So what’s new in Splitcaster 1.1? Let me quickly explain a few of the key changes.

Faster Race Creation

When creating a new race, the settings default to what was used for the last race you created. This should make creating a new race much faster and easier to do. In v1.0, new races were always 1600m races on 400m tracks with an estimated finish time of 5:00. Now the meet name, race distance and lap size are duplicated from the last race you created. So if you are at the Stanford Invite and just timed the first of many 5000m races, the next race you time won’t require any additional configuration (unless you want to change the athlete’s name and estimated finish time).

Share Split Analysis

If you aren’t using the Analyze Splits function, you should start! And now you can share split analysis info via Twitter, just as easily as sharing a split. I timed Morgan Uceny’s 1500m in Birmingham on July 10th and recorded splits at 400m, 700m, 800m, 1100m, and 1500m. I could analyze what she ran from 800m to the finish and quickly tweet this info: “Morgan Uceny covered 700m, from 800m to 1500m, in 1:51.7 (3:59.3 1500m pace).” The Analyze Splits function is awesome, if I do say so myself, and want more people to use it!

Tweaked Stopwatch Button Behavior

Stopwatch buttons are now triggered when you release the button, not as soon as you press it. This doesn’t sound like much, but it makes a big difference in real world usage. I’ve missed at lease one race start and at least one split because I was stabbing blindly at the screen while I was watching the race. Now, at the start of a race, try this:

1. Press and hold the Start button.
2. Then turn your attention to the starter’s gun.
3. As soon as the gun goes off, release the Start button.

Easy and error-proof. The same goes for taking Splits. Extra hint: The shutter button in the Camera app acts the same way. You’re welcome :)

Those are the biggest changes. Full release notes are below. Let me know what you think!

New and Improved

• When creating a new race, the settings default to what was used for the last race you created. This should make creating a new race much faster and easier to do.
• You can now Tweet data from the Split Analysis screen, such as “Morgan Uceny covered 700m, from 800m to 1500m, in 1:51.7 (3:59.3 1500m pace).”
• Revised the Stopwatch interface, making things cleaner and less cluttered, and also providing greater focus on the Estimated Finish Time feature.
• Added a “Clear” button on the Twitter sharing screen, because sometimes you need to quickly send a race-related Tweet that doesn’t contain the data that Splitcaster automatically creates for you.
• Stopwatch buttons are now triggered when you release the button, not as soon as you press it. This doesn’t sound like much, but it makes a big difference in real world usage!

Fixed

• Removed that annoying timestamp that got appended to the end of Tweets.
• Emailing a race without notes showed “Notes: nil” rather than just leaving the Notes area blank.

This past weekend was a big one for Splitcaster. Here’s a brief rundown of what Splitcaster was used for at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon:

• Timed and broadcast a WR in the rarely run 30000m
• Provided the best live coverage of the world-class Women’s 5000m race
• Timed and broadcast a HS record in the Two Mile

Men’s 30000m

Runnerspace.com was providing a live video feed of the race as it happened, which was great. But the viewing experience from home was made even better by following @TrackFocus on Twitter. That’s because Jim McDannald was posting splits for just about every single one of the 75 laps that were run. Each update posted by TrackFocus included the current estimated finish time as well as the pace of each lap that was run. If ever there was a great time to get live estimated finish times, it’s while watching a very long, rarely run race like the 30,000m. Hearing that they came through 9200m in 26:56.5 probably won’t mean much to you at all. But when you also see that that’s sub-1:28 30K pace, which was well under the world record, you know immediately that something big is happening.

Women’s 5000m

NBC owned exclusive rights to the Women’s 5000m, so Runnerspace.com had to point their cameras away from the track, leaving everyone in the dark. Once again, TrackFocus came to the rescue, posting live updates of the race with Splitcaster. Being at the track in person is best. Watching it live on TV is second best. But if you can’t do either of those things, getting live splits with pace information on Twitter is pretty good, I must say!

Men’s Two Mile

Like I said, watching track live on TV is a good alternative if you can’t be there. But sometimes TV coverage leaves a lot to be desired. While NBC was showing the Men’s Two Mile live, it was completely ignoring, and dare I save oblivious to, a subplot that thousands of track fans were interested in: Lukas Verzbicas’s attempt to break the High School record of 8:34. While NBC was focused on the leaders, TrackFocus was using Splitcaster to track Lukas, lap by lap, so we knew that he was running a great race and indeed broke the record by five seconds. I don’t think that NBC even mentioned his name once.

I want to say a huge “thank you” to Jim of TrackFocus for helping distance fans get the most out of the Pre Classic. I look forward to more and more races and meets being Splitcast live on Twitter!

How should you go about using Splitcaster to time a One Mile race on a 400 meter track? As you know a full mile is 1609m (well, actually 1609.334m), which is a just a hair more than four full laps.

You Have Two Good Options

Option One

1. Set the lap size to 400m
2. Take splits every time they cross the start line (not the finish line)
3. Stop timing at the finish line

In this scenario, Splitcaster will show splits of 400m, 800m, 1200m and Mile. That last split distance from 1200m to Mile will be marked as 409m, which is exactly what the distance from 1200m to one mile is. And Splitcaster will accurately predict finish times for all the other splits. This is probably the easiest way to do it. But if you don’t like having the last split be 409m and you want all the split distances to be the same, you can try…

Option Two

1. Set the lap size to 440 yard
2. Take splits every 440 yards, which can be a bit tricky to do accurately if the track doesn’t have 440y, 880y, and 1320y markers. But, hey, we’re hand timing anyway so we aren’t expecting scientific results.
3. Stop timing at the finish line

In this case, Splitcaster will label splits 440y, 880y, 1320y and Mile. If you aren’t comfortable estimating these just-longer-than-a-lap splits, stick with Option One.

These same ideas work for the rarely run Two Mile race on 400m tracks. Once again, the easiest option is to:

1. Set the lap size to 400m
2. Take all splits at the start line
3. Stop timing at the finish line
4. Deal with having a slightly longer last split

The best part of Splitcaster is that no matter how you do this, it will give you accurate pace information, which I think is more important than having perfectly even split distances.