Aid Station Strategy for Ultras: Crew, Drop Bags, and Cutoffs

Aid stations are where ultras are won quietly and lost loudly. The runners who look composed at kilometre 90 usually rehearsed a station script; the ones who sit down “for a minute” often stand up twenty minutes later with a colder body and a hotter problem.

Build a timeline before race week

Start with the course, not with vibes. Load the race into the aid station planner (race-specific pages exist for UTMB, Western States, and others) and write down:

1. Estimated arrival time at each checkpoint at your goal finish.
2. Which stations allow crew vs drop bags vs neither.
3. Where the dangerous gaps are - long segments with no resupply.
4. Which intermediate cutoffs you must clear with margin.

Your pacing plan and your logistics plan are the same spreadsheet.

The 90-second station script

Unless you are in genuine medical trouble, treat full-service stations as pit stops.

The checklist

1. Bottle / flask swap or refill first - hydration delay compounds.
2. Mandatory food in hand before you leave - do not trust “I’ll eat on the climb.”
3. Layer change only if weather or night demands it.
4. One sentence to crew: what you need next time, how you feel, when they should worry.

When to sit

Sitting is a decision, not a default. If you sit, set a departure time before you touch the chair.

Crew vs drop bags

Resource	Best for	Failure mode
Crew	Fresh food, emotional reset, gear you decide late	Crew traffic, missed windows, over-helping
Drop bag	Pre-committed nutrition, shoes, night kit	Packing comfort food you cannot face at hour 18
On-body only	Short gaps, self-sufficiency races	Under-carrying into a long climb

Build carry weight with the nutrition calculator so each gap has enough carbohydrate and the mandatory reserve.

Cutoffs without panic pacing

Know the next barrier before you leave each station. If you are tight on time, the fix is rarely “run the next climb.” It is usually: shorter station, hike efficiently, protect the runnable sections. Panic surges on technical descents create the DNFs that cutoffs only finish.

Aid stations are part of the course. Plan them with the same seriousness as the climbs.