punches a Start unit on the day	One competitor

The first three are allocated — times you set in advance. The fourth is punched — recorded live when the competitor starts. They interact through a simple hierarchy.

Note: Above all four sits a correction: a start time override on the competitor's Overrides tab beats every one of them. It's for putting right one runner's start after the fact, not for planning starts — see A start that was interrupted and How race time is calculated.

Which start time wins: the hierarchy

For the allocated start time, the most specific level always beats the more general one:

1. Individual allocated start (highest priority)
2. Class mass start
3. Event mass start (lowest priority)

A competitor uses the highest level that's set for them. Someone with their own allocated time ignores any class or event mass start; someone with no individual time but whose class has a mass start uses that; otherwise they fall back to the event mass start (if the event has one and their class isn't excluded from it). If none of the three is set, the competitor has no allocated start — their time will come from a punch, or not at all.

Example — a mass start event with two exceptions. Most of the field runs an event mass start at 11:00, except the Junior class, which sets off as an earlier wave (a class mass start at 10:45), and one course-checker, Pat, given an individual start of 09:30 to get round before the crowd:

Competitor	Most specific setting they have	Start they get	Why
Most of the field	Event mass start only	11:00	Nothing more specific is set
Anyone in Junior	Class mass start (10:45)	10:45	Class mass start overrides the event mass start
Pat	Individual start (09:30)	09:30	An individual start overrides both mass starts

Note: Whether a punched start beats the allocated time is a separate question, decided by the punching-start override rather than the hierarchy. See Punched starts below.

Manager resolves all of this for you automatically — you don't compute it by hand. To see where a competitor's time came from, look beside it: the Competitors list marks a mass-start time (class) or (event), and an individual time (individual) where a mass start would otherwise have applied; the Edit competitor dialog names the source after the start time — allocated start, class mass start, event mass start, start punch, or check punch when Manager had to fall back to one.

Event mass start

Use an event mass start when everyone starts together at one time.

Open the event dashboard, click Event details on the event header card, and go to the Starts tab. Switch on Mass start and set the Mass start time. Every competitor whose class doesn't override it picks up this time.

Note: A relay event has a Relay tab in place of Starts, and relay classes work differently: every leg is timed from the class's mass start (or the event's), an individual start time on a leg runner is never used, and start punches never apply. See Relay events.

Class mass start

Use a class mass start when one class starts together but the rest of the event doesn't — for example a beginners' class that all sets off at once.

Open the Edit Class dialog (click the class on the Classes page), and in the Start time section switch on Class mass start and set the Class mass start time. A class mass start overrides the event mass start for that class, and is in turn overridden by any individual allocated time a competitor in the class has.

Two related controls in the same dialog:

• Exclude this class from event mass start — shown only when the event has a mass start and this class has no class mass start of its own. Tick it to make the class start individually despite the event-wide mass start. (A class mass start already implies this, so the toggle only appears when there's no class mass start to make the point moot.)

Example — Elite opts out of the mass start. Your event has a mass start at 10:00 for the casual classes, but you want Elite to run individual drawn times instead. Tick Exclude this class from event mass start on Elite and run the draw for it: Elite competitors get their drawn times, while everyone else still goes at 10:00.

Tip — running waves: Manager has no separate "wave start" feature, and it doesn't need one. To start groups in waves, give each class (or group of classes) its own class mass start at a staggered time — 10:00 for the first wave, 10:15 for the next, and so on. Each wave is just a class mass start at a different time.

See Classes and courses for the full Edit Class dialog.

Individual start times

Individual allocated times sit at the top of the hierarchy, so they override any class or event mass start for that competitor. They reach Manager several ways:

• The start draw — the usual way to produce a full individual start list. It spaces times at an interval and randomises the order. See Drawing start times.
• Import — an IOF StartList file, an Eventor sync, or a CSV entry list can carry start times, which land as individual allocated times. See Importing event data.
• By hand — open a competitor's Edit competitor dialog and go to its Start tab. The Allocated start time field shows their individual time, and is empty when they have none; the Event mass start and Class mass start that would otherwise apply are listed above it for reference. Set, change, or clear the time here. The time field is a 24-hour clock with seconds (so 1 pm is 13:00:00). (Relay leg runners have no Start tab — their start comes from the team.)
• Many at once — Competitors → Actions → Bulk edit… has Allocated start time and On start punch columns, and either can be set for every row shown at once. See Editing many competitors at once.
• A chasing start — on a later day of a carnival, the multi-stage event's Chasing starts tab writes each competitor's start from their gap behind the leader, as an ordinary individual allocated time. See Chasing starts.
• A late entry — give them a free slot by hand; see Giving them a start time.

Once the event has been started and a competitor's start time passes, Manager automatically marks them On course even before any punch arrives — which is what the safety check relies on to know who's out in the forest.

Punched starts

At many events competitors start by punching a Start unit rather than to a fixed clock time. That punch is the punched start. It's how you run a start-when-ready event: don't allocate any times at all, and each competitor's start punch becomes their start time.

When a competitor has both an allocated time and a punched start, the punching-start override decides which wins. (When only one of the two exists, that one is always used — the override only matters when they disagree.) The override is set at three levels, most specific winning:

1. Per competitor — the On start punch dropdown beside the Allocated start time on the competitor's Start tab, with three choices. It appears only once the competitor has an allocated time of some kind, since with nothing to conflict with there's nothing to choose:
   • Use event default — defer to the event setting (the default). The option says what that currently means, as in Use event default (punch not allowed).
   • Always use allocated start — ignore any start punch for this competitor.
   • Allow punching start — the start punch wins; the allocated time is the fallback if no punch is recorded.
2. Per event — Allow punching starts to override allocated starts on the event's Starts tab. Applies to every competitor who's left on Use event default.
3. New-event default — Punching starts override allocated starts on the global Settings page, copied into each new event.

The competitor dialog spells out the live result in plain language beneath the dropdown — for example "Start punch at 10:23:14 is used. Allocated start of 10:22:00 is the fallback." or "Start time of 10:22:00 is used. Start punch at 10:23:14 is ignored." — so you can confirm at a glance which time the competitor will be timed from.

Example — late to the start. Your event leaves Allow punching starts to override allocated starts off, so allocated times win. Robin was drawn to start at 10:14 but was late to the start and was allowed to do a punching start at 10:16:03:

• With the override off (the default here), Robin is timed from the drawn 10:14 — the two extra minutes are Robin's loss, exactly as a fixed start list intends.
• Robin was late to the start through no fault of their own, so you open their Edit competitor dialog and set On start punch to Allow punching start. Now Robin is timed from the 10:16:03 punch, and 10:14 is kept only as a fallback in case no punch had been recorded.
• Quicker at the download desk: select Robin in the dashboard's Quick competitor actions tile and click Allow punching start. It sets the same choice. The button is only there when it would change something — the event's allocated times win, Robin is still on Use event default, and Robin is not running a relay leg — and it goes once Robin has it. To take it back, use the dialog.

(If Robin had no allocated time at all — a start-when-ready event — the override wouldn't come into it: with nothing to conflict with, the punch is simply the start.)

Example — out before their start. Same event, allocated times still win. Sam is a volunteer drawn to start at 11:00 who goes out early, before their shift, punching the Start unit at 09:20 and finishing at 10:30:

• Timed from 11:00, Sam would finish before starting — no race time, so DNF. Manager doesn't do that. A start punch earlier than a competitor's own allocated time is when they really started, whatever the event setting says, so Sam is timed from the 09:20 punch — 1:10:00 — and Sam's On start punch is switched to Allow punching start for you, so the dialog shows why.
• To time Sam from 11:00 after all, set On start punch to Always use allocated start, or back to Use event default (punch not allowed). Either is your decision, and Manager never switches it back — not when Sam's card is read again, and not for any later start punch. (Sam, back at 10:30, would then have no race time and a DNF; that is the result you have chosen.)
• If the 09:20 punch turns out to be someone else's — Sam was entered on the wrong card number — correcting Sam's card takes that start away and puts On start punch back to Use event default too, unless you had chosen a setting for Sam yourself. Sam is timed from 11:00 again, or from Sam's own start punch if that was early as well.

This only applies to an individual allocated time, not a class or event mass start: mass-start runners don't punch a Start, so a start punch on their card is almost always left over from a previous run on a card that wasn't cleared. For the same reason Manager won't treat a card's start punch as an early start when it records a different day from the card's finish, or comes before the card's check punch.

Punched starts arrive when a card is read (see Downloading cards) or via a radio Start control.

Tip: The punch doesn't have to be at a Start unit. Set a course's Start to First control and a punch at the course's first, ordinary numbered control is its start punch, under the same rules — useful when the start unit was left behind. See Starting or finishing at a numbered control.

A runner with no start time

Sometimes a finisher reaches none of the sources above: no allocated time, no start punch, and no start override — the Start unit failed, or they didn't punch it. By default Manager times them from their check punch, or from midnight when there isn't one, which places them on a time nobody measured. Turn that fallback off — the setting is called Time runners with no start from check punch or midnight — and they're Not competing until you give them a start instead, with the reason shown at the download desk and on the competitor.

The setting is in Settings → Event defaults, and each event can choose otherwise on its Starts tab (Use global setting, On for this event, Off for this event). See A runner with no start time for exactly what each answer does.

To give one such runner the start they really had, add a start time override on their Overrides tab, or, with the fallback off, use the download desk's Give them a start time panel — see Fast fixes right after a download.

When you change a start time

Start-time settings stay editable throughout the event, and Manager re-applies changes automatically — there's no recompute button. A change to the event mass start, a class mass start, an individual allocation, or an override flows through to the affected competitors within a few seconds.

What that means in practice:

• Changing one level moves only the competitors who use it. Each competitor's start comes from a single source in the hierarchy, so a change reaches just those competitors. In the mass-start example above, nudging the 11:00 event mass start to 11:10 would move most of the field — but leave Junior (on its 10:45 class mass start) and Pat (on a 09:30 individual start) exactly where they are.
• Race times are recalculated for anyone already finished. Changing a start time is usually a correction, so Manager re-times finished competitors against the new start rather than ignoring the change.
• A start later than the finish has no valid race time. If a change would put a competitor's start after their finish punch, their race time can't be computed and Manager sets them to DNF. Watch for this if you push a morning class to an afternoon mass start after they've already run.

For working through a specific competitor whose time looks wrong, see Resolving issues on the day.

Moving every start time

The courses aren't ready and the morning has to go back a quarter of an hour. Or bad weather is forecast for the afternoon and the whole thing comes forward an hour. Rather than editing each level by hand, open the Start list tab of Starts, choose Actions → Move all start times…, pick Later or Earlier and how far — minutes and seconds, so half a start interval is as easy to ask for as a quarter of an hour.

Every individual allocated start time moves by that amount, together with the first start times on the Manage starts screen — so a later single-lane re-draw doesn't put that lane back where it was.

Mass starts are left alone. A class mass start, the event mass start and a relay's restart time all stay exactly where you put them. A mass start is a moment fixed for a whole class or the whole field — usually published, and often shared with something outside Manager — so moving one is a separate decision you make on the class or in the event details. If you want a mass start to move too, change it there afterwards.

The course closure time is left alone for the same sort of reason. Closure is about daylight and when the forest has to be clear, not about when the field goes out — pulling the starts forward an hour doesn't mean you want everyone back an hour early. Change it yourself in the event settings if you do.

The dialog shows where the first start ends up before you commit, and how much of the event moves with it.

When you can do this. While the event is still in setup, whenever you like. Once it has been started, only while every start is still ahead of the clock — as soon as the first competitor has gone, the morning isn't yours to rewrite any more, and the option refuses with a note saying so. A mass start counts here even though it never moves: if a class has been sent off, the door is shut. Move one class on the Manage starts screen, or one competitor's time, instead.

Start lists you've already given out won't move. Anything printed or published before the change shows the old times, so reprint and re-publish afterwards.

Printing and publishing the start list

The Start list tab of Starts is the start list as you'd hand it out: grouped by class or course, with PDF, print, IOF XML, Orienteering JSON and CSV exports and a direct upload to Eventor, all under its Actions menu. Every one of them publishes the allocated start — individual, else the class mass start, else the event's — never a punched one. See The Start list tab.

Common mistakes

• 24-hour clock. The time picker has no AM/PM — afternoon starts are 13:00:00, 14:30:00, and so on.
• A mass start that doesn't move everyone. If some competitors don't pick up the mass start you just set, they almost certainly have an individual allocated time (from an earlier draw or import) that overrides it — individual always wins. Clear those individual times if you want the mass start to apply. The start draw counts them for you: it leaves a mass-start class out of the draw and says how many of its entrants still hold a start of their own.
• A class that's excluded — or not. A class with Exclude this class from event mass start ticked won't inherit the event mass start; a class you expected to start individually but didn't exclude will pick it up. Check the toggle when a class's start times surprise you.
• Punching override set the wrong way. Allocated times being ignored (or punches being ignored) usually traces back to the punching-start override — check the event's Starts tab and the competitor's On start punch choice.
• Start after finish. Setting a start time later than someone's finish drops them to DNF (see above).

Related

• Drawing start times — the tool that allocates individual start times in bulk, and where a single class or competitor is moved
• Classes and courses — setting class mass starts and the event-mass-start exclude toggle
• Competitors, clubs and teams — editing a single competitor's allocated start
• Importing event data — bringing start times in from a start-list file or Eventor
• Status and race time rules — how a start time feeds into status and race time
• Resolving issues on the day — fixing a competitor whose start time is wrong
• Relay events — mass starts, restarts and why a relay leg never takes a punched start
• Late entries — giving someone entered on the day a start time
• Multi-stage events — chasing (pursuit) starts for a later day of a carnival