TL;DR
Aid stations are where ultramarathons are won or lost, and moving through them efficiently is a learnable skill separate from fitness. Know what each station offers before race day, cap your stops at 3–7 minutes past the early kilometres, fuel to a planned carb target regardless of what looks appealing, and treat crew members as your best source of information about whether something is genuinely wrong.
At km 62 of a 100k, your brain will tell you that the cheese sandwich at the next station is the best decision you've made all day. It probably isn't. It's just that your blood sugar is in the basement and the volunteer table looks like a Michelin restaurant. Aid stations are where races are won, lost, or at least where DNFs quietly begin. Knowing how to move through one without wasting time or making bad calls is a skill separate from fitness, and most runners never train it.
Table of Contents
- Know Your Station Layout Before You Arrive
- Fuel and Hydration Strategy at the Station
- Managing Time at the Station
- Handling Body Issues at the Station
- Station Crew Interaction and Etiquette
- Aid Station Behaviour by Race Stage
- FAQ
Know Your Station Layout Before You Arrive
Pull up the course map at least three weeks out and mark every aid station with what it actually offers, not what you assume it offers. Some races post detailed menus, others just say "aid station" and leave you guessing. If you depend on a specific product, cola for the last 20k, broth at altitude, real coffee at 4am, find out which stations carry it and which don't. Don't assume every station is the same; a 100-mile race might have eight fully staffed stations with hot food and twelve unmanned water drops that expect you to be self-sufficient for nutrition.
That distinction matters for pack planning. If you're relying on a water-only point between two staffed stations, you carry your own calories through that stretch or you bog down. Also check which stations have chairs, a tent, or actual shelter from wind and rain. Around km 80, five minutes sitting under a roof out of the wind can reset you in a way that standing at an open table never will. Finally, look at what's around the station elevation-wise. A station sitting at the top of a 600-metre climb behaves differently than one on a flat valley floor; you arrive at the former overheated and depleted, and at the latter often still moving well and tempted to blow past it.
Fuel and Hydration Strategy at the Station
Walk in with a number in your head, say 60 to 90 grams of carbs per hour, and stick to it whether the table has fresh watermelon or plain pretzels. Novelty food is the enemy of a working plan. Eat before you're hungry, because by the time hunger actually shows up in an ultra, you're already several hundred calories behind and climbing out of that hole costs more energy than staying ahead of it ever would. The same logic applies in reverse to thirst: drink to it, not by the clock. Runners who force down a full bottle at every station because "it's been an hour" are the ones who show up at the medical tent with hyponatremia symptoms, not the ones who skipped a sip.
The most reliable approach mixes what you know with what's there. Carry one or two items your gut has already tested over long training runs, a specific gel brand, a bag of salted nuts, and use the aid station to top up around that base rather than replace it entirely. If your stomach has handled a certain electrolyte mix through four 50k+ long runs, don't switch to whatever powder the race happens to stock on race day. Save experiments for training, not for hour nine of a race you paid to finish.
Managing Time at the Station
After the first 30km, cap most stops at 3 to 7 minutes. It sounds harsh when your legs are begging to stay longer, but every extra minute standing still lets your core temperature drop and your muscles stiffen, and you pay that back in the next kilometre with legs that feel like they belong to someone else. The early stations, inside the first 15km, are for testing, not socialising. Check how your stomach handles the course nutrition, see if your shoes need a lace adjustment, confirm your hydration bladder isn't leaking. Save the conversation for the finish line, where nobody's timing you.
Past km 40, if you genuinely need to reset, two minutes in a chair is fine. A chair is your friend at that point in the race, but the trick is standing back up before your legs decide sitting is the new normal. Stiffness sets in fast once you stop moving, and runners who sit for ten minutes at km 70 sometimes need another ten just to get their gait back. Build a mental checklist and run it the same way every time: refill bottles, grab food, check feet if something feels off, leave. Wandering along the table trying to decide between three types of gel wastes more time than the eating itself.
Handling Body Issues at the Station
Blisters and chafe are non-negotiable stops. Ask the crew for a spare pair of socks and some lubricant, and change socks even when your current ones look fine and it feels wasteful to swap them. Your feet at km 90 will remember whether you did this at km 45. Stomach trouble gets a different fix: skip solid food for one station and switch to an electrolyte drink only. Giving your gut a 20-minute break without fully stopping your race often settles things faster than pushing more food into a system that's already rebelling.
Cramping legs respond better to gentle movement than to aggressive static stretching, which can sometimes trigger a worse cramp at rest. Eat something with sodium, stretch lightly, then walk the first kilometre back out before trying to run again. Dizziness or nausea deserve more caution: sit down, get some simple carbs and salt into you, and give it five full minutes before deciding anything. If you don't feel measurably better in that window, talk to the crew about whether continuing makes sense. This is the point where self-diagnosis stops being useful. Aid station volunteers and medical staff have seen this exact scenario play out hundreds of times and can usually tell the difference between "normal ultra misery" and something that needs a DNF. Anything that feels genuinely off, chest tightness, confusion, a headache that came out of nowhere, tell a crew member immediately rather than trying to run through it. That's their job, and they're better at it than you are at hour twelve of a race.
Station Crew Interaction and Etiquette
The people handing you cola at 3am have been standing on that same patch of gravel since before the race started, sometimes since before it was light out. Say thank you, and be specific about what you need rather than vague. "Coke, no ice, and can someone check my left blister" gets you help faster than standing there looking dazed and hoping someone notices. If you've got a drop bag, give them your bib number or name straight away instead of making them dig through fifty identical bags while you stand there losing body heat.
Ask questions if something feels wrong. These volunteers have watched hundreds of runners come through in exactly your state, and they can often spot a real problem, dangerously low sodium, early hypothermia, actual injury versus normal fatigue, faster than you can self-assess from inside your own exhaustion. And leave the table the way you found it. Grab your own cup off the ground if you dropped it, don't leave gel wrappers on the table for someone else to clean up. It takes four seconds and the volunteers notice who does it.
Pre-Race Station Scouting
If the race is local, run the actual course in training and stop at where the aid stations will be. You'll know exactly where the water table sits, whether there's a tent for shelter, and how far the parking is if you're using it as a training loop. Ask people in your running club who've done the race before; local intel about which station always runs out of a certain flavour or which one has the best broth is worth more than anything on a generic forum thread. Some races publish their aid station food list two weeks out. Read it. If you know station 4 has broth and station 7 doesn't, you plan your salt intake differently between them instead of hoping.
What to Carry Into and Out of Stations
Bring one small ziplock bag for your own wrappers and litter, and use it even when volunteers are actively cleaning up around you. It's a small habit that keeps the sport's aid stations functioning, and it takes no real effort. Rather than adding layers at a station, bring one lightweight item you can swap, a cap, a light jacket, and hand off the one you're not wearing. Stations aren't luggage storage, and asking a volunteer to hold your extra fleece for the next six hours isn't fair to them. If you've got a drop bag, know what's in it before you arrive. Standing there trying to remember whether you packed spare socks in the drop bag or the start-line bag costs minutes you don't get back.
Aid Station Behaviour by Race Stage
| Race Stage | Typical Distance Range | Recommended Time at Station | Food Focus | Key Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early | 0–15km | 1–2 minutes | Water, light snacks | Test gut and gear, don't linger |
| Mid-early | 15–40km | 2–4 minutes | Solid food, electrolytes | Establish fuelling rhythm |
| Mid-race | 40–65km | 3–5 minutes | Broth, salty food, cola | Refuel deliberately, address early problems |
| Late | 65–90km | 5–7 minutes | Simple carbs, warm food, coffee | Manage stomach and cramping, mental reset |
| Final | 90km+ | 3–5 minutes | Whatever works, often just liquids | Push through or flag real problems to crew |
Between one race and the next, that table shifts a lot depending on terrain and weather, but the pattern holds: early stations are about information, mid-race stations are about output, and late stations are about damage control.
Between aid stations, most runners aren't thinking about what they'll wear once they cross the finish line, but the drive home in a car with wet, cold cotton clinging to you is its own kind of suffering. That's a separate problem from anything happening at km 60, and not one an aid station can fix.
FAQ
How long should I spend at an aid station during an ultramarathon?
In the first 30km, aim for 1 to 2 minutes since you're mostly checking gear and gut tolerance, not refuelling seriously. From 40km onward, 3 to 7 minutes is realistic for refilling bottles, eating, and addressing minor issues. The one add-on worth knowing: if a station has shelter and the weather is bad, add two minutes to warm up rather than push through wet and cold, since hypothermia risk climbs faster than most runners expect once you're soaked and moving slowly.
What should I eat at an aid station if my stomach is upset?
Skip solids for one station and switch to an electrolyte drink, giving your gut a short reset without fully stopping. If a station has broth, that's often the gentlest option since it's mostly salt and warm liquid with almost no fibre or fat to digest. Avoid anything creamy or high-fat at that point, it sits heavy and tends to make nausea worse rather than better.
How much should I drink at each aid station?
Drink to thirst rather than a fixed volume or schedule. Forcing down a full bottle every time because an hour has passed is a common way runners end up with hyponatremia and feeling worse, not better. On hot days your thirst signal is more reliable than most people assume; the mistake is usually overriding it because a table full of drinks is right in front of you.
What do I do if I feel dizzy or nauseous at an aid station?
Sit down, eat something with simple carbs and salt, and give it five minutes before deciding anything. If you don't feel clearly better in that window, tell a crew member and let them help you judge whether continuing is sensible. This isn't the moment to push through on willpower alone; dizziness and nausea can have several different causes and volunteers who've seen it hundreds of times can flag the ones that matter faster than you can from inside the exhaustion.
Should I bring my own food or rely on what the aid station provides?
Bring one or two items your stomach has already handled through long training runs, then top up with whatever the station offers. Relying entirely on station food means you're experimenting on race day with products you've never tested. Relying entirely on your own supply means carrying more weight than necessary and missing out on things like warm broth that your pack can't replicate. Research from sports nutrition guidelines emphasizes testing everything in training before using it in competition.
This article was drafted with the help of AI and reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication.