Ultra Race Week Checklist, Night by Night¶
Race week is loud.
The training is done, and what is left is a list. For most of us that list lives in our head, and it gets longer every night. Which aid station takes the drop bag. Spare headlamp batteries. What time your crew has to leave the motel. Whether the first cutoff closes before you get there.
It shows up the same week whether this is the first ultra you have ever entered, a 100K on a new course, or a 100 miler you have lined up for many times before. Below is race week by hand, day by day, then how the NavRun race page moves through those same days with you.
Why race week is different out here¶
A road race mostly asks you to get to the start. An ultra asks you to run a small operation.
There are aid stations, tables along the course with food, water and people, spaced anywhere from a few miles to a long afternoon apart. Most have a cutoff, a clock time after which the station closes and runners who have not reached it stop there. Some take a drop bag, a bag you pack ahead and the race carries out to that station for you. You may have a crew, friends or family who drive between stations to meet you, and a pacer, someone who runs a later stretch beside you.
Every one of those is a decision to make before the start, often in a town you drove to the day before. The list ends up in your head because nobody ever handed you anywhere else to put it.
The craft: race week by hand¶
You need nothing from NavRun for any of this.
A week out¶
- Taper, and bank sleep. Your training comes down this week (the taper). Coaches at CTS (Carmichael Training Systems) suggest getting to bed earlier all week, because sleep across race week counts for more than sleep on race night.
- Write the list down. Everything you will carry, wear or pack. Use the kit you trained in. Race week is a poor time for new shoes. The mandatory gear guide covers what races require.
- Decide the drop bags. Which stations take one, and what goes in each.
- Send your crew the day. Where they go, roughly when you will be there, where to park. The crew and pacer guide goes further.
The night before¶
- Lay it all out. Bib pinned, watch charged, breakfast ready, feet taped if you tape.
- Let the sleep go. Most runners sleep badly the night before. Sports scientists quoted by Advnture put it plainly: sleep over several nights matters more than any single one, and one poor night will not undo months of training. Lying awake is normal.
- Tell your crew the start time and the first place they will see you.
Race morning¶
- Know the first cutoff. Work out roughly when you will reach the first station and how much room that leaves before it closes. The Leadville cutoff math post shows the arithmetic, and it works for any course with times on it.
After¶
- Write down how far you went. Every mile. If you stopped at mile 40, those 40 miles happened, and they are yours. The post on when to stop is there if that day comes.
What the race page does in each of those days¶
iPhone app, version 1.4 and later. Free.
Every race you add in NavRun gets one page, and that page moves through five stages on the race's own clock: Weeks out, Race week, Night before, Race morning and After. Race week starts at midnight seven days out. Night before starts at 6pm the evening before. Race morning starts at midnight on race day. After starts the day after the race's last cutoff, or the day after race day when no cutoffs are on file.
Those are the race's times, in the time zone where the race is, so a runner who flies in still sees Night before arrive at 6pm there, not at home.
At each stage there is one card for where you are, and underneath it the same three groups, Know the course, Get ready and Tell your people, in the order that matters right then.
- Weeks out. The card says "Set up the course." and lists what is missing: aid stations, a start time, your goal. "Do these once and every time on this page works itself out."
- Race week. The card reads "For the next three days" (or however many are left) with three lines: "Say which stations take a drop bag", "Pack from your list", "Send your crew the day". Get ready moves to the top with a small "Moved up this week" label, and the full cutoff table opens.
- Night before. "Tomorrow at 06:00." Your race day checklist sits inside the card. Under it, one line says whether your crew link has gone out: "Your crew link is out" or "Nobody can see this yet." If nobody has entered a start time, it says so: "Nobody has said yet, so this is a guess."
- Race morning. Your start time and your first four stations, each with when you would reach it at your goal pace, when it closes, and how much room that leaves, such as "Mile 7.4 · 1h 28m of room". Get ready goes back to its usual place. If the race has a written race plan, a button opens race day mode.
- After. The page ends in your own numbers: "Your day out there," with your run's miles, hours on your feet and climb.
If you stopped early, the page says what you covered next to the course, such as "75.7 miles, on a 100 mile course", and below it, "You covered 75.7 of them." It never prints the letters DNF (did not finish). A race nobody has answered yet asks plainly, "Did you run this one?", with "I ran it" and "Ran part of it? Add the distance you covered." You can also set it later in Edit, under "Distance you covered", with the hint "Leave it blank if you ran the whole way."
The race day checklist¶
Web and iPhone. Free.
The checklist lives on the race itself: headlamp, spare socks, the thing you always forget. It is free whether or not you are in the Crew, NavRun's paid plan.
On iPhone it follows the stages: a row while you are weeks out, open on the page in race week and on race morning, and inside the card on the night before. On the web it is on the race's strategy page. If you share a crew link with read and write, your crew can edit the list from their own phone, no account needed.
The Races tab is a timeline¶
iPhone. Free.
The Races tab reads top to bottom in time. Your next race gets its own card that stays put, then everything after it in order, with the gap between each marked plainly, like "7 weeks".
Below that sit "Did you run this one?", for any race that has passed without an answer, and "Races you've run", each with a line like "May 2 · 75.7 mi covered · 18h 19m on your feet". Nothing unanswered gets lost among races still coming. With nothing on the calendar, it shows where to add a race or find one in NavRun's race catalog, and says: "No race planned? That's fine."
What it does not do yet¶
- The web race page does not move through the stages. On navrun.app you get the checklist, cutoff times and your crew link. The moving page, the timeline and entering the distance you covered are iPhone only today.
- Backyard and timed races fit badly. A backyard ultra or a 24-hour race has no set distance, so the room-before-each-cutoff lines and the distance-covered ending do not mean much there yet.
- Race day mode needs a written race plan, which is part of the Crew ($6.99 a month; your first race starts 30 days free, no card). Everything else here is free.
Common Questions¶
What should I do the week before an ultra?¶
Cut your training back, get to bed earlier every night, write your kit list down, decide which aid stations take a drop bag, and send your crew where and when to meet you.
What should I do the night before an ultramarathon?¶
Lay everything out, pin your bib, charge your watch, get breakfast ready, and tell your crew the start time. Then let the sleep be whatever it is.
Does a bad night's sleep before a race ruin it?¶
Research says no. Sleep across several nights matters more than the last one, and one poor night will not undo months of training.
Is the NavRun race day checklist free?¶
Yes, on web and iPhone, whether or not you are in the Crew. Your crew can edit it from a shared link without an account.
What does the race page show if I did not finish?¶
It shows the distance you covered next to the course distance, your hours on your feet and your climb. On iPhone it never prints the letters DNF.
The short version¶
Race week is a list, and a list is lighter on paper than in your head. Write it down, bank sleep, tell your crew early, know the first cutoff. The race page carries that list through each day, and when it is over it hands you back every mile you covered.
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