Race notes your ultra crew reads word for word¶
Late in a race, words get hard.
You come into an aid station, the tables of food and water the race sets up along the course, and someone who loves you asks what you need. You know the answer. You knew it three weeks ago, at your kitchen table. Now it comes out as "I don't know" or "whatever," and your crew, the friends or family who drive between stations to meet you, starts guessing.
That is the worry this post is about: a runner who knows exactly what they will want at mile 70, or at the last station of their first 50K, and will not be able to say it when they get there. The fix is old: write it down before the race, in your own words, where the people meeting you can read it.
Why Written Instructions Matter More in an Ultra Than on the Road¶
A road race is over before your needs change. An ultra is long enough that your needs change while you are out there. Early on you want real food. Later your stomach wants broth. After dark you need a headlamp and a warmer layer. Each of those lives at a particular station, with a particular person, and some of it is in a drop bag: a bag you pack before the race and the race carries out to a station for you.
CTS recommends telling your crew in writing how you plan to use each aid station, and some runners carry a laminated copy. TrainingPeaks' crewing guide makes the same case from the crew's side.
The course is the adversary here. The night, the climb, the hours. None of it goes away. What changes is whether the person at the table has to guess.
Race Notes: Your Words, Exactly as You Wrote Them¶
Web and iPhone. Free.
Every race you add to NavRun (race management) has a Race notes box. On the web it sits on the race's strategy page, just below the race day checklist. On the iPhone it is under Your race day plan. You can write in it whether or not a race strategy has been written, and whether or not you are in the Crew, NavRun's paid plan. Your own words are free to write and free to change.
What goes in there is up to you. Some runners write the rules for the whole day: "Make me eat at every stop, even if I say no." "If I'm quiet, I'm fine. If I'm snapping at you, I need salt." "Don't let me sit for more than five minutes." Others write what they will not remember: which drink mix, where the spare batteries are.
Your crew sees those words on the page they open from your crew link. The card is headed with your first name, like "Sam's race notes," then "Sam wrote these for race day," then your words as you typed them. On a phone it shows the first three lines with "Read the rest." With nothing written it says "Nothing written yet."
The card shows in three places: the live page your crew follows during the race through Out Here, the page they see at that same address before you start, and the crew page. An open page checks for new words every five minutes and whenever the phone screen comes back on. Your crew does not need an account to open the link.
Station Notes: One Note per Aid Station¶
iPhone and web. Free to write.
Race notes cover the whole day. Station notes cover one stop.
Each aid station gets its own note for your crew and its own note for your pacer, the runner who joins you for a stretch late in the race to keep you company and keep you moving. On the iPhone, tap a station in your race strategy's Aid Stations list and you get a sheet with Your crew, Your pacer and the drop bag headed for that station, listed with what is in it. The hint under the crew field reads "Your crew read this on the link you send them." On the web, the strategy page has Notes for your crew and Pacer Notes columns.
Notes are kept per aid station, not per whole mile. Two stations close together, one at 26.1 and one at 26.4, each keep their own note. Your crew page shows each station's crew note beside that station. The Crew Sheet and Pacer Sheet, printable PDFs you can hand to someone driving to a station with no signal, read the same per-station notes.
A good station note is short and specific: "Headlamp and long sleeve here. Refill both bottles, one with mix." "Pacer meets me here. Remind me to take a caffeine gel at the top of the climb."
When the People Meeting You Write Back¶
A crew link can be Read only or Read and write, and you can change it afterwards. With Read and write, your crew sees two buttons under your race notes: "Add a line" and "Change all of it." While nothing is written yet, they see "Write."
Add a line puts their words on a new line at the end and never changes yours. That is the one most crews want: "Parked on the left past the tent." "Night shift takes over at the next stop."
Change all of it lets them edit the whole note. If you changed your notes while they were typing, nothing of yours is replaced by the older copy they opened. Everything they wrote stays on screen for them to copy, and they start again from your newest words.
It works the other way too. If you save from a strategy page you opened before your crew added a line, NavRun will not write over what they added. What you typed stays in the box, and above it the page shows the notes as they stand now, their line included, so you can fold the two together and save again. Under the box, a line names the link that changed them last, for example "Last changed from Maria's link."
The Changes Page, and Put It Back¶
Web, with part of it on iPhone. Free.
Every change made through a link you shared shows on your race's Changes page, called "Changes to your plan." Each row shows what it says now, what it said before, when, and whose link it came through.
The newest change to each thing has a Put it back button. On the web that covers your race notes, your race day list, a station's crew or pacer note and a drop bag. On the iPhone, your race notes and your race day list put back from the phone, and the rest say plainly that they do not yet. If something has changed again since, the row says "Changed since" and nothing is lost.
Putting one back never tells the person whose link made the change. In the page's own words: "Nothing here is a mistake, and putting one back does not tell them."
What It Does Not Do Yet¶
Station notes sit on your race strategy, so on both the web and the iPhone the place you tap to write them appears once a strategy exists for the race. The Crew Sheet and Pacer Sheet need one too. Writing a new strategy is part of the Crew, and adding your first race starts 30 days of the Crew with no credit card. A strategy already written stays yours after that.
It will not decide what goes in your notes. They are your words.
If You Never Sign Up: How to Write It Down by Hand¶
- List the stations. Name, mile, whether crew can get there, whether a drop bag goes there.
- One line per station of what goes in your hands. Not a menu. A decision.
- Write rules for the version of you who cannot talk. What to do if you say you are quitting, or stop eating.
- Put the pacer handoff in writing. Where they join, and when to push or leave you alone.
- Print two copies. Phones die, and some stations have no signal.
More on the stops in how to plan your aid stations, for your people in how to crew and pace an ultra runner, and for after sunset in running through the night.
Common Questions¶
What should I write in my race notes for my crew?¶
What you know now and will not be able to say later: what to hand you and what to make you do. Short lines beat paragraphs.
Does my crew need a NavRun account to see my notes?¶
No. They open the crew link you send them. A link preview in a messaging app shows no notes at all.
Can my crew change my race notes?¶
Only with a Read and write link. "Add a line" adds their words at the end without touching yours. "Change all of it" edits the whole note, and never overwrites words you changed while they were typing.
Can I undo a change my crew made?¶
Yes. On your race's Changes page, the newest change to each thing has a Put it back button, and the person is not told.
Are station notes per mile or per aid station?¶
Per aid station. Two stations inside the same mile each keep their own note.
Where does my pacer see their notes?¶
On the Pacer Sheet, a printable PDF from your race strategy page, next to the stretch each note belongs to.
Before You Go¶
Write it while you can still say it, so the person at the table never has to guess.
Start free. navrun.app