Flashes of Panic

I belong to a fairly small subset of runners with a curious quality: we own Champion Chips.

We’re a pretty small percentage of runners here in the USA, but a much larger percentage in Europe. “The Chip” took off there before it came to the USA in 1996, and many races there, I’m told, required their runners to own their chips.

The model in the USA, however, turned out differently. Timing companies bought thousands of chips to go with their mats, and rented them to the races for issue to registered runners. The runners were responsible for returning the chips after the race, either directly to volunteers past the finish line, or by mail.

Before that model was established, however, there was a window of a few years when there was more aggressive marketing of chips to individual runners. I got mine in late 1999, in anticipation of Boston ‘00, and it has the Boston Marathon logo. You can still buy a chip, with logos of various races, but I get the idea they’re not hot sellers.

Why not? Well, they’re not cheap, $35 each. And what’s the point? The only difference between a race-distributed chip and one you own is that you submit your chip number with your race registration, you have to remember and find your chip before the race, and you don’t have to return it afterward. (I suppose this could be a plus if you prefer not to have to mess with your shoelaces immediately after a race.) Many races don’t even allow for you to use your own chip, issuing one of theirs no matter what. Others make you jump through hoops; I had to go to the trouble desk and return a race-issued chip for Beach to Beacon this year and make sure my chip was correctly in the database.

The BAA Half Marathon, which I’m running tomorrow, is better (despite being run by essentially the same race management team, DMSE.) I put my chip number in the entry form, and when I picked up my number today, that was noted on my chip sheet and there was no chip in the bag. I’ve laced the chip onto the shoes I’m racing in tomorrow, and I’m ready to go. But I’m still not sure how it’s any easier than just taking the one the race issues. A has a chip which she never uses; I suspect most people who own chips do the same. I suspect I keep filling in my chip number out of pure obstinacy, because I can’t figure out any other reason.

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