public long startPing() {
    stats.incInt(pingInProgressId, 1);
    sendStats.incInt(pingSendInProgressId, 1);
    startClientOp();
    return getStatTime();
  }
Records that the specified ping is starting
<p>
Note: for every call of this method the caller must also call {@link #endPingSend} and
{@link #endPing}.

@return the start time of this ping
geode-core/src/main/java/org/apache/geode/cache/client/internal/ConnectionStats.java