Friday, October 9, 2026, 1:00 PM start · Rim Nordic Ski Area → The Village, Big Bear Lake, California. Target 33 hours (finish ≈ 9:56 PM Saturday) against a hard 36-hour cutoff. Built for a Salomon ADV Skin 12, a reflux-sensitive gut, and a caffeine tolerance reset to zero.
Distances, drop-bag / crew / shuttle status and cutoffs are from the race's official 2026 100M Aid Station Chart. Target splits are my 33-hour model. Elevation is from the 2025 official chart — Section 11 flags the two segments that were rerouted.
| Aid station | Mi | Leg | Gain | Elapsed | Target | Cutoff | Cush | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rim Nordic (START) Start line start line | 0.0 | — | — | 0h00 | Fri 1:00 PM | — | — | BC |
| K1 Crab Flats leg 8.4 mi · +1,182 / −1,872 ft | 8.4 | 8.4 | +1,182 | 2h08 | Fri 3:08 PM | — | — | — |
| K2 Camp Whittle leg 11.0 mi · +2,170 / −1,074 ft | 19.4 | 11.0 | +2,170 | 5h20 | Fri 6:20 PM | Fri 7:15 PM | +0.9h | B |
| K3 Van Dusen leg 7.3 mi · +1,000 / −880 ft | 26.7 | 7.3 | +1,000 | 7h27 | Fri 8:27 PM | — | — | — |
| K4 Doble Camp 1 Shuttle from Bear Mountain Lot leg 6.8 mi · +700 / −1,104 ft | 33.5 | 6.8 | +700 | 9h20 | Fri 10:20 PM | Fri 11:30 PM | +1.2h | BCBUS |
| K5 Burns Canyon 1 leg 6.2 mi · +627 / −722 ft | 39.7 | 6.2 | +627 | 11h13 | Sat 12:13 AM | — | — | — |
| K6 Smarts Ranch leg 7.8 mi · +618 / −1,448 ft | 47.5 | 7.8 | +618 | 13h24 | Sat 2:24 AM | — | — | — |
| K7 Cactus Flats Park east side of Smarts Ranch Rd only leg 3.9 mi · +300 / −215 ft | 51.4 | 3.9 | +300 | 14h34 | Sat 3:34 AM | Sat 5:30 AM | +1.9h | C |
| K8 Doble Camp 2 Shuttle from Snow Summit Lot leg 4.0 mi · +1,361 / −521 ft | 55.4 | 4.0 | +1,361 | 16h19 | Sat 5:19 AM | Sat 7:30 AM | +2.2h | BCBUS |
| K9 Burns Canyon 2 leg 6.0 mi · +627 / −722 ft | 61.4 | 6.0 | +627 | 18h25 | Sat 7:25 AM | — | — | — |
| K10 Sugarloaf 1 Shuttle from Snow Summit Lot leg 7.4 mi · +1,301 / −1,039 ft | 68.8 | 7.4 | +1,301 | 20h56 | Sat 9:56 AM | Sat 1:00 PM | +3.1h | BCBUS |
| K11 Balky Horse leg 9.0 mi · +3,321 / −1,661 ft | 77.8 | 9.0 | +3,321 | 24h59 | Sat 1:59 PM | — | — | — |
| K12 Sugarloaf 2 Shuttle from Bear Mountain Lot leg 5.3 mi · +15 / −1,675 ft | 83.1 | 5.3 | +15 | 26h30 | Sat 3:30 PM | Sat 7:00 PM | +3.5h | BCBUS |
| K13 Bear Mountain leg 6.0 mi · +859 / −758 ft | 89.1 | 6.0 | +859 | 28h46 | Sat 5:46 PM | Sat 9:00 PM | +3.2h | C |
| K14 Snow Summit AS is at the PEAK. Crew at base only. Lift 7am-6pm, paid ticket leg 6.3 mi · +1,769 / −780 ft | 95.4 | 6.3 | +1,769 | 31h27 | Sat 8:27 PM | Sat 11:30 PM | +3.0h | baseLIFT |
| FINISH The Village leg 4.6 mi · +250 / −1,570 ft | 100.0 | 4.6 | +250 | 32h56 | Sat 9:56 PM | Sun 1:00 AM | +3.1h | BC |
Your tightest moment is Camp Whittle at mile 19.4 — roughly 55 minutes of slack in a 33-hour plan, because you start at 1:00 PM in the day's heat and climb 3,350 ft in the first 19 miles. Everything after Cactus Flats has 2–3.5 hours of cushion. Don't bank time in the first 20 miles by running hard — bank it by not stopping. Your first three aid stations should be under four minutes each.
Zero parking at Doble Camp or Sugarloaf. The 2025 guide put all Doble shuttles at Snow Summit; the 2026 chart says Bear Mountain for the first. Confirm both lots in the 2026 Runner Guide when it publishes.
The aid station is at the peak. Crew can only get there by chairlift, 7:00 AM–6:00 PM, paid lift ticket. On a 33-hour plan you arrive around 8:27 PM Saturday, nearly 2½ hours after the lift stops. Treat Snow Summit as runner-only and load everything for the final 10.9 miles at Bear Mountain (mile 89.1).
The race explicitly warns 100M crews not to attempt both. Send your crew to Cactus Flats.
Pacers may join only at Doble Camp 2 (55.4), Sugarloaf 1 (68.8), Sugarloaf 2 (83.1) and Bear Mountain (89.1). Not at Doble Camp 1, not at the base of Snow Summit. One at a time, on foot, own bib, own signed waiver (Expo, Doble Camp 2, Sugarloaf or Bear Mountain).
Best pickup is Doble Camp 2, mile 55.4, ≈5:19 AM — that gives you company for the Sugarloaf climb, 9 miles and 3,321 ft at mile 69, the crux of the race. Frank lives in Big Bear and is the obvious source of local names. You're seven weeks out; lock this in the next two.
Warn them: a pacer who drops at a non-crew station cannot be picked up. They wait for the station to close and beg a ride, or walk out.
Race rule, verbatim: "Only ONE drop bag will be permitted per runner per aid station. Runners DO NOT get two or three drop bags for aid stations that are hit multiple times." Label each with name, bib number and aid station. Nothing valuable inside.
Course bags: Basecamp (Expo), Thursday 2–6 PM or Friday 9–10 AM. All 100M bags must be in by Friday 10:00 AM — three hours before your start, so pack Wednesday night, not Friday morning.
Start/finish bag: you carry it to the start yourself and leave it in the designated area.
Retrieval: you or a crew member with your bib, within 2 hours of the 36-hour cutoff. Unclaimed bags go to the Expo Sunday until noon, then to charity.
Confirm with the race whether this is transported to the finish or stays at the start — the 2025 guide is ambiguous. If it stays, hand it to your crew instead.
Your night-kit bag, and perfectly placed — you arrive within a minute of sunset. Eight minutes here is the one early stop worth taking.
Pack it as two labelled gallon zip-locks — MILE 33 on top, MILE 55 — SHOES underneath. At 10 PM in the cold you will not sort through a duffel.
MILE 33 layer — 12 minutes:
MILE 55 layer — shoe change, 20 minutes:
Same two-layer trick: MILE 69 — BIG CLIMB and MILE 83 — LAST STOP.
MILE 69 layer — 15 minutes. Nine miles and +3,321 ft over a 9,952 ft summit, full sun, midday. The most important bag moment of the race.
MILE 83 layer — 15 minutes, 16.9 miles to go, two climbs left:
Available at all stations:
Warm broth & hot foodPB&J sandwichesSalty snacksAssorted fruitNAAK drink mixNAAK gelsSweetsSoda — skip it
First aid & blister careBug spraySunscreenAnti-chafe lube
Honest caveat: the guide lists these as general offerings and publishes no per-station breakdown, so I can't tell you which of the 15 has hot broth at 3 AM versus a folding table and two water jugs. The remote ones — Crab Flats, Van Dusen, Burns Canyon, Balky Horse — are historically minimal. Plan to be self-sufficient between drop bags and treat everything on course as a bonus. There's no cup-free policy; you carry your own collapsible cup and they will not hand you one.
Correction to a common assumption: UTMB doesn't work on a "you must have X leaving aid station Y" model. Every item below is on you for all 100 miles. Checks happen "at random and/or scheduled times before and during the event," and missing gear is a disqualification. Your rain shell, both headlamps, blanket and 800-calorie reserve live in the vest the entire race.
Cold Weather Kit, realistic for an October night at 6,800–9,900 ft:
Hot Weather Kit: sunglasses · sunscreen SPF 50 minimum · 2 litres water capacity — your 3.5 L setup already clears this.
Buy the over-pants and waterproof gloves now. They're cheap, nobody owns them, and if the Cold Weather Kit is called at the briefing there's no time to shop.
Recommended, not required: third headlamp, gloves, ID, spare warm clothing, trekking poles, GPS watch.
If you use poles you must carry them the entire race. You can't start without them and pick them up later, and you can't ship them forward in a drop bag. With 16,000 ft of gain — including +3,321 ft in one leg at mile 69 and +1,769 ft at mile 89 — poles are worth real time to a 33-hour finisher. All-or-nothing, decided before 1:00 PM Friday.
Stock 2 × 500 ml is exactly 1.00 L, the bare legal minimum with zero margin, and it fails on 6 of 15 legs. Your 1.5 L Camelbak plus two spare 500 ml flasks gets you to 3.5 L, covering the worst leg with headroom and clearing the 2 L Hot Weather Kit requirement. Put the bladder in the vest for every long run between now and October so carrying it empty becomes invisible, and do at least one run with it loaded to 1.5 L — it changes how the whole vest sits.
Vaseline — a 1 oz screw-top tin in a front pocket, not a tube. Tubes split and squirt; tins survive. A full tub in the Doble bag and the Sugarloaf bag. Reapply at every drop bag whether or not you feel it — chafing is much easier to prevent than to fix at mile 70.
Tylenol — 4 × 500 mg in the front vial, refills in the Doble and Sugarloaf bags. It's the right choice for you: no ibuprofen, Advil, Aleve or any NSAID. NSAIDs irritate the stomach lining (bad for reflux) and in a 33-hour race raise the risk of kidney injury and hyponatremia.
Standard OTC labelling caps acetaminophen at 3,000 mg in 24 hours. Don't exceed it, and given the duration and the dehydration risk, run it past your doctor before race day rather than improvising at mile 70.
Loaded with mandatory kit, 1 L of water and a leg's food: ≈6–7 lb. With the full 3.0 L leaving Sugarloaf 1: ≈10–11 lb. That's the heaviest you'll ever carry and it happens at mile 69, on the biggest climb of the day. Do one training run at full race weight before October.
This is the table the printed card is built from. Every row is what goes on your back as you leave that station. Water is the modelled need plus 15%, rounded up to a real container combination. Food is your own gels and waffles; the rest of each leg's calories come off the aid-station table.
| Leaving… | Mi | Time | Fill | Gel | Waf | Caps | Caff | Restock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rim Nordic (START) 2 front flasks + bladder half full | 8.4 | 2h08 | 1.5 L | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | BAG CREW |
| K1 Crab Flats 2 front flasks + bladder FULL | 11.0 | 3h09 | 2.5 L | 3 | 2 | 3 | — | on-course |
| K2 Camp Whittle 2 front flasks | 7.3 | 1h59 | 1.0 L | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | BAG |
| K3 Van Dusen 2 front flasks | 6.8 | 1h48 | 1.0 L | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | on-course |
| K4 Doble Camp 1 2 front flasks | 6.2 | 1h40 | 1.0 L | 1 | 1 | — | — | BAG CREW |
| K5 Burns Canyon 1 2 front flasks | 7.8 | 2h06 | 1.0 L | 1 | 1 | 2 | 50 mg | on-course |
| K6 Smarts Ranch 2 front flasks | 3.9 | 1h03 | 1.0 L | 1 | 1 | — | — | on-course |
| K7 Cactus Flats 2 front flasks | 4.0 | 1h31 | 1.0 L | 1 | 1 | — | 100 mg | CREW |
| K8 Doble Camp 2 2 front flasks | 6.0 | 1h45 | 1.0 L | 1 | 1 | 1 | 75 mg | BAG CREW |
| K9 Burns Canyon 2 2 front flasks + bladder half full | 7.4 | 2h26 | 1.5 L | 2 | 1 | 2 | — | on-course |
| K10 Sugarloaf 1 2 front + bladder FULL + 1 spare flask | 9.0 | 3h47 | 3.0 L | 3 | 2 | 4 | 100 mg | BAG CREW |
| K11 Balky Horse 2 front flasks | 5.3 | 1h25 | 1.0 L | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | on-course |
| K12 Sugarloaf 2 2 front flasks + bladder half full | 6.0 | 2h00 | 1.5 L | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50 mg | BAG CREW |
| K13 Bear Mountain 2 front flasks + bladder half full | 6.3 | 2h32 | 1.5 L | 2 | 1 | — | 100 mg | CREW |
| K14 Snow Summit 2 front flasks | 4.6 | 1h24 | 1.0 L | 1 | 1 | — | — | base only |
A gel is 100 kcal, 22 g carb, ~55 mg sodium and almost no fat. A Honey Stinger waffle is 150 kcal, 19 g carb, 55 mg sodium and 7 g of fat. That fat is why waffles sit well and taste good at mile 70 — and also why they're the one item in your kit that can aggravate reflux. So the plan uses gels as the engine and waffles as the morale: roughly 55% of your own calories from gels, 45% from waffles, and never two waffles back-to-back on a climb.
Own food gives about 26 g of carb per hour. Half-strength drink mix adds roughly 15 g/hr and aid-station food another 10, landing near 50 g of carb per hour. That's deliberately below the 60–90 g/hr a racer would target — at hiking pace over 33 hours, with your gut, a working stomach is worth more than a perfect carb number. Buy 30 gels and 24 waffles — you'll drop some, and a few flavours will turn on you.
Two constraints pull against each other here. Too much concentrated electrolyte upsets your stomach, so the instinct is to cut salt — but you'll drink about 14 litres over 33 hours, and under-salting while over-drinking causes hyponatremia, which is far more dangerous than heartburn. The fix isn't less sodium. It's the same sodium, delivered gently.
Do not let the sodium target fall below roughly 300 mg per hour while you're drinking 400+ ml/hr. The plan targets ~500 mg/hr, mostly from mix, broth and food, with capsules as the remainder — that's the right shape.
Warning signs, and they're sneaky because they look like normal ultra misery: puffy fingers or a tight ring, a headache that won't quit, nausea combined with frequent clear urination, sloshing in the stomach, confusion or unusual clumsiness. If two or more show up: stop drinking plain water, eat salt and salty food, and tell an aid station medic. Drinking more water makes it worse, not better.
You have seven weeks. Do two long runs at race fuelling — one of them 25+ miles with at least two hours in the dark — running the exact plan: half-strength mix, gels and waffles in the stated ratio, 250 mg caps with food only. If reflux still flares, the next lever is a conversation with your doctor about a pre-race acid blocker; that's a common approach for endurance athletes but it's a prescription decision, not one to make from a race plan. Book it now rather than in October.
None of this is medical advice. You have a recurring condition and you're about to spend 33 hours at altitude — one appointment before October is worth more than any table on this page.
You've reset your tolerance to zero, which is the single highest-leverage thing you can do for the back half of a 100-miler. It also means you need much less than you think — 50 mg will land like 150 used to. The plan below is 475 mg across 33 hours, all of it saved for when it actually buys you something.
| When | Where | Mile | Dose | Why here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 1:00 PM – Sat 12:13 AM | Start through Doble Camp 1 | 0 – 39.7 | 0 mg | The first eleven hours run on daylight and adrenaline. Every milligram spent before midnight is one you don't have at 3 AM. |
| Sat ≈12:13 AM | K5 Burns Canyon 1 | 39.7 | 50 mg | First dose, deliberately small. With a reset tolerance this lands like 150 mg used to — and it tells you how your stomach handles it before you commit to a bigger dose in the dark. |
| Sat ≈3:34 AM | K7 Cactus Flats | 51.4 | 100 mg | The circadian trough — coldest, lowest, darkest point of the race. Crew is here with hot food, so you can take it the right way: with calories, not on an empty stomach. |
| Sat ≈5:19 AM | K8 Doble Camp 2 | 55.4 | 75 mg | Bridges you to dawn through the shoe change and full clothing swap. Light returns at 6:24 AM. |
| Sat 6 AM – 10 AM | Burns Canyon 2 → Sugarloaf 1 | 55.4 – 68.8 | 0 mg | Your own circadian rise does this work for free. Spending caffeine in the morning wastes it. |
| Sat ≈9:56 AM | K10 Sugarloaf 1 | 68.8 | 100 mg | Immediately before the crux: 9 miles and +3,321 ft over a 9,952 ft summit, in full sun, at midday. The single best-spent dose of the race. |
| Sat ≈3:30 PM | K12 Sugarloaf 2 | 83.1 | 50 mg | Afternoon dip, 16.9 miles to go. Small — you want room for one more dose. |
| Sat ≈5:46 PM | K13 Bear Mountain | 89.1 | 100 mg | Last crew contact, last climb (+1,769 ft to Snow Summit), and dark returns in an hour. Far enough out that you can still sleep after the finish. |
| TOTAL | across 33 hours | — | 475 mg | About 14 mg per hour averaged — modest by ultra standards, and deliberately so, because a reset tolerance means you need less to feel more. |
Use tablets, not coffee, cola or caffeinated gels. Buy 50 mg tablets so every dose is one or two, and keep every gel you carry caffeine-free. That gives you exact control and keeps caffeine out of your sugar delivery.
Be honest about the cost: caffeine relaxes the valve at the top of the stomach and increases acid — it is a reflux trigger. You're choosing to take it because alertness at 3 AM at mile 51 is worth more than an hour of heartburn. Blunt the cost: always with food, never on an empty stomach, always followed by water, never within 30 minutes of lying down or bending over. Keep antacid in the same pocket as the caffeine vial.
Scaling: the usual guidance is 1–3 mg per kg of body weight per dose. The 50–100 mg doses here are conservative for any adult, which is what you want with a reset tolerance. If you find 100 mg jittery, drop it to 75.
A reset tolerance means an untested response — including an untested gut response, which matters more for you than for most people. Take two or three test doses over the next few weeks: one 50 mg on a night run, one 100 mg on a long run with food, and see what your stomach does. Then go back to zero caffeine for the final 14 days. That keeps almost all of the reset while removing the risk of discovering a bad reaction at mile 40 in the dark.
Night 1: 11 h 38 m of dark. Night 2: ≈3 h 11 m. About 14 h 50 m on headlamp — plan batteries for 15+ hours, not 12. Fresh cells at Camp Whittle (19.4), Doble Camp 2 (55.4) and Sugarloaf 2 (83.1).
Mid-October Big Bear normals: high near 63 °F, low near 37 °F. Highs rarely above 79 °F, lows rarely below 26 °F. About a 5% chance of a wet day. Wind averages a mild 6.6 mph from the west.
But the course isn't one climate. You drop into high desert around Burns Canyon, Smarts Ranch and Cactus Flats (miles 40–52) — warmer by day, and the low point of the course sits under 5,000 ft. Then you're above 9,600 ft at midday Saturday. Plan for a 45 °F swing inside one day, and for being cold at 3 AM at mile 51 even though the daytime high was 63. Pull the real forecast on Tuesday, October 6 — anything earlier is noise.
You asked for 50 or 60 miles — 55.4 is the right number and it isn't close. Mile 51.4 (Cactus Flats) has crew but no drop bag; mile 61.4 (Burns Canyon 2) has neither. Doble Camp 2 has a bag, crew, a 20-minute stop already budgeted, and it comes right after the steepest four miles on the course (+1,361 ft out of Cactus Flats), when your feet are at their most swollen.
Socks — four changes, not two: mile 19.4 if wet, mile 55.4 with the shoes, mile 68.8, mile 83.1. Socks weigh 40 grams and they're the difference between finishing and quitting.
Kodiak 100M race page · Official 2026 100M Aid Station Chart (PDF) · 2026–2027 UTMB Mandatory & Recommended Equipment, North America (PDF) · 2025 Kodiak Runner Guide (PDF) · Race regulations & mandatory equipment · Crew & spectators · Runners guide · GU Energy Gel · GU per-flavor label panels · Honey Stinger Organic Waffle panel · NAAK Ultra Energy Drink Mix · Weather Spark — Big Bear Lake, October · Kodiak 100 race report, Will to Run