Let’s go all the way back to the mid-90s. That was when RFID technology was developed for mass running races. Races were timed and scored manually using other methods.
When I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 1993, there were 12,000 finishers. The largest races of the time may have had 30,000 participants, all given times based on when the gun went off.
Some of the techniques used at the time can still be used today for smaller races with fewer than 100 runners per mile, yielding very accurate results. However, the time to publish results is not instant.
In the 1970s, I ran a few DC Road Runners races. As I finished, I was handed a numbered place card. It was my responsibility to go to a table, write my name on the card, and hand it to an official. The official then ordered the cards and wrote the finish time on them. This method was the standard of the time, and bib numbers were not worn.
The last race I ran using the method was a Memphis Road Runners’ race in 2014. That was a 600-runner 5km. To help with awards, they had baskets labeled with age groups. I had to place my card in the appropriate basket. Someone slow to put their card in a basket might miss out on their award. Memphis may still be using manual timing.
An alternative to place cards was popsicle sticks. As a runner crosses the finish line, they are given numbered popsicle sticks. Rather than having to write your name on a card, you would go to an official and report your name, where they would match that to the place number on the popsicle stick. The last race I ran using this method was the Stumblefoot Derby 2 Mile at my 35th UVA reunion in 2013. There were about 30 people in the race.
With the advent of personal computers in the 1980s, bib numbers at races became the norm. Rosters were held on the PC, associating a name, sex, and age with a number. Matching a place and time to a bib number helped organizers print standings and awards.
Crossing the finish line, some races wrote bib numbers on place sheets. At others, bib manufacturers developed removable pull tags. Information on the pull tag included the number, name, sex, and age. As a runner crossed the finish line, the pull tag would be removed and placed on spindles in the finish sequence.
Either the place sheets or the finish spindles are reviewed to enter finish places in the computer system and match them to finish times.
At most races, a chute was erected behind the finish line with ropes on each side. Runners would walk the length of the chute in the sequence they finished. At the end of the chute, officials would remove the pull tag. If a runner left the chute or let someone pass them in the chute, they lost their finish place.
At larger races, there were multiple chutes. When one filled up, it closed, and another opened. Once a chute was cleared, it could be reopened. Only one chute was open at a time.
The Marine Corps Marathon used this method until the mid-90s. They would use ropes before the finish line to funnel runners into the open chute. It worked well as long as runners honored the ropes. In those years, and in the first years when they started using chip technology, they still gave numbered popsicle sticks to the first 100 finishers as a backup.
The largest race I ran using the method was the 40,000 finisher 1996 Race of the Cure in Washington. On each chute, they had a timer and kept all chutes open. It took them 3 months to send me a result card.
We used the pull tag method for most of our local races until 2007, and I offered it as an option until 2020. You may still see this method used in smaller races.