Race Day Tactics Part 3: Aid Stations
Racing well is more than just speed or if you carried out your workouts according to plan. It’s understanding and navigating the nuances of racing. Getting real world race experience in order to practice those racing skills and race tactics while under pressure is important. We’ve covered race pacing and running tangents in order to race better and save time. Now we’ll cover the race skill most athletes never practice, which is mastering the aid stations on course.
The best way to practice this skill is actually through real life race experience. Aid stations can be chaotic. They can be crowded with both athletes and volunteers with cups scattered across the road. But you can also do some practice on your own.
Many athletes treat aid stations as a passive event, something that happens to them and not something they have control of. But the athletes who race well know how to master the aid stations. They go in knowing exactly what they want how how to handle it. And this can help them pass the competition with ease.
Why Aid Stations Can Cost You Time
The time lost at aid stations isn’t just the seconds you spend there. It’s also the deceleration before, any hesitation that happens during, the time spent fueling, and the effort to rebuild your rhythm after.
When an aid station is treated as a recovery mid-race, then it obviously will cost more time. And if that’s something you need during a race, then use it strategically.
In a triathlon, the time spent could be even higher. On a bike, a fumbled bottle grab or an unplanned stop can cost far more than a few seconds.
The key to competitively racing is to treat the aid stations as part of the race, not a break in the race.
Physical Execution: The Grab-and-Go
The Grab-and-Go is taking what you need without breaking stride any more than necessary.
For Runners:
- Identify your aid station early. Be aware of what’s ahead.
- Keep running into the aid station.
- Pick a volunteer where there’s less congestion. Make eye contact and point so they know your coming to them. Commit and do not change before you arrive.
- If another runner takes the cup your were aiming for, then quickly aim for a neighboring cup.
- Reach for the cup and keep moving. Do not stop, do not walk.
- Pinch the top of the cup and take small sips from the pinched corner.
- When you’re finished, whether there’s water left or not, throw the cup to the side of the road or aim for a garbage can if they have one.
- If you need to stop or walk, then grab the cup and immediately move to the side away from the other runners so that you’re not in the way.
For Triathletes:
The aid stations on the bike leg can be a bit more tricky than on the run leg of a race. If you’re not comfortable doing things on your bike, Practice your bike handling skills in training. You can also practice bottle grabs: Set up a table with a bottle or have someone hold out a bottle. Ride past and get used to grabbing the bottle, drinking, and putting it away.
During a race:
- Slow slightly before the aid station – not to a crawl, just enough to execute cleanly.
- Pick a volunteer where there’s less congestion. Make eye contact and point so they know your coming to them. Commit and do not change before you arrive.
- Grab the bottle and keep moving. Do not stop.
- Take a sip if needed and put the bottle away as you continue to move.
- If you need to stop, pull off to the side and out of the way of other athletes who are still moving.
- If you miss a grab or drop a bottle, make a calm and immediate decision. Will you circle back to get a bottle or continue based on your hydration needs and distance to the next aid station. Never panic.
Remember: A clean grab at moderate speed beats a fumble and dropped water bottle at full speed.
Aid Station Expectations
The aid station is not the place to suddenly stop or walk when there are others behind you. The assumption is that all athletes will continue moving. Do not stop or walk unless you move to the side to let the other athletes continue their running or cycling. The sudden change will cause a collision from athletes behind you who are not expecting you to stop.
And remember to thank the volunteers.
Race Strategy: Know Your Plan
Physical execution only matter if you know what you’re executing. The biggest mistake athletes make at aid stations is improvising and reaching race day without a clear plan for what to take, when, or how much.
Have an aid station plan during your race preparation:
- Know the course.
- How many aid stations are there?
- What’s the distance between aid stations?
- What will be offered at each aid station? Water, electrolytes, gels, broth?
- Map your fueling. If your running a marathon with aid stations every mile, you won’t need to stop at every single one. Decide in advance how often you’ll need to fuel and hydrate and how that will line up with the aid stations.
- Will you be using race-provided nutrition? Know what the race is providing ahead of time so that you know whether or not you’ll be carrying your own fuel or using what’s on course.
- Account for conditions. Hot and humid race days require more hydration stops. Adjust your plan based on your needs for the day.
An important note on race day nutrition:
The familiar adage “nothing new on race day” is never as important as it is here for nutrition.
What you use on race day should be what you have been using in training. If you were using certain sports nutrition products for training and decide to use something completely different on race day, it’s a GI disaster waiting to happen.
Know what’s on course and make the decision early on whether you will train with the same sports nutrition products or use your own and carry them with you on race day. If you carry your own sports nutrition, you can use the aid stations for water only and to throw away and trash you’ve been holding onto.
Aid stations are not a free break. They’re an element of the race that should be approached with strategy.
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