Relay Races

Use relay races to allow a group of people to work together in achieving a common goal. A relay race uses slots to define the intermediate sub results. As a race director you can define those slots and the team members can then pick one or more slots for themselves. Team captains (and race organizers) can assign relay slots to any team member.

We support two type of relay races:

1. Time based slots: relay slots are defined with a fixed start and end date and time.
2. Distance based slots: relay slots are defined with a given distance (plus margins).

There are a few important considerations to keep in mind while working with relay races:

1. Relay races only work with Distance challenges
2. The relay slots must be defined before participants are invited to join. Some small modifications can be made afterwards, but adding/removing slots will not work after the first teams have joined.
3. Team captains and team members must complete the assignment of team members before the event starts. After the event has started only the event organizer is allowed to make further changes.

How to set up

Typically you'll follow this flow when setting up relay races:

1. Create a relay race: create a new race and select the type or relay race you want to use (in the Team options field).

2. Define the relay slots: add as many relay slots as you want. You can configure the Relay Slot configuration screen from the Race Options dialog:

   

3. Invite team members: import registration data containing team names and team captain flags. Each team name must have a unique name (which should not be changed once imported)
4. Allow team members and captains to assign the slots: give team members and team captains some time to assign themselves and other team members to relay slots. There is a Relay Slot Report available for download from the Reports page which allows you to see which teams have (and have not) fully assigned the slots to ensure all slots are assigned before the event starts.
5. Watch the results flow in: during the event the system will automatically assign activities to the assigned relay slots and also show this on the result pages.

How it works

For time based slots there are a few important things to consider:

1. One activity may span multiple slots. E.g. when you are assigned to 2 consecutive slots you can finish them in 1 activity.
2. Two or more activities may get assigned to the same slot. E.g. when you have a slot of one hour and you do 2 15 minute runs within this slot they will both count
3. When an activity starts or ends outside the slot we scale the result to match the time overlapping the slot. E.g. when you are assigned to the 2pm-3pm slot but run between 2:30pm and 3:30pm we take half of your distance.
4. All slots start and end times are in the local time zone of the event

For distance based slots there are a few important things to consider:

1. Only 1 activity may count for a slot distance.
2. Activities must be between the min and the max range defined on each slot to qualify.
3. Activities are automatically scaled to the slot distance. E.g when someone completes a 10.1 km run for a 10 km slot we reduce the time with 10% to generate comparable results.
4. The system does not automatically improve a slot result if you complete a second activity which would have resulted in a better result. For this to work, the user needs to first disconnect the first attempt from the event, and then connect the second activity.