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Crewing Responsibilities
- Brittany Peterson
- 5 days ago
- 16 min read
Part 1 of our 3-part Series on How To Crew for an Ultramarathon
We have all seen the production that is crewing for an ultrarunning race. The race scene has hundred milers, two hundred milers, multi-day events and more, and these events can be done solo, but are often found to have a crew who joins their runner for the adventure.
If you are new to ultra running or this is the first time you are preparing for a race that allows you to have a crew (or a pacer, see Part 3 of this series), this article series is designed to help you prepare in the most thorough of ways.
What is the Purpose of Your Crew?
In simple terms, your crew’s purpose is to assist you in being able to finish your race. However, this can mean a multitude of things. At WildPeak Collective, we break down the purpose of your crew into the following categories and then will go over each of them in more detail.
Support at Aid Stations
Managing Nutrition & Hydration
Gear Management
Physical Support - Heat Management, GI Issues, Skin care, Blister Management, etc.
Brief on the Next Segment
Mental Support - Coaching, Race Beta, Re-energize, etc.
Support at Aid Stations
This is the foundational role of a runner’s crew: to be at the aid stations. It is important for the athlete and their crew to understand the specific rules and regulations of each race (as they vary from race to race). Most commonly, the crew should understand that they are only allowed to provide support in designated areas, which is at the aid stations (and at times will specify the distance from the aid station that they must be located within). It is critical to NOT PROVIDE SUPPORT outside of an aid station, as this is against the rules and will result in a runner getting disqualified. It is also important to note that not all aid stations permit crew access. Races will designate which aid stations allow crew access and which do not. The crew should be familiar with the locations of the aid stations that they are allowed to be at and know how to access them. Race day can become much more crowded and rushed, so it is very helpful to pre-drive the routes to have a visual plan for parking and access prior to race day. It can also be helpful to discuss the general strategy for the crew to use in terms of selecting a spot to set up at the aid station. For example, “We will always be located before you get to the actual aid station.” Having this determined general location can assist the runner in knowing where to be expecting their crew, or help them determine if they likely passed their crew. To prevent confusion for the runner, it can be helpful to have someone waiting for them at the early phase of the crewing area, so they can locate the runner early on and guide them directly to the crewing set up.
The crew should know what their runner wants in terms of support at the aid stations (to be discussed/determined in the recommended pre-race team meeting). But it is also important for the crew to anticipate their needs and utilize questions to prompt the athlete to consider what they want.
What fueling replenishment needs to occur?
What gear do they need to have?
Will the runner want to change shoes or sit down in a chair?
Does the crew need to have fresh ice to help their runner cool off?
Will the runner want hot food prepared?
When a crew asks the right questions, it can help an athlete stay focused and not miss critical aspects to their resupply at an aid station. It can be very common for an athlete’s brain to be somewhat scattered as they come into an aid station and they often can miss something if the crew does not prompt them correctly or have a detailed plan. We will go into more detail in the following sections to help you determine how to best be prepared to crew in the many avenues that exist when crewing for an ultra.
Managing Nutrition & Hydration
The main focus at an aid station is resupplying the athlete’s hydration and nutritional needs. It is important to know your athlete’s plan for each of these AND what types of bottles or gear they have for utilizing their fueling sources. This allows you to have exactly what they need and want ready at the aid station so you can give it to them right as they enter the aid station (or potentially even have a fresh set up ready to go to just swap out at the aid station).
Electrolyte Drink
Water
Gel / bar / wafer products
Real Food
First, does your runner use an electrolyte drink mix? If they do (as most runners do) what is the correct way to prepare the drink mix. When learning these things (again in the recommended pre-race crew meeting) it is important to know the correct concentration of electrolyte mix for the various sized hydration options that your runner may be using (i.e. 500 ml soft flask vs 2L bladder vs 18 oz handheld water bottle, etc). Having these instructions written down can be very helpful to ensure you keep the proper concentrations to maximize the effectiveness of your athlete’s hydration plan.
Author Tip: Coach Brittany: “I draw a line on my soft flasks indicating where to fill the soft flask with my electrolyte powder prior to adding water.”
Next, know if they want all fluids as their electrolyte mix or if they want plain water as well. It is important to know what the athlete has been training with and what they anticipate they will need, but the crew should always be prepared for the plan to change, as an athlete should be attentive to how their hydration plan is actually benefiting them, or potentially not benefiting them. If it is not benefitting them, then the crew may need to make adjustments on the fly (i.e. the athlete feels more thirsty and is craving regular water and therefore changes from only electrolyte mix to one electrolyte bottle and one plain water bottle).
Finally, have additional fluids ready that the athlete may just drink while they are in the aid station (they are not taking this in their pack). An athlete can use the aid station to “catch up” on fluids if they feel they have gotten somewhat behind in terms of getting enough fluids in.
Author Tip: Coach Brittany: “I like having a gatorade and a bottle of cold ice water [when it is hot race conditions] at the aid stations where I can get a big drink without affecting my fresh pack and hydration supply for the next section of the race.”
When it comes to fuel, the next important thing is to understand what types of products the athlete is using and the quantities they want. When an athlete comes into the aid station it is often best to just swap fresh bottles of fluids but when it comes to nutrition products, it can be very helpful to check in with the athlete on what they’ve been eating (i.e. have they been eating enough) and then check their pack to see if they have the desired quantity of gels for the next section. For example, if they want three gels for the next section, you should see if they have any gels leftover in their pack or waist belt (or other means of carrying supplies) before adding new gels (this is also a very good time to help remove garbage if you see any). It doesn’t make sense for the athlete to carry more gels than necessary if it makes navigating their supplies more cumbersome or makes their pack heavier than necessary. You can pay attention to patterns over the course of a longer distance race to see if the plan needs to be changed. For example, perhaps they are avoiding a specific gel flavor or they aren’t eating the waffles due to that type of nutrition product upsetting their stomach (or they aren’t “wanting it” which can be a way of the body telling the athlete that that product perhaps wouldn’t sit well if they did attempt to eat it). If something isn’t working it doesn’t make sense to keep giving it to them at future aid stations if they aren’t using the product that was previously provided (but keep it handy JUST INCASE, because things can change in a long ultra).
Since many runners have several types of nutrition product “go-to’s” it can be helpful to have a mini table, cooler top or blanket laid out where several products and flavors are laid out for the athlete to choose from. They come in to the aid station, you see what they still have in their pockets and the athlete has a visual cue (from the products laid out on the blanket) and could say “I want the strawberry gels” or “I want the [brand name] gels” or “The 30g carb gels are sitting well, I’ll stick with those [vs the 60g or 90g carb gels].”
Author Tip: Coach Brittany: “Be careful to not over-complicate the fueling. For example, if the athlete has 10 different flavors or 5 different gel products, have all of them available where you can retrieve them easily, but have the most preferred ones laid out and ready, versus all of them. This is where paying attention to what your athlete is wanting earlier in a race can help you be efficient and effective later on in a race, versus sloppy and over-complicated.”
It is also important to be mindful of caffeinated gels versus uncaffeinated gels. Be sure to ask your athlete what their plan is with caffeine. You can cause undue energy highs and lows if you haphazardly use caffeinated gels and uncaffeinated gels without a true plan for the purpose of the caffeine.
Author Tip: Coach Brittany: “I strategically don’t use caffeine (i.e caffeinated gels, coke, redbull) until the second half of the race. I make sure that I get the boost from caffeine when my body really responds well to it and needs it. Once I start using caffeine, I don’t only use caffeine, but I try to use it consistently to avoid lulls in energy.”
Finally, we look at the plan for real food. Some athletes rely solely on gels and nutrition products and other athletes know they will need real food at some point in the race. It is smart for an athlete to have a plan for what types of real food they want (and ideally they have been practicing this in their training).
You will need to have a plan:
Can you get this food at the aid station?
Are their special dietary considerations (i.e. gluten free, vegetarian, etc.)?
Do they have specific foods they want (and therefore are more solely supported by the crew versus relying on the aid station food) and if so how can you make it and how can you store it between aid stations?
Photo Credit: Steve Peterson (2022 WSER)
When it comes to later in an ultra, the athlete’s stomach can often be very sensitive and no food sounds truly appetizing, but the athlete eating and staying on top of their nutrition plan can be the thing that makes or breaks the success for the athlete. So having foods they have practiced with and then keeping those foods as “appetizing as possible” is critical. For example, if the athlete wants mashed potatoes and you are able to prepare it, but they only eat 2 spoonfuls at one aid station, it can be very helpful to put the mashed potatoes in a sealed container to preserve the warmth and integrity for the next aid station. On the opposite end, having access to a cooler so their drinks are refreshing and cold during a hot race can make it much more likely for them to drink. It can also be helpful to try to keep hydration bottles as organized as possible (which this is hard to do) to not mix flavors. For example, if one bottle had electrolyte mix in it and then was used for straight water afterwards, it will likely have altered taste. A more critical example is if there are ever bottles that get mixed with foods, like if the bottle had Cup O’Noodle Soup in it for one use and then water for a second use, this is a significantly more altered taste and residue in the bottle which can further hinder an athlete from utilizing that particular nutrition while out on the course.
Recommendations for food preparation and storage:
Have that friend with a camper van be a part of your crew so you can use their cooking set up right in the parking lot as well as their refrigerator to keep things cold and fresh
Camping stove to still be able to prepare food on the go
Prepare food at an Airbnb if time allows between aid stations
Thermos for hot food storage
Backpack cooler for cold food/beverage storage
Use of dry bag to help ensure dry foods don’t get damp/soggy if mixed with cooler items
Single use cups with “just add water” for preparation (i.e. Cup O’Noodle or single serving instant potatoes)
Baby food pouches for “real food” on the go - to be taken with the runner on the next section of the course
As you can see, this is the biggest focus of the runner’s crew and is very nuanced to what your runner has been practicing, what they have found to work and what their strategic plan is for execution on race day. It is important to have a detailed plan of what the runner feels they will want and need at each aid station (more of this in Part 2 of Crewing Series: “Preparing for Race Day”).
Gear Management
Gear management is the next consideration for a crew. There are many things to consider in an ultra - managing night segments, cold temperatures, hot temperatures, use of trekking poles, and so much more. This is where having a detailed plan for each aid station and projected time to be in that aid station is critical. If the athlete has a guesstimated time to be in the aid station you can predict when cold weather gear will be needed, headlamps will be needed, change of batteries or a new headlamp can be swapped out, etc. It is critical that this predicted timeframe is used as a guide, but that needed gear is still available at other aid stations as well. There are many things that can happen in an ultra to have an athlete not be at an aid station at their predicted time, or have unexpected gear needs show up at a different time in the race (i.e. weather changes).
Similarly to the nutrition/hydration recommendations of having extras available, we recommend that the crew has a bag of extra clothing and gear available at every aid station. This bag doesn’t have to be prominently displayed, but it can be quickly accessible in case your runner comes in and is needing something unexpected (i.e. a change of socks because of blisters).
This also includes considerations for what gear will be used at what time in the race in terms of the athlete carrying their gear. Some segments may be longer and require the use of a pack, while other segments are shorter and the athlete may want to drop their pack for a little bit and rely on their handhelds. This is where having the written out plan from aid station to aid station is very critical in ensuring the crew can be prepared and no time is wasted fumbling around for gear and likely leaving the athlete frustrated. Though it must also be stated that things can change on the fly. The athlete may have thought they’d want to drop their pack for this shorter section, but at the moment of the race they feel like they have consistency with what they are doing and they don’t want to change things up. The crew should be prepared to make last minute changes based on what the athlete is feeling when they enter the aid station. This is why Section 1 of this article (“Support at Aid Stations”) recommends asking probing questions to help an athlete make decisions in the moment.
For example:
“Are you getting enough fluids in?”
“Have you been eating enough?”
“How are your feet doing?”
“You have your jacket and arm sleeves? Is that enough to stay warm?”
“Here are your poles. Do you still want them for this section?
“Want me to get your headlamp out of the pack so you have it ready for when it’s dark?” (In the context of you as the crew are anticipating that your athlete may be behind schedule and it will likely be dark by the time you see them next)
Physical Support
Closely linked to gear management, physical support is another responsibility of the crew. Along with the bag of gear and extra clothing, it is essential to have a “basic necessities kit.” This kit is dependent on the individual needs and desires of the specific athlete but should generally include:
Basic first aid kit
Blister and chafing kit including lube, moleskin, blister pads
Medicine - this can be preferred pain reliever, anti-histamine/allergy medication, inhalers if prescribed
TUMS, ginger chews or other preferred GI distress kit
KT tape
Sunscreen
Bug Spray
Chapstick
Sunglasses
Ice Buff/bandana or sun shirt or other heat management equipment
Headlamp, extra headlamp(s), extra batteries
Extra bottles, lids, storage supplies (i.e. plastic baggies or reusable baby food containers)
Charging cords, music/electronic needs
Safety pins
Permanent marker
Like noted in the previous sections, it is important to anticipate needs and have a plan. For example, if the course crosses a stream and the runner knows they are going to get their feet wet, it can be planned to have a fresh pair of shoes, socks and a little chair for the runner to sit in for the change. But many of these needs may be unanticipated and having the kit accessible is important for efficiency. For example, you would still be prepared if your runner comes into the aid station saying their stomach is upset and they want to try a ginger chew or take TUMS because you’d have the kit nearby and could grab the desired items from the kit efficiently.
Furthermore, if you have anticipated some needs and know your runner’s desires, you can fine tune crew member roles. For example one crew member is managing re-organizing the pack with new hydration bottles and replenished gels, another crew member manages the athlete’s current fueling desires while they are in the aid station (i.e. drinking cold gatorade and eating real food), another crew member is reapplying sunscreen and refilling the ice bandana and another crew member may be checking in on the athlete’s feet and if they are wanting fresh socks and shoes or if they need any lube to help with chafing. This is important to discuss in the crew meeting and have an established plan with key roles to avoid duplications or too many questions asked of the athlete all at once (See more in Part 2 of Crewing Series: “Preparing for Race Day”).
Segment Brief and Mental Support
The last two sections of a crew’s duty can be combined as this is the strategy side of racing. Ultra distances should be broken down into “one section at a time” and the focus should be on “get to the next aid station” (or next available crewing spot, which sometimes is several aid stations away). The athlete should be prepared to manage themselves until they see the crew again next and therefore it is helpful for the athlete to know what is ahead of them, at a minimum of what is the distance to the next crewing location (i.e. when will the athlete see you next). This should be a part of the directions written out during the planning phase for what is needed at that particular aid station - how many miles until the next crewing spot (and are their uncrewed aid stations in between). When that athlete leaves you can tell them “12 more miles and we’ll see you again!” - this helps the athlete have concrete headspace on “focus on the next 12 miles” versus “oh my gosh, I still have 40 miles to go!” Depending on what your athlete likes, it can be helpful to give a little extra “beta” on the segment if the athlete wants (though the athlete should have studied the course and should be aware of what is coming, but it is very helpful for the crew to have this understanding as well). For example, you could share “You have 12 miles until I see you next, but you have 1 aid station in the middle, it’s a the top of a big climb so you should definitely take a little extra time and make sure you fuel up at the top because then it’s super runnable until you see me next.” This can all be discussed during the crew meeting and the crew can have notes on the course as part of the planning and preparation when sorting out gear and getting organized for race day.
The other side of this is coaching. Depending on your athlete’s goals, it may be helpful to determine what they want in terms of information on the competition or information on where they are at in terms of timing/pacing goals. You will want to know when the athlete wants to know what place they are in (i.e. after the half way mark, or is this something they don’t want to know at all) and does this help motivate them (i.e. “the next female is 2 minutes ahead of you” or “the lead pack went out really fast and they are struggling right now, you look stronger than they do”). Having information on the race can be motivating but having information on the athlete’s goals can also be motivating (i.e. “You’re 10 minutes ahead of your plan, stay steady, we aren’t ready to push yet”). This is where being a spectator of the sport and understanding the athlete’s plan for executing the race can be helpful in order to give guidance, coaching or feedback to help the athlete stay on track or push through a harder section.
This coaching also is needed if an athlete hits a low. Most of us have a low at some point during an ultramarathon and it is important to reinforce that you can always get out of a low. But this does take intention - what can the athlete control and do to get out of the low. Most of the time it is fueling and they need to eat or drink even when they don’t feel like it or their body is uncomfortable. If the athlete is having GI distress, the crew can try to determine what can be provided from their kit to help them get out of the low. You’d want to problem solve if it is better to sit at the aid station and let things settle while they try to drink ginger ale or should they keep hiking and have the “puke and rally” experience. These are the things that you as the crew are going to need to help problem solve. The biggest thing is reinforcing that they WILL feel better and they CAN get out of a low.
This summarizes the general responsibilities for someone who has agreed to crew an athlete competing in an ultramarathon. You can see that this can be a lot of information and it can seem overwhelming. Be sure to join us for Part 2 of the "How to Crew for an Ultramarathon" Series where we go into further detail on how to get dialed in for race day, how to ensure you’re efficient at aid stations and how to optimize the crew members and crewing assignments!
Brittany Peterson is a Running Coach at WildPeak Collective and a professional trail and ultra runner. She has had several wins in key races throughout the world and has been a 3-time finisher at the Western States Endurance Run, with 2 of her 3 results being in the top 5. She comes from a background of track and field and road marathon running as well and loves coaching athletes of all ages, abilities, in all terrains and with any goal in mind.
"Run Wild. Train with Purpose."
Great Article Coach!