Crews role is to serve their athlete to allow them succeed finish or give their best race performance. It’s a great responsibility and position of trust. An ultra runner has a desire to find their limit. Your task is to help them approach but not exceed that limit. An agreement to crew must contain expectations of both the runner and the crew. If you’re new new to crewing you might be surprised to learn that their runner will want to continue even while hurting. Your athlete may have blisters, chaffing, nettle burns ticks and gorse rash not to mention scrapes and bruises from falls. This is all ok, they can run hurting. What is not ok is for your athlete to run injured or their health is in danger.  You, as their crew, have a responsibility to safeguard your athlete fullstop.   Crewing comes down to serving four needs, food and water, a well maintained body and morale. If the first three are properly addressed then a positive morale is possible. Your athlete can become so mentally and physically taxed that their decision making ability will be compromised. If a crew witnesses a progressive deterioration of their runner, despite interventions, then that signals the end of your runners race. Food/Water Crew will provide food, drink and encouragement to their runner. Athletes carring food and drink should be refreshed at every designated aid station so crew can be aware of what was eaten and drunk between stations. Send your runner off with enough food and drink to meet their requirements between fuel stations. A Well Maintained Body Prevention is the goal here. The cleaner, drier, more lubricated, bug-sprayed and sun-screened the better.   Start from the bottom up. Your runner’s feet will make or break them. Fresh socks, shoes and a wipe down of the feet can prevent debilitating blisters. Get in front of problems by performing foot maintenance at every Crew Stop, this can happen as they are sitting eating as time is of the essence. (have an athlete chair) Clean and dress wounds Change out all the kit that your runner had planned on changing. Get the wet and dirty gear off, your runner wiped down, towel dried and into the fresh kit as soon as possible. Morale Get your runner up and moving out of aid stations as soon as possible. Lingering can make legs very heavy and the mind weak.   Rules Please abide by the rules of the race and the directions of the marshals. The only enforcement tool available to us is a runner disqualification and no one associated with the race wants to be forced to use this, let’s work together to achieve this.  Check your athletes mandatory kit, phone charge. Please keep your crew phone charged. If you witness a breach of rules please communicate to the Bluestack Way Ultra Staff directly by the POC phone numbers provided. The best results come from a team effort, do not under estimate your role in your athletes success or failure.  All the very best crew.