Mass start is a format of starting in some racing sports such as

long-distance running Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance running come two di ...

sport of athletics Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping and throwing. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, cross-country running, and racewalking. ...

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skat ...

, long-distance

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

and

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not ti ...

. There are usually many competitors in such an event, and in order for all the competitors to have the same environmental conditions, which, among other things, include

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

wind speed In meteorology, wind speed, or wind flow speed, is a fundamental atmospheric quantity caused by air moving from high to low pressure, usually due to changes in temperature. Wind speed is now commonly measured with an anemometer. Wind spe ...

rain Rain is a form of precipitation where water drop (liquid), droplets that have condensation, condensed from Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is res ...

or shine, etc., they need to start at the same time and same place and proceed along the same course. But the large number of competitors makes it impossible to fit all of them at the same starting line. So the

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

s stand in a pack before they begin: some are behind others, sometimes by dozens of meters or more, depending on the number of competitors. The

tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

is that all the athletes start at the same time, the gun time, and use the same starting line and same finishing line as those in the front of the pack. This means that those in the back of the pack have to run an extra distance. One's position in the pack at starting is determined either based on their previous records, or chosen by the participant based on their own expectation and

etiquette Etiquette ( /ˈɛtikɛt, -kɪt/) can be defined as a set of norms of personal behavior in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviors that accord with the conventions and ...

. Usually, the best athletes take the front positions. Modern electronic technology has made it possible to get the time lapsed for each individual athlete from their crossing the starting line to their crossing the finishing line, the chip time. This is also called transponder timing. However, this has the disadvantage that the race finish is not simultaneous, so the race results do not match the finish line order. Other ways to avoid disadvantage towards those in the back of the pack are individual starts (where athletes start one at a time) and interval starts (where athletes are released in small batches). Chip time is normally not used to determine top positions. The first to reach the finish shall be the winner.

References

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External links

New York Times: "You Clocked What? For Marathon Runners It's Gun vs. Chip."
Endurance games Sport of athletics terminology Skiing competitions