Waves

Waves are start groups that go off after the main gun, such as corrals in a big road race. Each wave has a start delay, and 2Timer takes that delay off its runners’ gun times when placing them, so a later wave isn’t penalized for starting late. Waves are for road races and cross country.

How waves work

Each wave has:

Name, such as Wave A or Corral 1, and an Abbreviation;
Start delay (sec): how many whole seconds after the main gun the wave starts;
an order (# in the list, Order on the wave form).

Example: Wave A starts with the gun (delay 0) and Wave B starts 3 minutes later (delay 180). A Wave B runner with a gun time of 45:30 is placed as if they ran 42:30.

The delay is in seconds, not minutes and seconds: a 3-minute delay is 180, and 2½ minutes is 150.

Waves belong to athletes, not to entries: a runner’s wave applies to every race they’re in.

Waves in track and field meets

Track and field meets don’t use waves: runners start in heats instead. Waves isn’t in a track meet’s sidebar, and athletes have no Wave column or field there.

Set up waves for a two-start race

Open Waves in the meet navigation.
Press Quick Add, enter the Name, Abbreviation, and Start delay (sec), and save. 2Timer suggests the next name, such as Wave B, when it can.
Add a wave for each start group, for example Wave A with 0 and Wave B with 180.
Put athletes in their waves (see “Put athletes in a wave”).

New Wave opens the full form. To change a wave, edit its name, abbreviation, delay, or order in the list.

Put athletes in a wave

A wave belongs to the athlete. Set it in any of these places:

the Wave column on Athletes;
the Wave field on the athlete form;
a wave column in a spreadsheet import. Waves named in the file that don’t exist yet are created, with a 0-second delay, so set their delays on Waves afterwards.

Waves at the Basic level

At the Basic level, Waves isn’t in the sidebar, and the Wave column and field are left off Athletes. Switch to Standard in Settings → Preferences to set up waves.

Waves or groups?

Use waves only when start groups really start at different times and that should change the placing. Don’t create waves just to label staging corrals that start together.
Use groups (age groups, overall, masters) for award categories. See Groups.

A later wave’s results look wrong

Results look unfair for the later wave: its Start delay (sec) is missing or wrong. Check it on Waves, and remember it’s in seconds.
A wave seems to do nothing: its athletes aren’t in it. Check the Wave column on Athletes.
Waves show in the wrong order: change the order (#) on Waves.

Waves: checklist

Every start group exists as a wave.
Each delay, in seconds, matches the real start.
Athletes are in the right waves.
A sample of results shows later-wave runners placed by their adjusted times.

Metadata

Last Updated: 2026-10-21
Document Version: 0.3
Status: Active