Just random tack on to this thread...
For the Los Angeles Marathon they were wear testing timing "strips" as they called them to replace the chips... Made of paper thin material with some sort of paper thin electric conduit type thing about 2cm square on one side, you basically would make a D shape out of the long strip which was adhesive on both ends. Folding it into that D and adhering it together kept it just as snug as those dreaded wristbands that are impossible to get off without scissors...
Light as a feather, it seems like this is the much cheaper/simpler solution of the future... Took all my splits just fine, the only gripe I had was that the timing "mats" were actually wires that had to cross the course which they covered with those big protective things that are almost mini curbs... Watch the female winner and she almost faceplants when she trips over the one at the finish line... And one of the lead wheelchairs got a flat on one that may have cost him the race...
So strip gets a thumbs up over the chip, but bring back the timing mats!
