What it means to run an ultra-trail with no aid stations, how much water and food you need, when to sleep and how to train for 200 km. A practical guide, written from the ground of LARRE Long Distance ®.
A self-supported ultra-trail is a race in which every runner carries everything they are going to need. No aid station every fifteen kilometres, no drop bag, no crew car waiting at the top of the climb. There are checkpoints, but they are control points where you get a stamp: they confirm you came through, they do not feed you.
The difference from a classic ultra is not only logistical. It changes what you decide. In a supported ultra the important decision is pace. Self-supported, the important decision is resource management: how much weight you carry, where you refill water, when you eat, when you sleep. Almost nobody drops out of a race like this for lack of legs; they drop out because they got the water, the food or the cold wrong.
| Aspect | Supported ultra | Self-supported |
|---|---|---|
| Aid stations | Every 10–20 km | None |
| Drop bag | Usual | Does not exist |
| Outside assistance | Allowed in marked zones | Forbidden |
| Pack weight | 1–3 kg | 3–6 kg |
| Critical decision | Pace | Resources |
Water weighs a kilo per litre and you cannot carry all of it. That is why planning is done not by kilometres but by legs between reliable water points: village fountains, bars, cemeteries, sports centres. You mark them on the map before the start, each with an alternative in case one is dry or closed at night.
As a working figure, on mid-mountain terrain you drink in the order of 400–500 ml per hour in mild weather and 600–800 ml per hour in heat. Between two points five hours apart, that is more than two litres. A water filter or purification tablets weigh almost nothing and turn any stream into an option; cattle troughs do not.
In autumn in the sierras of Álava the trap is the opposite of the one everyone expects: it is cool, you drink less than you think, and you arrive dehydrated without ever having felt hot.
Over long races most runners sustain between 200 and 300 kcal per hour, and rarely more. In an event that can last forty or fifty hours, that adds up to many thousands of calories — more than fit into a sensible pack. So the question is not "how much food do I carry" but "how much do I carry and where does the rest come from".
What works: alternating sweet and savoury before your stomach shuts down, mixing solid with liquid, keeping something warm or salty for the small hours, and having two or three options you know you can swallow even while nauseous. What does not work: trying a new gel, bar or flavour on race day.
Every race states in its rules whether you may buy from shops along the course or refill at public fountains, and that changes the food plan completely. It is the first thing to read. For LARRE, the essentials are summarised in the rules.
An event with a fifty-hour limit crosses two nights. For most runners, no sleep at all across forty-odd hours means reaching the second dawn with hallucinations, disorientation and poor decisions on terrain where decisions matter.
The three strategies people actually use: no sleep (only if you have tested it in training and know how your head responds), micro-naps of ten to twenty minutes at the first serious low, or a planned stop of one to two hours at a point chosen in advance. Whether it works comes down to having decided before the start, not at four in the morning in a ditch.
Beyond whatever each organiser requires, there is a core that is not up for debate when you are self-supported:
LARRE's mandatory kit list will be published alongside the final rules for the 1st Edition. When it is ready it will have its own page and will be announced on @larrelongdistance.
In self-supported races the course is not flagged: you follow an official GPS track. Navigation is therefore part of the event, and it is trained the way a climb is trained.
In practice: load the track on your watch and on your phone, with the area's maps downloaded for use without coverage; mark the checkpoints as waypoints; know what to do when the watch tells you you are off course (stop, go back to the last certain point, never improvise shortcuts at night); and never depend on a single battery for the one thing that tells you where you are.
At LARRE, dropping a single wrapper means immediate disqualification, and it is the one rule that admits no appeal. In practice it comes down to three habits: your own rubbish bag in a fixed pocket, always the same one; gel and bar tabs tied or pocketed the moment you open them, never "later"; and decanting what you can into reusable bags before the start, so you carry less packaging from the outset.
With a year ahead of you, preparation falls into three blocks. This is not a personalised training plan — that depends on your history and, if there is any health question, on a professional — but it is the structure shared by almost everyone who finishes.
Two sessions are non-negotiable: running at night, for hours, until losing clear sight of things feels normal; and stringing two long days together, to learn how the body responds when it starts out already tired. And two parts decide races while almost nobody trains them: the stomach and the feet.
The 16:00 start is not a stylistic detail: you go into the night early, with fresh legs and nearly the whole course ahead. Anyone who has trained at night is grateful right there. The full course is on the route page.
You can, but your chances of finishing drop a long way. What a 100 km or a 24-hour race gives you is not the distance: it is having spent a night running, having managed a serious low, and knowing what your stomach accepts at hour twenty. Without a previous long ultra, the sensible substitute is your own 15-to-24-hour outings on similar terrain.
Genuinely self-supported, between three and six kilos with water, depending on the weather and your sleep strategy. Under three usually means something important is missing; over six usually means you are carrying fear in the form of weight.
In a self-supported race you always tell the organisation you are out — never quietly: until they know, the control centre still has you out on the mountain. LARRE's exact procedure, with pick-up points and a phone number, will be part of the final rules and of the mandatory briefing the day before.
Honestly, no. It is a good second or third step. To start in the format, a 50-to-100 km unsupported race, or a two-day route of your own, makes more sense. What LARRE is, is a place where self-sufficiency is not a line on the poster: 214 km, zero waste, and a track with you, the mountain and your brevet.
The 1st Edition has 300 bibs, allocated in the order pre-registrations arrive, each including a short mandatory personal description. Registration opens in January 2027. If you want us to tell you on day one, leave your details on the pre-registration notice list.