August 3, 2010
The Aid Station Plan
In my continuing look into my upcoming race, the Leadville Trail 100, today we focus on the aid stations.
As with any race, there are aid stations. In marathons, these are often long tables piled with cups of water and Gatorade. Sometimes they give you a gel packet too. But that’s about it. However, in ultramarathons, the aid stations is a much bigger deal. It symbolizes a checkpoint as well as provides much needed support for tiring runners.
The race staff provides a variety of supplies at each aid station. Some of the common things are Powerade, water, soda, tea, bananas, cereal, oranges, bagels, candy, PB&J, coffee, watermelon, sandwiches, cookies, pretzels, soup, and more. A runner can get all they need from this selection or they can opt to have their favorite stuff that isn’t on this list delivered via drop bags or their crew.
Aid stations are usually the only places that a runner can receive aid from their crew in an official manner. Crewing in other locations is prohibited and you might face disqualification because you are getting an unfair advantage. Therefore, the crew has to be dialed in and ready to serve as the runner comes into the aid station. Usually, a pretty quick routine is developed for swapping out and in various items and moving on. The goal isn’t to stay at the aid station. The goal is to get what you need and leave the aid station. Standing still does not get you to the finish line faster. But you also don’t want to ignore your needs by not taking that extra minute to deal with some situation that will likely bite you minutes down the road. So get the runner in, get done, and get out. That’s the crew’s job! Kind of like this…watch the master.
The Leadville course has a variety of aid stations. I will detail them here. Lots of my race strategy in future posts will start dealing with sections of the race as indicated by from this aid station to the next. So get used to those names.
0. Start/Finish (Mile 0)
Just for reference.
1. Tabor Boat Ramp (Mile 7)
This is not an aid station. This is merely a crew access point. Crewing is allowed here but there is no race provided supplies. Its just a convenient spot along the way. This will be pretty boring outbound but inbound…the smell of the finish line will start here.
2. May Queen (Mile 13.5)
This is an aid station and a crew access point. Outbound this will be quite congested given all the runners will be still fairly together. I thinking crewing here outbound will be tough. Inbound, this will be the last big stop before the finish.
3. Fish Hatchery (Mile 23.5)
This is an aid station and a crew access point. Things should be spreading out.
4. Treeline (27 miles)
This is not an aid station. This is merely a crew access point. This one kind of makes up for the fact that crews cannot get to the next aid station because of its wooded location.
5. Halfmoon (30 miles)
This is an aid station but not a crew access point.
6. Twin Lakes (39 miles)
This is an aid station and a crew access point.
7. Hope(less) Pass (44 miles)
This is a sparse aid station at about 12,000 feet. All supplies are carried uphill by llamas I hear. You can top off a bottle. No crew access.
8. Winfield (50 miles)
This is an aid station and a crew access point. There is a medical checkpoint here. Once completed, you turn around and just go back the way you came. Crossing all the same aid stations one more time in reverse order.
There you have it!
