Dason participates in labor of love with TimingMD

Oct. 13—Last Saturday, Mike Dason ran four IHSAA cross country sectionals.

No, he didn't run "in" them. He's 68. That's way too old for high school meets.

But Dason does own a company, Timing MD, which electronically calculated the order of finish, times and team scores for the girls and boys races, then posted them on his website (timingmd.net) soon afterward.

TimingMD not only does that for high school and college cross country and track and field meets, but road races as well. Included in Dason's annual TimingMD schedule are races in Chicago and Florida, so he's not confined to Indiana.

In his hometown of Terre Haute, where Dason stayed for the sectional last Saturday to co-coordinate both races from the LaVern Gibson Championship Course tower, there were 62 girls (including winner Peyton Smith of Linton) and 75 boys (including winner Dylan Zeck of Terre Haute North) for Timing MD to monitor.

Meanwhile, Dason's TimingMD employees performed the same job for IHSAA sectionals at Brebeuf, South Knox and Benton Central. They stayed in communication with Dason through texts and calls during those meets.

And to think, the origin of this successful business came when Dason was a Terre Haute North coach looking for a way to raise funds for his school's running programs.

"I was using Terre Haute North's cameras and equipment," recalled Dason, who coached at North for a total of 22 years, starting in the mid-1990s, and taught in its Technology Education Department.

"I never started charging [to time races] until I bought my own system [in the mid-2000s] . . . because you have to have a license for everything."

After Dason retired from North — "I always tell my wife [Patty] that I retired from teaching, but I did not retire from working," he says — he devoted more time to TimingMD and added more meets to its schedule.

Cost for booking TimingMD for a cross country meet ranges $550 to $4,000 "depending on how elaborately people want to be timed and what information they want," Dason said.

"If you want to have sound, you have to pay for it," he added. "If you want to use a JumboTron [video display board] or you want us to webstream your meet, you have to pay for it."

Nowadays, Dason couldn't be happier that he's still keeping busy and not laying around on a couch 24/7.

"Every time I get behind the computer at a cross country course or at a track meet or where ever and the first person crosses the finish line . . . I absolutely love my job," he emphasized.

When Dason first started trying to make his own money from TimingMD, he had 15-20 meets during track season and eventually added about the same number for cross country season.

"It started escalating from there," Dason said. "Then I brought Sam Bunch [a four-year runner for Dason in the late 2000s] along and taught him how to do it. So he was able to go in one direction and I was able to go in another direction."

In other words, that eventually allowed TimingMD to work multiple meets in the same day.

A teenager at the time, Bunch was ready for the challenge.

"My senior year, I started helping Dason set up for our home track meets along with Doc [Mike Urban, one of Dason's assistant/volunteer coaches]," Bunch reflected. "As I started college at ISU [Indiana State University], I continued to help Dason with home meets [doing] set-up, working and teardown at North and at the [LaVern Gibson] course.

"Also during indoor track season, I would work with him hosting high school meets at DePauw and Wabash in addition to college meets at Rose-Hulman and ISU. Over the next couple years, I continued working with Dason and began to travel with him to other cross country and track meets across the state."

After Dason added Bryce Carpenter — a former North student of his — as a second full-time employee and a few part-timers, he and his crew can now work as many as four track meets a day. For cross country, they can do even more because there aren't so many different events to time.

On Oct. 1, for example, TimingMD timed six meets. Among them were the morning Indiana Middle School State Championships and the evening Nike Valley Twilight, both at the LaVern Gibson course. TimingMD also did the SouthWestern Indiana Athletic Conference championships at Shakamak that same day.

Approaching 70, Dason realizes he can't continue darting all over the Midwest and beyond for work trips forever.

"When I do decide to retire, hopefully Sam and Bryce will keep TimingMD going," Dason said.

Whether Bunch and Carpenter can maintain the same pace for TimingMD remains to be seen.

"This year [in the spring], we did about 140 track meets," Dason pointed out. "And when this cross country season ends, it'll be close to the same number."

Maintaining this crazy schedule, Bunch believes he has found his true love — employment-wise, that is.

"I am a full-time timer," he explained. "I operate the timing systems: Chips and FinishLynx cameras for cross country and Hytek w/FinishLynx for track.

"I travel to middle schools, high schools and colleges across the Midwest. When it comes to out-of-state locations, my absolute favorite college to visit is Wheaton College in Chicago. I cannot say that one college here in town stacks above the other as they are our hometown colleges and were the ones to give us that 'foot in the door' and have always been our supporters," Bunch said.

"Between them and the support of Dave Patterson at the Terre Haute Convention & Visitors Bureau and Mr. [Greg] Gibson out at the cross country course, it has allowed us to amp up what we have been able to do as timers during 'home' meets and showcase some of the amenities that we can provide," Bunch continued.

"I love what I am doing. What started as a weekend past-time job has grown to be a passion," Bunch concluded.

Not surprisingly, working each meet consists of more time than when the first athletes start and the final athletes finish. There is set-up time before the meet and teardown time afterward.

Dason said he's become adept enough at setting up the necessary TimingMD networking equipment — which requires up to 10-12 computers — that he needs only an hour to 90 minutes before the first race "depending on where we're at."

"It comes down [after the event is over] faster than it goes up," he added.

As anyone employed in an environment requiring computers can testify, they don't always work perfectly, and that can be a big problem at the start of a big cross country or track meet.

When that occasionally happens with TimingMD, Dason may raise his voice, but he doesn't panic.

"When something doesn't work, I like to be able to say, 'Hey, I got it figured out. We're good to go,'" Dason said.

Dason hesitated to say how financially rewarding his business is, but he did say that it may not be as much as some people think because he has approximately $500,000 invested in equipment alone.

For example, Dason owns two JumboTrons, which will be used for the IHSAA cross country state finals Oct. 29 at the LaVern Gibson course.

Also, remember that COVID-19 wreaked havoc on high school and college athletic schedules in 2020. So the number of meet directors and schools willing to pay for TimingMD's services dropped drastically, at least temporarily.

That's not the only time Dason lost money through his business.

Once a few years ago, his van full of expensive timing equipment got stolen. Two days later, law enforcement located the van.

Unfortunately for Dason, it was empty.