The Race-Day Barrel: Tackling the Variables for Ultra Success

The case study “barrel” at Cruel Jewel 106 in May, with crew Maia and Andrew

By Benjamin Feinson

In ultramarathon racing, like any other running event, greater fitness will give you a better chance at success on race day. However, as you increase in distance, the variables that lead to success become an increasingly complicated equation, and fitness simply isn’t enough to guarantee your best day out. By improving many of these different variables just a bit, we can dramatically increase our odds of success. This strategy for improving performance by attacking as many different variables as possible has been called “the aggregation of marginal gains,” but I prefer a more visually appealing concept, the “race-day barrel.”

But before we design our barrel, let’s talk about these variables. As race distances increase, so do the odds that any one small factor can spiral into a DNF (did not finish). For instance, the hot spot on the foot might be tolerated for a half-marathon, but over fifty miles, the minor discomfort may imbalance your gait and lead to a musculoskeletal injury. Is it a bit too warm out? Over the course of a long day of running, slight heat stress can lead to digestive failure and tank your nutrition strategy.

When examining these elements, I prefer to take the kinder, and more exciting perspective on this phenomenon - the longer your race is, the more variables you get to practice to improve your odds of success. This is one of the reasons I love long-distance trail running so dearly! Longer events afford you a wider range of elements to learn about and practice, beyond just running fitness. By practicing your blister care, heat tolerance, mental preparedness, nutrition strategy and more, you can be more resilient on race day. This brings us to the race-day barrel: a barrel with many slats of differing height.

I’ve actually stolen this barrel concept from crop and plant science - the height of water filling the barrel is the fertility of a crop, and is limited by a number of plant nutrients, the slats. If any one nutrient (slat) is low, it limits the overall potential to fill the barrel. Similarly, the barrel’s water level can represent your performance on race day, and the slats represent those diverse ultra variables. By lengthening a few of the “slats” you have practiced the least, you can dramatically increase your chance of success!

Let’s study this individual’s “barrel” for a moment. They are preparing for a 100-mile trail race in Georgia in spring. It looks like they do well with pacing - they exert themselves efficiently, but not so hard as to lead to muscular breakdown, bonks or cramps. They hike the uphills and run the flats and downhills. They also prepared for the conditions and weather of their event - they knew heat and humidity were coming and practiced in those elements. Their mental game is strong, and they can tolerate adversity with a positive attitude. Their nutrition and hydration are practiced, and they know what they will want to eat, and how to get enough calories and ounces of fluid per hour of the right stuff, and when.

So what needs to improve the most? This individual has dealt with chafing problems before, and they know this event will have high potential. They need to practice with different types of underwear and lubricants (gross, but fundamental), and maybe even practice quick changes and wiping down with a washcloth. They also need to think about blister care. In such a long technical race, blisters could be a race ender, even with steam left in the tank. They’ll need to practice different taping strategies, maybe changes of sock and shoe, and communicate this plan to their race crew. They could also focus on aid station turnover - by arriving with a clear plan and communicating it with the crew, they can restock their pack, change the clothes they need to change, get the food and liquid in their body they need quickly, and get out of there without wasting any time.

As you practice longer and longer events, you can draw your own barrel and determine which factors are the most relevant to you. We’ve left many out of this tiny case study, and the possibilities are endless. Technicality of the trail (practice some daily ankle exercises), resilience to heat stress (try sauna training), or even practicing sleep deprivation once or twice… will you be running a hundo through the night into the sunrise?

What does your race-day barrel look like? Have fun practicing, and good luck at your next ultra!