Runners, your crew is your lifeboat if there are holes, you land on the wrong end of the metaphor. As we approach the annual lineup of marquee 100s, here’s how to help your runner achieve the goal of a lifetime. As I learned that day, crews need a playbook, too.

There’s a playbook for running 100s: log miles, study the course, sit awkwardly in saunas with strangers. If only my shirt had read “first time crew,” my look would’ve been complete. I look down at my drawstring bag, a jumbled vortex of supplies, and then at the cooler whose two measly ice packs are helplessly melting. Within sixty seconds, the runner is out of sight. As Crewmate B shoves ice into the runner’s hat, she takes advantage of the proximity to his ear and utters encouragement. They pounce with NASCAR-worthy precision: Crewmate A reports on standings while performing a four-second bottle change. Most people ogle at the svelte specimens finessing their way down the trail, but I’m transfixed elsewhere…their crews. With 20 pounds of gear dangling from various limbs, I wiggle into the crowded hillside just in time to hear a cowbell: the leaders are here. and already 85 degrees at Duncan Canyon, the first aid station where I’ll get to see my husband on his maiden quest to finish the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run.

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