Why integration matters
Without integration between your registration platform and timing system, your team ends up manually:
- Exporting participant CSV from registration
- Importing into RaceResult (manually fixing encoding, column mapping)
- Running the race timing
- Exporting results from RaceResult
- Importing back into registration platform for public display
- Fixing inevitable mismatches in BIB numbers, gender, birthdays
Each step is an hour of work and a source of errors. Integration eliminates all of it.
What RaceResult does
RaceResult is an industry-standard timing software used across Europe. It manages:
- Participant database for a contest
- Timing mat data (gun time, net time, splits)
- Live leaderboards
- Ranking calculations (overall, by gender, by age group)
RaceResult offers an API that lets external systems pull and push data. Time-Monkey uses this to:
- Push participant registrations from Time-Monkey → RaceResult before the event
- Pull timing results from RaceResult → Time-Monkey during and after the event
Connecting the two systems
Configuration in Time-Monkey:
- Go to contest settings → Timing integration
- Enter RaceResult account credentials (username + password)
- Enter RaceResult event ID (obtained from your RaceResult dashboard)
- Select polling interval (typical: every 30 seconds during event, every 5 minutes after)
- Enable webhook (recommended): RaceResult pushes updates to Time-Monkey instead of being polled
Before the event: pushing participants
Once you're ready to lock registrations, Time-Monkey pushes the full participant list to RaceResult:
- BIB number (per contest)
- First + last name
- Birthday (for age categories)
- Gender (for gender-separated rankings)
- Category/club (for custom categories)
Your timing company uses this data to program RFID chips, prepare BIBs with timing tags, and verify mats are configured correctly.
During the event: live results flow
Participants cross timing mats. RaceResult captures each crossing. Via webhook or polling, updates flow to Time-Monkey:
- Split time at each mat (km 5, km 10, half, etc.)
- Net finish time when they cross final mat
- Current rank
Time-Monkey's public results page refreshes every 30 seconds automatically — participants' families see updates in near-real-time.
After the event: final results
Once RaceResult confirms no more timings:
- Time-Monkey locks the results page
- Final rankings calculated across all configured rank groups (overall, gender, age, etc.)
- PDF export available for official results
- Individual profiles updated with the new race result
Handling BIB mismatches
Sometimes RaceResult has a participant with BIB 123 but Time-Monkey has 124 for that runner (maybe the chip was swapped race-day). The integration handles mismatch by:
- Trying exact BIB match first
- Falling back to fuzzy name match
- Marking ambiguous cases for manual resolution
Race directors can review and resolve mismatches in the admin before publishing final results.
Webhook vs polling
Both work. Differences:
- Polling: Time-Monkey asks RaceResult for updates every 30s. Simple, reliable, slight delay.
- Webhook: RaceResult pushes updates to Time-Monkey instantly. Faster, requires webhook URL registration in RaceResult dashboard.
For most events, polling is sufficient. For live-TV or high-profile events, webhooks are worth the setup.
Common integration pitfalls
API credentials expiry. RaceResult passwords expire every 6 months. Set reminder.
Event ID mismatch. Copy event ID directly from RaceResult URL, don't type it manually — easy to transpose digits.
Time zone confusion. RaceResult reports times in server local time. Time-Monkey converts to event local time for display. Verify both timezones match expectations.
Test before race day. Run a dummy split through your test environment to verify the flow end-to-end. Don't debug integration issues at 7am on race day.
Cost of integration
Time-Monkey doesn't charge extra for RaceResult integration. Your RaceResult account is whatever you pay RaceResult directly (typically paid by the timing company, included in their service fee).