Role of Volunteers

World’s cruelest ultra-marathon

The Idea

The La Ultra is unique because it brings together a variety of passionate individuals from India and abroad with one common objective – to deliver a safe and unforgettable experience for the runners at the La Ultra. As you can imagine, there is a wide variety of tasks that go into making this event. Volunteers form a big part of the La Ultra and we are grateful for all those who support us.

Above all, we invite individuals who can give us the necessary time and effort to contribute with passion. We seek the support of volunteers in many areas; but here are some areas with volunteering opportunities:

  • Crew – Personal Crew and Core Teams
  • Medical Teams – Qualified Doctors, nurses and physiotherapists
  • Photographers – Still and Video photographers to cover the event
  • Content and Communication – Volunteers who can contribute content for our web site, help with variety of documentation, kits and communication material
  • Designers – To assist with web site, merchandise and other material
  • Marketing – To assist with marketing, promotional campaigns, reach out to partners

Role of Volunteers

Volunteers form the backbone of the La Ultra in many ways. In fact, we believe that the La Ultra is an environment that will provide opportunities for individuals to test their character, build their leadership and team skills under difficult conditions. At the same time, individuals will take away an unforgettable experience from one of the prettiest places on the planet and develop life-long friendships within a few days. There is probably no better management course over a period of two weeks!

A brief description on the main volunteering opportunities is provided here. Prospective volunteers are also encouraged to review the additional information provided before offering to volunteer.

Crewing

A majority of our volunteer opportunities are in crewing. These include being part of a runner’s personal crew and a few opportunities with the core crew.

All runners need support from a core crew and a personal crew. By design, we provide support to all our runners, across all three race categories; with a common core crew till South Pullu. Our core crew typically consists of 5-6 vehicles and 3-4 medical vans and includes the Race Director, Official Photographers and medics. Since the core team is up and about for the entire stretch of 72 hours, we also include 1-2 additional volunteers in each vehicle to provide general support. Such individuals assist with general tasks, communication and other logistics.

Runners in the 222 Km & 333 Km category are provided with personal crews from South Pullu on-wards and until the end of their race. Each runner typically gets a personal vehicle with a local driver and two additional crew members. The personal crew members provide support to their designated runner from this point until their runner finishes their run. Additionally, and again this is unique to the La Ultra, the personal crew members also represent the organizers as race officials. Typical responsibilities of the core crew are:

  • Assist runner with race planning
  • Manage food, supplies and other equipment through the run
  • Keep personal crew vehicle organised
  • Provide first-aid and basic medical assistance
  • Pace runner when possible and at runner’s request
  • Provide emotional support to runner
  • Assist with communication (for foreign runners and others who do not communicate in Hindi)

Read RULES & REGULATIONS section (web link to page) to understand how a team will function. Crew & crew vehicle rules are mentioned here as well.

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