What Could Be Wrong with Crews and Pacers?

What are pacers for?

There is a lot of debate about the role of pacers in ultrarunning. This seems truly unique to ultrarunning - in what other sport do friends get to join in the middle of competition and help? The argument seems to be largely limited to their role within the elite levels of the sport, but I’m not the arguments really differ.  But let’s start with the elites and go from there. If we’re talking about elite runners, what really is the point of a pacer?  I’m sure they would all agree that it is to help them succeed. And presumably that is right.  Do pacers help you run faster? Yes. Are there differences between pacers? Yes. So, does having a better pacer will help you run faster? Yes.  

If that is the case, why would we ever want this to be one of the factors that differentiates competitors in the sport?  In other words, what are the characteristics or qualities that we think should best explain who wins a race? I think in the end most of us would list things like fitness, technical skills, experience and something like grit. Who among us would argue that what we want to figure out is who has the best pacer? Why would we want this to be part of what decides who wins a race?  Who can find the best, fastest, loudest, most motivating buddy to run with them? They can’t really be what we want to decide ultra running races.

Maybe another characteristic that would help decide in the winner of a race is their ability to problem solve and care for themselves throughout the duration of the race. Anyone who has run 100+ mile race knows that one of the biggest challenges is navigating the course, being efficient in aid stations, handling the emotional challenge of such huge distances, dealing with gear changes, fueling, hydrating, etc.  Having someone continually prop them up emotionally, hand them things, and generally do a lot of the work that they would otherwise have to do on their own creates an obviously different experience. Again there is likely a spectrum of pacer who are better and worse at these things. So why would we want that to decide who wins or loses a race? I don’t think we do. At the very least, it should be balanced against the fact that pacer selection affects results and if we allow them, we are conceding that a competitor’s success is at least partly due to how well they select pacers. That seems inconsistent with what we think should predict success in ultrarunning.  So we should get rid of them

For the rest of us, why would we want races to include non-competitors that are like moving help for the runner?  They literally follow them around in order to help them navigate, help them fuel, help them deal with aid stations, and otherwise make the whole thing easier for them.  All while adding people to the course, increasing the traffic and footprint of the race. Why?  Why wouldn’t we want these races to be the size of the challenge they are designed to be when runners have to do all of those things for themselves?  Why isn’t self-reliance one of the expectations in ultrarunning?  Pacers remove this and make the prospect of running these distances something different than it could be.

I understand that it allows people to share time with their friends on the trails and maybe brings people into the community and maybe promotes some layer of safety.  But we can bring people into the sport without needing pacers.  And within the race, we as runners can work together to solve problems and keep each other safe.  Without pacers, runners link up in hard sections and overnight if needed.  But this sort of interaction and collaboration between runners within races is completely undermined by the presence of people who are not competing and are just there to help a single person.  Anyone who has run 100+ and 200+ mile races without pacers have had these experiences. This, I think, is the real promise of ultrarunning - the opportunity to experience something truly, surprisingly, gruelingly difficult with no one to turn to but yourself. Why change that prospect to include a pacer that just follows you along helping solve problems for you.

What are crews for?

I think the same argument holds for crews.  I love that so many people want to support runners and offering your time and energy to help someone realize a dream is an amazing gift and we should celebrate the motivation.  This won’t be at all popular, but crews represent an even bigger potentially negative impact on portions of trails and trail environments with the growing number of people, cars, traffic, trash, etc. And again, they are solving problems for runners that they can try to solve for themselves. So much conversation around how to move faster, set course records, shave time, etc. revolves around aid station efficiency.  Runners are practicing crew interactions.  Some have multiple different crews so that they can make sure to be able to get to the different stations on time. So clearly runners think that improving the crewing within a race will improve their performance and success.  The argument for me is the same as pacers - if selecting and recruiting people to help you with gear, fueling, motivation, etc. improves your chances of success, then the crew is part of why people win.  Should the composition, experience, quality, etc. of their crew be what we want to differentiate the success of runners? I don’t think so. Should a runner’s ability to do all of those things for themself throughout a race be a predictor of their success? Definitely.

For the rest of us, the exact same argument holds for crews as pacers.  Why have random non-competitors solving problems for crewed athletes, while those without crew solve them for themselves within the same event?  In 200+ mile races, this difference is enormous.  Anyone who has done races with and without crew (like me) knows how different it is.  Navigating an aid station on your own when exhausted versus having specific food from somewhere else brought to you and everything done for you by your crew.  And the difference between sleeping in a crew car versus a sleep station is huge.   There is no comparison. The impact of small amounts of deep sleep in a multi-day race is enormous and 60-90 minutes of sleep in a warm, quiet car by yourself is so much different than the same amount of time on a cot in a crowded, loud, cold sleep station. So we are again giving a benefit to runners with crews and removing the opportunity for runners to have to navigate these problems on their own. Why?

What is ultrarunning for?

Ultrarunning is getting bigger and more professional and the recipient of more attention and money than ever. So maybe I’m just being an old curmudgeon who is truly fortunate not to need to make money from races or even succeed in some way.  But what other sport allows us to select supporters that come into the middle of an event and solve problems for us?   

But I am also not trying to “level the playing field” so I could place higher. I don’t care about that.  I have run races with pacers/ crew and without.  And I am SO grateful for the gift they gave and the experiences we shared that I will always be grateful for. And the most successful races I have had were when I had crew and/or pacers supporting me. 

And the races I have run with crews and pacers were still very, very hard.  But not the same. And I think the ones without crew and pacers felt more pure.  And harder.  I had to get from the start to the finish, with aid station support from the race and my own drop bags. And that’s it. I came into aid stations ruined and had to figure out my food, hydration, drop bag, gear changes, etc on my own. Anyone who has stared into a drop bag for 5 minutes, unable to remember where something is or even what they were looking for knows what I mean.  And if I had to sleep, I had to sort myself out and figure out how to do it in a complicated, crowded environment. And if that didn’t work, I had to bivvy on the side of the trail.

If one of the features of ultrarunning that we want to preserve and prioritize is the ability to solve problems and conquer all of the aspects of getting from one point to another as fast as possible through really difficult terrain and environments, then pacers and crews are clearly in opposition to this.  I certainly wouldn’t begrudge non-elites who choose to include others in their experience and help them reach a hard goal.  But maybe we should get rid of them for elite runners. And maybe we can see more races that don’t have them.  And acknowledge and celebrate the fact that they are a different challenge than races that do.  I would seek those specifically and I bet I would come out the other side with more and better interactions with volunteers and other runners, and maybe a greater challenge.

Oh and I run all these mutli-day races with my younger brother so I am sort of full of shit since we are kind of pacing each other the whole way.