Worked 50K and 50-mile aid-station plans

How to read the examples

Both examples use Goal mode. Planned stops are subtracted from the target elapsed finish time before required moving pace is calculated. Each checkpoint arrival includes moving time plus stops completed at earlier stations. Departure also includes the stop at the current station.

These are arithmetic demonstrations, not recommended race goals. Terrain, elevation, conditions, and runner capability are deliberately outside the model.

Worked 50K plan

The fictional race starts at 6:30 AM. The goal is 7:00 elapsed, with four five-minute stops at cumulative distances of 8, 17, 26, and 39 kilometres.

Seven hours minus twenty stopped minutes leaves 6:40, or 400 minutes, for moving. Dividing 400 minutes by 50 kilometres produces an 8:00 per kilometre moving pace.

At Pine Gate, eight kilometres of moving takes 64 minutes, producing a 7:34 AM arrival. The five-minute stop moves departure to 7:39. Every later arrival includes that delay and the stops completed after it.

Worked 50-mile plan

The second fictional race starts at 6:00 AM with a 12:00 elapsed goal. Four stops total 40 minutes: two routine ten-minute stops and two major ten-minute stops. The equal numbers are convenient for this demonstration; a real plan should budget from the actual task list.

Twelve hours minus forty stopped minutes leaves 11:20, or 680 minutes, for moving. Dividing by 50 miles produces a required moving pace of 13:36 per mile.

The card reaches the exact target because Goal mode solved the moving pace after reserving all forty stopped minutes. If actual stops total one hour instead, the same 13:36 moving pace finishes twenty minutes later.

What the two plans make visible

Distance alone does not determine the stop budget. The 50K example reserves twenty minutes; the 50-mile example reserves forty. The longer plan therefore asks the runner to hold a faster moving pace than a calculation that ignores stops would show.

In either race, an early delay moves every later row. A ten-minute overrun at the first checkpoint does not disappear unless the runner later moves faster or spends less time stopped. The timing card makes that trade visible without pretending which response is safe or achievable.

Adapt the examples to a real race

1. Replace the fictional distance and stations with the current official course values.
2. Build stop budgets from the tasks at each station using the stop-time guide.
3. Enter the race's local start date and overall cutoff.
4. Compare departures with any intermediate cutoff that requires runners to leave by a stated time.
5. Print the result, mark the source date, and recheck it when final instructions arrive.

Open the calculator to build your version. For a plan that crosses midnight, continue with the worked 100-mile example.