I have tried to condense 15 years and 8500 km of competitions into this short guide on how to deal with ultra running and ultra trail races of between 4 and 36 hours. I’ve tried, as always, to give you some key points that you should remember, while for everything in between you will have to navigate on your own.

THE RACE BEGINS A WEEK BEFORE YOU PIN YOUR BIB

As we have seen in Training Planning, you have trained, you are ready both physically and mentally, now you have to rest, arrive fresh, full of beans and with a healthy desire to suffer!

Let's see how.

TAPERING

In the 3 weeks leading up to the competition you must have gradually reduced your training load to allow your body to assimilate the training and be fresh on race day. During the last week you need to relax your muscles. This can be achieved with a couple of easy runs and with mobility and stretching exercises. This is when stretching works best. By running less, you will finally have time to do those exercises that you never have time to do.   

NUTRITION

In the few weeks leading up to the race, it is very important to be extra careful with your diet, to avoid creating further inflammation and to prepare your stomach for the exertion of the race. A good diet provides everything our body needs and does not require any additional food supplements.

The rules are always the same: opt for wholemeal, unprocessed and preferably organic food: whole-wheat pasta and brown rice, which cooks in a reasonable time and is an excellent source of fibre. Choose light proteins (white meat, fish, eggs) and unsaturated fats (salmon, extra virgin olive oil, dried fruit). Drink water regularly. Avoid alcohol, reduce coffee gradually as the competition approaches. In the week before the competition, it is also beneficial to reduce dairy products, fruit and vegetables, especially in the two days preceding the competition.

REST

It is important to try to get as much rest as possible. During sleep, the body regenerates itself. Resting with your legs elevated helps your circulation and reduces water retention.

Try to adapt your sleep patterns to those of the start of the race, especially if the starting location has a different time zone from yours or the race starts at night. Try to sleep in a cool place and as long as you can. Rest is an essential part of training.

Don't stress, you’ve done what you could, there’s no point in trying to make up for what you failed to do in the last week, when guilt keeps you awake at night. Let go of these thoughts, you do not need them now. Enjoy a week of relaxation.

If you can, have a massage or a physiotherapy session a few days before the race.

WEATHER

Carefully check the weather forecast for race day. Temperature, humidity, rain and wind will greatly influence the race.

The temperature determines your equipment and the weight of your rucksack, while also affecting your pace. Of course, when it is cold it is easier to run faster than when it is very hot.

The humidity of the air impacts your hydration and nutrition, especially at night. When the air is humid and cold it is good to reduce your water intake to avoid stomach problems; when the air is humid and warm your sweating increases and you need to carefully tune your liquid intake. When the air is dry and hot, it is necessary to drink as much as possible to avoid dehydration.

Rain lowers the temperature by about 5° C and affects the clothing and material you will leave in your drop bags. When it is raining or rain is expected during the race, it is important that one carefully chooses their equipment.

The wind lowers the temperature by up to 10°C.

Bear in mind that a higher level of fatigue will negatively affect the body’s perception of cold temperatures.

EQUIPMENT

Carefully check regulations and mandatory equipment for your competition. Depending on the weather, supplement it with what you may need. There are two schools of thought on this: in European races the equipment is mandatory and determined by the organisers, while in races held in North America the equipment to carry is left to the competitor.

The obligatory equipment in an Ultratrail race can be divided into two parts.

The emergency equipment can normally include:

-the thermal sheet (isothermal emergency blanket) with a minimum size of 1.40 m x 2 m. In cold weather it should be used with the golden layer facing outwards to collect the heat of the sun's rays, and in hot weather with the silver layer facing outwards to reflect the sun's rays. In rainy and cold weather, it can be worn in contact with the skin over wet garments to insulate the body from water.

-a whistle to use in case you get lost or in foggy conditions

-an adhesive elastic band for emergency bandages in case of twists or sprains.

The race-specific equipment, depending on the situation, may include:

-backpack or bumbag (fanny pack  - US) suitable for holding race equipment, preferably with water bottles on the shoulder straps at the front

-water reserve of 0.5l to 1.5l depending on the distance between the aid stations, frequency of water points along the route and the weather; assess this carefully

-food reserve, appropriate to the effort

-personal cup and/or cutlery and plate, as disposable crockery is not used at refreshment posts

-hat or bandana

-waterproof jacket with a minimum of 10 000 Schmerber and breathable jacket with a RET below 13, with integrated hood and taped seams

-clothing suitable for the conditions

-footwear appropriate to the terrain

-headlamp with spare batteries or two headlamps in case of night racing

-race bib

-cell phone, not in silent mode and not in aeroplane mode, with the race organisation's emergency numbers recorded

-possibly money and ID

-if you decide to race with poles, you must keep them for the duration of the race. You cannot start without them and collect them during the race. Poles are not permitted in runner's bags. The use of poles may be prohibited altogether or in certain areas of the course marked by specific signs, for safety and/or environmental reasons

-in very long races it may be useful to have a small power bank for emergencies, along with GPS and telephone charging cables

-if available, upload the track of the route to your GPS device or phone app. For more on this subject see our Fastpacking Guide

A few days before the race, prepare everything you need for the race and which you will have tested during your multi-hour training sessions. Check that you have charged your headlamp battery and spare battery or that you have an adequate number of spare batteries.

Fill and close your rucksack, to make sure everything fits inside and that the distribution between front and rear weight is correct and there is no imbalance. Memorise the location of your equipment. Keep the things you plan to use most often close at hand, while keeping those you may not need in the least accessible places in the backpack. It is good to keep your food in view, to check what you are actually eating. Often, as the hours go by, you lose track of what you have had. Constantly check what you have left and what you have eaten and drunk, compared to what you had planned.

If your race includes drop bags (bags to be left along the route at aid stations) you can split your food supply according to the sections of the race covered by the service and include extra equipment for any changes of clothing, especially if the weather conditions are expected to change during the course of the race.

Be cautious, as it is always difficult to predict how long it will take you to get to the point where you will get your drop bag. For example, if you split your food always keep a safety stock with you in case you are late.

This does not mean you are exempt from having all the compulsory material with you, which is always subject to control by the organisation. Not carrying one or more items will result in you being awarded penalties, ranging from a few minutes to disqualification from the race. Particularly in races where your safety is at risk, as happened at the Marathon des Sables.

If you travel to the competition site a few days before the race, bring extra equipment in case of a sudden change in weather conditions and choose at the time what to bring with you.

If you are superstitious, bring your favourite lucky charms. Do they work?

BIB COLLECTION

Bring your rucksack with you to the bib collection, as very often an initial check of the obligatory equipment is carried out there.

Ask about expected weather and terrain conditions from locals, who will be able to give you some additional information about your plans. Check the place and time of departure. Do not forget to prepare any drop bags and leave them in the drop bag area.

Stick your bib number and your number on the drop bags and the arrival bag that you will hand in to the organisation. It may be useful to have a permanent marker and white stickers to make your drop bags more recognisable.

THE START

Do not arrive too early to avoid getting cold or hot, depending on the situation. If the race is not too long, you can do a short warm-up, otherwise save some energy and use the first few kilometres as a warm-up without being influenced by the pace of the others, which you will have time to recover as the race progresses.

Mentally break up the race into shorter and easier segments: the first kilometres, half the race, up to 90% distance, the final 10%.

THE FIRST KILOMETRES

Start slow: it is easy to go fast in the first kilometres, the difficult thing is to do it towards the end of the race.

Trail running is about regularity: the winner is whoever moves constantly at the correct pace according to the course gradient and the characteristics of the terrain.

In the first kilometres let your body adapt to the race conditions. Sometimes it takes a little time and patience to find your groove. Do not rely on catchphrases such as 'today my legs are sore', 'it's not my day' because you are ready. Think that today IS your day instead.

There is plenty of time to catch up with those who started off too fast.

Remind yourself that it is better to overtake than to be overtaken.

THINGS TO CHECK CONSTANTLY (3)

MUSCLES: always work in aerobic mode. Check that your breathing is always regular and never laboured; if you have a heart rate monitor, keep your HR below your threshold or your endurance frequency. Excessive muscular effort draws blood away from other organs, including the stomach.

STOMACH: it should always be kept active by drinking and eating every 40 minutes or so; if it starts having problems, slow down until it becomes efficient again. Gels should always be taken with plain water. Excess sugar or salt is one of the first causes of loss of efficiency of the gastro-intestinal system. In the first part of the race your stomach will be more efficient and more likely to assimilate solid food, in the second part more liquid food.

CLOTHING: don't be lazy, adapt your clothing to the weather conditions. If it is hot and you are sweating, you must undress as much as possible, wet your Endurance hat whenever possible. If it is cold, you must cover yourself. If it is raining, your jacket should be put on top of your rucksack so as not to get it all wet. The body uses a lot of energy (calories) to fight the heat and the cold, you need this energy to run so, even if you are tired, do not run with your head down sweating or being cold because, especially in long races, the price for these mistakes is usually paid before the end of the race.

Keeping focus on these things is a good way to give positive signals to your brain, which will relentlessly try to stop you as the hours go by.

THE FIRST HALF OF THE RACE

Don't think about kilometres or time passing, forget about the GPS. Enjoy the race, the landscape and the other competitors. Do not make the mistake of making calculations and projections that can affect your mood. It is always very difficult to make calculations and very easy to get them wrong. If you have followed our advice on training planning, you have certainly already run at least half of the total distance. You are prepared and have nothing to worry about.

THE SECOND HALF OF THE RACE

Most of your job is done; be optimistic - the glass is half full. The part between 60 and 90 per cent of the distance will be the hardest section, know this in advance and don't let it influence you, hang in there and, with patience, advance relentlessly. It is your brain that begins to do the calculations on the remaining energies.

Aiming to reach 90 per cent of the race distance will help you reduce the distance you have to cover.

Think about the post-race glow and that wonderful feeling of having done something special that you will experience after crossing the finish line (visualise it).

THE SIGNALS

Your brain, which is our most resource-hungry organ, will try sending you a long series of warning messages to try and make you stop. You must learn to decipher them and understand which ones to listen to and which ones to disregard.

Let's look at a few examples.

Gastric problems: the stomach for some of us (me) is the most delicate organ and the one that receives the brain's alarm signals in the worst way possible. The most common symptoms are nausea, diarrhoea, difficulty digesting solid food and intaking fluids. You are probably going too fast and your stomach is closing up or you have ingested too much of something, usually sugar, or you have drunk too much if the race is wet, or too little if the race is dry. Unfortunately, the solution is not quick; you have to slow your pace, trying to get the blood you’ve used in your legs to your stomach, and with infinite patience you must try to drink water in small doses. If necessary - I hate to say it - it is better to try to throw up and start from scratch. Problems with the digestive system are the biggest cause of withdrawal from Ultra Running and Ultra Trail races.

Sleep attacks: sometimes an irresistible urge to lie down and sleep on the side of the trail may assail you even if it is not the third night you have not slept during PTL. When you are using up a large part of the glycogen resources that you have stored in your muscles and liver, your brain starts to do the maths and to ensure that it can make use of these supplies, it tries to stop you with the desire to sleep. In these cases, with persistence, you must continue to send out the signal that you have no intention of stopping until you have crossed the finish line. Magically, after a while, your brain gets the message, the crisis passes and you can continue.

Various aches and pains: during a race it is normal for our muscles to ache, aren't we there to suffer after all? Among the thousands of aches and pains that assail us in an ultra trail race, we must, however, be able to tell the serious ones from those we can ignore. Muscle pains are part of the game and we must endure them. The training we subject ourselves to serves precisely to delay their onset and prepare us to endure them, especially on long descents.

Tendon pain, on the other hand, are to be treated seriously and it is important to assess whether or not to proceed in the race. Tendon inflammations are very painful and take a long time to heal. Sometimes it is better to stop, because the race will still be there the following year. We strongly advise against the use of both non-steroidal and steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Such drugs inhibit the production of prostaglandins, effectively covering up the pain that is the signal of inflammation. In the absence of pain, we seriously risk damaging our tendons.

Heat stroke: when our body temperature rises too much, all the alarm lights come on in the control room (our brain). Our head starts to spin and our legs stop working, our breathing becomes laboured. We have to try to get to a cool place, to drink water (possibly cool) to wet our clothes, especially our Endurance hat; if ice is available, it is very useful to put it under the hat as is the custom at the Western States 100 or as I continued to do at the Spartathlon while waiting for the temperature to drop.

Cold stroke: this usually strikes the stomach, forcing us to ‘go to the toilet’ several times. Besides covering ourselves with whatever garments we have, we must try to get as little cold as possible during the sessions. If it is raining, it is useful to open the thermal blanket and put it over the skin under the wet clothes. If possible, eat or drink something warm in small quantities. Sooner or later it passes and we can carry on.

THE LAST KILOMETRES

When there is less than 10 per cent to go, it is only a matter of time; from a physical standpoint you can be sure that you have what it takes to get to the end, you have to know this and mentally take it out of the total kilometre count.

If you have to take risks with the things you have to keep under control, you can do it in the last kilometres, when you are sure that you can do it and a strange euphoria takes hold of you, and a dumb smile will appear on your face without you realising it.

After all, we are only there struggling for that moment when we realise that we have made it!

After all, we are only there struggling for that moment when we realise that we have made it!

AFTER THE RACE

Enjoy the satisfaction of having made it, now, you can indulge in everything you dreamed of during the hardest hours of the race.

Good Job!

Filippo Canetta