INSIDE MOBILE: The Marathon-One of the Largest Mobile RFID Applications

Searchable race results are posted online

A total of 7,612 of the 30,000 entrants finished the marathon, while 17,110 finished the half marathon. That means around 5,000 people either didn't start or didn’t finish. Or perhaps some didn't put the RFID chip on their shoe. It's still an amazing logistical challenge putting on one of these races. After the race is over, the results are posted online, including the splits. Below is a screenshot of the results for my son.

The marathon was organized by Elite Racing of San Diego. The firm produced the Carlsbad 5000 for many years. Then, 10 years ago, they began the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon, which put a festival atmosphere around the marathon including 70+ bands playing along the course, a health and fitness expo, and a destination trip for thousands of people. Elite Running has expanded their franchise into a number of other cities including Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Jose, Virginia Beach and their popular Country Music Marathon in Nashville. Elite provides incentives for runners to complete in their entire series of Rock ‘n’ Roll events.

Race organizers now have a number of different running RFID solution system suppliers to consider, such as Race Time, Road ID, ChronoTrack Systems, IPICO Sports and Innovative Timing Systems. And this solution is applied to a number of other outdoor sporting events, including cycling, auto racing, and any event that requires keeping track of time for many entrants.

Sure, RFID is used to track inventory in warehouses and many other inventory management problems, but it’s exciting to see that one of the worst headaches around—managing the results in large running events such as popular 10K events and marathons—has finally found a mobile RFID solution that is good for the runners as well as the organizers.

I commend all those thousands of people who trained for many months and then were able to experience the joy and personal sense of accomplishment of completing a major physical challenge like this in their life.

 J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D., is the VP and Chief Analyst with the Frost & Sullivan North American Information & Communication Technologies Practice. As a nationally recognized industry authority, he focuses on monitoring and analyzing emerging trends, technologies and market behavior in the mobile computing and wireless data communications industry in North America. Since joining Frost & Sullivan in 2006, Dr. Purdy has been specializing in mobile and wireless devices, wireless data communications and connection to the infrastructure that powers the data in the wireless handheld. He is author of Inside Mobile & Wireless, which provides industry insights and reaches over 100,000 readers per month.

For more than 16 years, Dr. Purdy has been consulting, speaking, researching, networking, writing and developing state-of-the-art concepts that challenge people's mind-sets, and developing new ways of thinking and forecasting in the mobile computing and wireless data arenas. Often quoted, his ideas and opinions are followed closely by thought leaders in the mobile & wireless industry. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. He can be reached at gerry.purdy@frost.com.

Disclosure Statement: From time to time, I may have a direct or indirect equity position in a company that is mentioned in this column. If that situation happens, then I’ll disclose it at that time. I have an affiliation with IDG Ventures.