What to Tell Your Crew Before Race Day: A Runner's Briefing Checklist

The Briefing Is Part of Your Race

You've trained for months. Your crew has probably prepared for a weekend. That's not a criticism — it just means most of what they know about your race on race day is whatever you told them beforehand.

A 30 to 60 minute crew briefing a week or two before the race is one of the most valuable things you can do. It's also the easiest thing to forget while you're tapering, packing drop bags and checking the weather every hour. Use this checklist so nothing important gets left out.

Haven't built your plan yet? How to make a crew plan for your first 100-miler

The Logistics

Where and when the race starts, and whether they need to be there
Which aid stations they can access, in order, with the mile of each one
Your expected arrival window at each crew stop (early, expected, late)
Where to park, whether there are shuttles, and how far the walk is from the car
Who is covering which stop, and where each person sleeps
Where the finish is, and the latest you could realistically arrive

Point out the places where crew access is tricky: long drives between stops, mountain roads with no signal, stations where the race asks crew to arrive by a certain time. Those are the places a crew is most likely to miss you.

How to Follow Your Race

Tell your crew how they'll know where you are. Many races have live tracking based on timing mats at aid stations; some don't, or it's unreliable in the backcountry. Agree on how the crew should share updates with each other, and who passes news on to family so the crew isn't answering texts all day.

Explain what "late" means. If you're an hour behind your expected time, should they worry? Usually not. Give them a point at which they should check with the aid station or the race — and tell them where the race's emergency contact number is.

What You'll Want at Each Stop

Go through your plan station by station. For each one, tell them:

What food and drink to have ready, and which foods are your fallback when nothing sounds good
Which gear changes happen there (headlamp, layers, shoes, poles)
What they should take away from you
Roughly how long you want to stay

Show them your gear. Point out which bag holds what, how your bottles and bladder go back in your pack, and how your headlamp turns on. It sounds obvious until someone is fumbling with an unfamiliar headlamp at 9 PM while you stand in the cold.

What Your Crew Should Say (and Not Say)

Tell your crew how you like to be talked to when things get hard. Some runners want a pep talk; some want quiet and a plate of food. A few things that help almost everyone:

Ask simple questions with short answers: "Broth or soda?" instead of "What do you need?"
Tell you what's already done: "Bottles are full, new socks are on the chair"
Keep bad news short and pair it with a plan
Don't talk about how far there is to go — talk about the next section
Don't let you sit longer than you agreed to

The Hard Calls

This is the most important part of the briefing. Decide together, while you're thinking clearly, when your crew should push you and when they should stop you.

What counts as "normal" suffering they should push you through
Warning signs that mean you need medical, not encouragement: confusion, not peeing for hours, not keeping anything down, trouble breathing, a fall with a head injury
What to do if you're near a cutoff, and whether you want to know how close you are
Whether you want them to let you drop if you ask, or ask you to wait until the next station first

Write these rules down where every crew member can see them. When you're 80 miles in and asking to quit, your crew will be glad they're following your plan instead of making that call alone.

Your Crew's Own Needs

Remind your crew to look after themselves. Encourage them to bring their own food, water and warm clothes, to sleep when there's a long gap, and to take turns driving. A crew that runs out of energy before you do can't help you in the hardest part of the race.

Send Them Home With One Plan

At the end of the briefing, everyone should have the same plan in the same place, and know how to read it on their phone. If you change something after the briefing — a new goal time, a pacer swap — update it there instead of sending another text.

Want something to hand out at the briefing? Print the free crew plan template

With UltraCrew, your crew sees your briefing, your aid stations, when to expect you, what you want at each stop and who's covering it in one shared plan — and they can check you in and out and log what you ate on race day, even without signal. Start free and invite your crew.