Ultrarunners - Sherpa/Crew Support?

[wawa]

My sister is running her first 50M at the same time that my mama and I are running our marathon.  (same course...she has to run it twice)

My triBestie is planning to come up with me and support/sherpa lil' sis.

Any tips/thoughts/tricks for being a useful and effective pit crew?  I've done it a million times for people on horses - never for people on foot.  So most of my experience doesn't really translate (like...make sure you soak the beet pulp the second you pull into the vet check so it's ready in time...) 

[wawa]

assuming this race allows crew support anyway. I should say that we're confirming that...

[Wines Not Whines]

Is this a 50M road or trail race?

Does your sister have any idea what she may want?

When my friend ran her 50M last year, she gave her crew/sherpas bags of things she thought she might want at those points in the race (clothes, food, body glide). People also filled up her pack with water and replenished her food supply.

[wawa]

Jan 17, 2018 14:39:29 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

Is this a 50M road or trail race?

Does your sister have any idea what she may want?

When my friend ran her 50M last year, she gave her crew/sherpas bags of things she thought she might want at those points in the race (clothes, food, body glide). People also filled up her pack with water and replenished her food supply.

it's trail - but not super intense. rolling hills not mountains. Still 5000 ft of climbing over the 50 miles though.

just got an email back from the RD that all aid stations are accessible by car and crew support is allowed.

So from my days riding and pit crewing 50 and 100 mile horse races (over the same courses as some ultras) these are my thoughts, which I realize now that I've typed them are actually pretty extensive.  I took crewing very srsly but it was so much fun!

-Need to get a good road map of the area and the course map ahead of time and figure out directions between aid stations in excruciating detail. Nothing is worse than getting lost between stations. Also note points of interest like gas stations, take out food places, etc. Test out GPS through the area ahead of time - it's rural and some of them are park access roads, so google might get weird.
-Keep runner crap organized - leave this up to my sister if she'd prefer to have bags she rummages through or demand an item and trust bestie to be able to put her hands on it quickly (which she can. she'll be an awesome crew. she's organized to a fault and very flexible and good with cranky ass tired people including when she herself is one of those cranky ass tired people.)
-try to anticipate needs - have food ready to go, have hydration refills ready to go - but be flexible if runner needs something else. If it's raining have dry stuff, it's if it's hot have cold stuff, if it's cold have warm stuff. etc.
-Have options on hand. sometimes the go-to food item just does.not.appeal. so have some backups on hand.
-this one is specific to my sister - but don't ask if she's hungry/tired/in pain - just try to give her food/drink/advil and let her say no (you know, within reason, don't shove anything down her throat). Her reflex reaction to any question about her own well-being is "I'm fine". She was IN ACTIVE LABOR with my niece and the doctor came in and said, "and how are you feeling now?" and her response was, "I'm fine thanks, how are you?" The doctor just stopped and blinked at her. I was like, "uhhh...meg, you need to actually answer that with details. it's not a pleasantry"
-be cheerful!
-And efficient. Move with purpose and don't dither when your runner comes in. Nothing was worse when riding than standing there wishing I could push my crew aside and just DO IT MYSELF
-know what the next section of the race looks like so you can be all like, 'x miles till we see you again! one big hill near the end! kick ass!"
-feed yourself and stay hydrated. a tired cranky hungry crew is a useless crew.

[reginaphalange72]

I have a whole bunch of info I've pulled together into a word doc for my crew and pacers if you're interested. PM me and I can email it to you.

[labbie]

Between your notes above and reginaphalange72 , you'll have all the key points but if I could reiterate ONE thing from your list it is MAKE SURE THE RUNNER IS EATING/FUELING properly and recognize the symptoms/signs of her not doing so. Go over the fueling plan ahead of time and keep track of it. This is where DH and I dropped the ball, because by using TW in a bladder and him topping it off each stop, it was too hard to tell the total amount I was drinking and I fell way behind.
If she gets into a deficit, food will not sound good and she will refuse it and continue on the downward spiral. Of course, this is within the limits of knowing ahead of time what she can tolerate for fuel stomach-wise.

Signed, an ultrarunner newbie who was saved from a total bonk at mile 36 by pacers who knew me and forced me to eat.
mandiespharm saved my butt :-)

[mandiespharm]

As past support crew I ditto all of the above.

Have options
Be happy
Have fun
And make sure she stays on top of her nutrition!!

[mrs.jacinthe]

From my experiences on the swimming side:

Make her do the things you know she needs to. Even if she's like, "no, I'm fine" ... Preemptive strike is better than postmortem cleanup. Always.

Make sure she's tracking pee color. You're looking for lemonade. Dehydration or hyper hydration can get ugly fast.

And this one, from my ultra-running friend who dnfed a race because of this: check expiration dates on everything, especially GU and other nutrients.

[gt7301b]

Are you planning to help sherpa too or is this going to fall on your best tri buddy? The only reason I ask is I can't imagine being any help post marathon.

[Wines Not Whines]

wawa Are you running a trail marathon?

[wawa]

Jan 20, 2018 16:52:42 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

wawa Are you running a trail marathon?

Yup. Though running will be a generous term I suspect.

[wawa]

Jan 20, 2018 14:39:06 GMT -5 gt7301b said:

Are you planning to help sherpa too or is this going to fall on your best tri buddy? The only reason I ask is I can't imagine being any help post marathon.

Lol, no this is all on triBestie. If I'm helpful then yay but we're not counting on it. She's not flying solo though. One of Mama's friends is local and is coming too.

[gt7301b]

Jan 20, 2018 19:17:43 GMT -5 wawa said:

Jan 20, 2018 14:39:06 GMT -5 gt7301b said:

Are you planning to help sherpa too or is this going to fall on your best tri buddy? The only reason I ask is I can't imagine being any help post marathon.

Lol, no this is all on triBestie. If I'm helpful then yay but we're not counting on it. She's not flying solo though. One of Mama's friends is local and is coming too.

Whew, you had me worried!

[wawa]

Jan 20, 2018 19:43:59 GMT -5 gt7301b said:

Jan 20, 2018 19:17:43 GMT -5 wawa said:

Lol, no this is all on triBestie. If I'm helpful then yay but we're not counting on it. She's not flying solo though. One of Mama's friends is local and is coming too.

Whew, you had me worried!

I'm crazy not delusional!