Ultra Marathon Crew Coordination: Managing Multiple Aid Stations Like a Pro

The Logistics Challenge

Crewing a 100-mile race isn't just physically demanding — it's a logistics operation. Between navigating forest roads at night, timing arrivals across 15 aid stations, managing a team of people, and tracking a runner who may be ahead or behind pace, a crew without a plan quickly becomes a crew in chaos.

The good news: most coordination problems are solvable before race day. The crews who handle race day smoothly are almost always the ones who planned the most in the weeks before.

Assigning Roles

If you have more than one crew member, assign roles before the race starts. Ambiguity leads to things not getting done — especially at 3 AM when everyone is tired.

• Crew chief: Makes calls at aid stations, decides when the runner moves on, communicates with medical if needed
• Nutrition lead: Manages food prep, knows the runner's preferences, tracks what's been consumed at each station
• Gear lead: Manages pack refills, clothing changes, shoe and sock changes, and foot care
• Navigator: Handles routing between aid stations, knows alternate routes, manages timing between stops
• Driver: Focused on getting the crew to each station safely and on time

On a two-person crew, you'll combine roles. The most important thing is that someone is explicitly responsible for each function so nothing falls through the cracks.

Building Your Race Plan

Your race plan is a document — ideally on paper and in a shared notes app — that the whole crew can reference. It should include:

• Race start time and location
• Every crew-accessible aid station with mileage, elevation gain since the last station, and cutoff times
• Estimated runner arrival windows for each station — best case, expected, and worst case
• What your runner wants at each specific station: nutrition, gear changes, pacer pickup
• Driving directions and notes for each station: parking, where crew is allowed, cell service

Build your arrival windows from your runner's expected pace, then add 20-30 minutes of buffer for the second half. Things slow down in the late miles, especially in mountainous terrain after dark.

Aid Station Positioning Strategy

Race-day logistics around aid stations are consistently underestimated, especially by first-time crews.

Arrive Early

Build 30-45 minutes of buffer into your arrival at each station. Roads near aid stations get congested, parking fills up, and the walk from the car to the crew area is often longer than it looks on a map. Being late and having your runner arrive to an empty spot is one of the worst experiences in the sport — for both of you.

Know Where Crew is Allowed

Many races have designated crew areas separate from the main aid station. Showing up in the wrong spot means your runner can't find you when they arrive. Study the race's crew guide carefully and confirm crew zones at each station.

Plan for Your Runner Being Early

Especially in the first half of the race, runners often arrive ahead of schedule. If you're not there when they arrive, they either wait — burning time and energy — or they leave without the gear and food they needed.

Communication During the Race

Within Your Crew

• Create a group text with all crew members before the race starts
• Save the race director's emergency number in everyone's phone
• Download offline maps — cell service in mountain terrain is unreliable and you cannot count on it
• Identify in advance which aid stations have no cell service and plan around them
• Use two-way radios if the race covers remote terrain with extended dead zones

With Your Runner

Set expectations before the race about how much communication they want at stations versus en route. Some runners want minimal conversation at aid stations and need to stay in their own heads — they want efficient, quiet service. Others need extended check-ins and emotional support. Know yours.

If the race provides live tracking, use it. Knowing your runner's real-time position is one of the single biggest quality-of-life improvements for a crew.

When Your Plan Falls Apart

No race plan survives contact with race day fully intact. Runners go off pace. Roads close. Crew members get lost. Here's how to handle it.

Triage Your Stations

If you're behind schedule and can't make two consecutive stations, pick the more important one — typically the later station after a difficult section, or the one where a major gear change or pacer pickup is planned.

Communicate Quickly

If you're going to miss a station, try to get a message to your runner through the race's tracking system, a volunteer at a prior station, or another crew if you have contact. Runners ask volunteers "has my crew been here?" — leaving a message takes two minutes and matters a lot.

Have a Backup Navigation Plan

Forest and mountain roads look completely different in the dark. Download your route to a GPS app like Gaia or Caltopo before race day — not just Google Maps, which can route you onto impassable roads. Having a paper backup for the most remote stations is not overkill.

Keeping Your Team Functional

A crew that burns out can't support a runner through a 30-hour race. Taking care of your team is part of the job.

• Build rest into the plan: if there's a 3-4 hour gap between stations overnight, have crew members sleep in shifts
• Pack food and drinks for the crew — you will forget to eat if it's not in front of you
• Rotate driving duties so no one is behind the wheel exhausted on mountain roads at 4 AM
• Debrief after the race: the best crews get better with every event by talking through what worked and what didn't

The crew experience is one of the most demanding and rewarding things in endurance sports. When your runner crosses the finish line, you'll have covered more miles than you expected, slept less than you planned, and made decisions you didn't think you were capable of. That's the job. And there's nothing quite like it.