Drop Bag Planner

How to actually use this list

A drop bag is a one-shot care package from your past self to your future self. The version of you that packed it the night before is fresh, optimistic, and a little overconfident. The version of you that opens it at mile sixty is gassed, cold, and probably wrong about what you need. This planner errs toward the latter person.

Pack each bag in a labeled gallon ziploc. Label it with your bib, your name, and the aid-station name. Most race directors require this; even if they don't, it makes the volunteers' lives easier and keeps your bag from disappearing into the lost-and-found pile at the finish.

The non-negotiables — every bag

• Calories. Always more than you think. We default to 1.4× the calories you expect to burn between this bag and the next.
• Salt. Two extra salt tabs minimum. You'll forget to take them, then need them.
• A spare pair of socks. Two if night and any creek crossings.
• Body Glide / chamois cream. A travel-size tube. Mile 70 is when you'll need it.
• Vaseline / Squirrel's Nut Butter. For wherever Body Glide isn't enough.

What people forget

• A second headlamp battery (most lamps die at the worst time)
• Cash — for an emergency hotel or Uber
• A ziploc of extra meds (Imodium, ibuprofen, Tylenol)
• A clean buff — sweat-soaked buffs are useless
• A note from someone you love. Mile 80 is when it matters.

Final thought

Drop bags are about options. You don't have to use any of it. But when the temperature drops thirty degrees with the sun, or your stomach turns at the third gel of the night, the fact that you packed a wool layer and a baked potato is the difference between finishing and dropping. Pack the bag for the worst version of the day. You'll usually finish without using half of it. That's fine.