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Posted at 3:13 p.m., Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Running: NYC Marathon had timing equipment glitch

Advertiser Staff

NEW YORK — A problem with the timing equipment at Sunday's New York City Marathon affected the calculation of how long it took some runners to finish.

Interference lasting about 3 minutes early in the race meant that the equipment didn't record when about 2,300 of the 38,676 finishers crossed the starting line, New York Road Runners announced Wednesday.

The time currently listed for those entrants is how much time passed from the moment the starting cannon fired to when they reached the finish line (the "gun time"), not how long it actually took them to cover the course (the "net time").

NYRR is contacting the runners involved and asking them to estimate their start times on the honor system. Those will be used to calculate official times, which will be released the week of Nov. 19 and can be used to qualify for other events, including the Boston Marathon.

USA Track & Field considers the gun time to be the official time, and that's what is listed for the professional runners entering the marathon. The NYC Marathon started providing net times to other entrants as a courtesy last year.

The interference, which did not occur during testing of the equipment, began about 2 minutes into the race. The cause is unknown.