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Handoff is where relay teams plan and run race day. Captains build the roster, assign legs, share logistics and see projected times. On race day, the Handoff app times every exchange and keeps both vans up to date.

No. Handoff doesn't register you with the race. Register your team on the race's official site as well.

Planning is free: the roster, invites, leg assignments, logistics, projected times and finding runners or a team.

The Race Pass turns on live timing in the race-day app. It is one payment per team, per race. See What does the Race Pass include?

A team splits one long course, often around 200 miles, into legs. Each runner runs one leg at a time and hands off to the next runner at an exchange. The team finishes when the last runner crosses the line, and that is the team's time.

The classic road relay has 12 runners and 36 legs, so everyone runs three legs spread over a day and a night, often one of them in the dark. Races vary: some have fewer runners who run more, and some are shorter. Your race's page shows its format.

A leg is one runner's stretch of the course. Legs are different lengths and difficulties, from a short flat mile or two to a long hilly one.

An exchange is where one leg ends and the next begins. The runner finishing arrives, and the next runner, already waiting, starts. Some exchanges are the major ones where the vans swap. How do the vans work?

Most 12-runner teams split into two vans of six. The vans leapfrog: while one van runs its six legs, runner after runner, the other van rests, eats, sleeps if it can and drives ahead to meet them.

1. Van 1 runs legs 1 to 6 while Van 2 rests.
2. At the major exchange the vans swap, and Van 2 runs legs 7 to 12.
3. Van 1 rests, then runs legs 13 to 18, and so on to the finish.

See Which van is mine? for how Handoff works out your van.

It is the clock time from the team's start to the last runner finishing, so it includes every runner's running and nothing else. Because runners hand off as soon as the previous one arrives, there is no pause to add. Teams start in waves, so the race gives your team a start time.

Before race day, Handoff projects it from each runner's pace. How are projected times worked out?

On the road the idea is the same: legs, exchanges and a team time. The differences are size. An ultra team has fewer runners, so each runs more. A sprint or partial relay covers less of the course.

Trail relays such as Ragnar Trail are laid out differently. The whole team lives at one base camp and runs a few named loops over and over, with no driving between runs. How does a trail or base-camp relay work?

Your race's page and its runner handbook are the authority on distances, rules and team sizes.

You will be in a van for a day or two, so pack for that as well as for running. Your race will publish its own required gear, so check its handbook.

1. Running kit for each of your legs, plus spares, since you will be sweaty and may get caught in the rain.
2. Layers for a cold night and something warm to wear between legs.
3. A headlamp, reflective vest and rear light if your race runs at night.
4. Food and drink you like, because you will be hungry at odd hours.
5. Something to sleep on and a phone charger.
6. Gallon zip-top bags to contain the stench of sweaty running clothes, plus body wipes and air freshener.

You are one runner on a team. Your captain decides which legs you run, and you run each of them once, then hand off to the next runner. Between your legs you ride in the van, cheer on your teammates and rest.

1. Join the team from the invite link. How do I join a team?
2. Add your 10K time to your profile so your projected legs are realistic.
3. Check the Legs tab to see which legs you run and which van is yours.
4. Answer any asks your captain sets.

Be at the exchange before the previous runner is due, warmed up and ready. They will arrive and hand off, often by slapping a slap bracelet or tagging you, which starts your leg. When you finish, you hand off to the next runner at the next exchange.

Your team can time the handoffs in the race-day app, and it alerts you before your leg. Does every runner need the app?

Nothing breaks. The projection is a plan, and on race day the times update from real splits. Your van just arrives a little earlier or later than expected. If your pace is wrong beforehand, change it on the Time model tab.

The captain builds the team, decides who runs which legs and keeps logistics in one place so everyone shows up knowing where to be. On race day the captain, or someone they pick, usually times the team.

Creating a team in Handoff does not register you with the race. Register on the race's own site too. Details

1. Create the team from the race page. How?
2. Invite runners. How?
3. Assign legs, so each runner and van is set. How?
4. Add logistics: meet-up, lodging, vehicles and the team chat. Where?
5. Check the projected times and adjust any leg that looks off. How?

Short a runner? Post a request and find one. Finding runners

Planning on the web is free. The Race Pass, one payment per team per race, turns on live timing in the race-day app. What does it include?

Not everyone needs the app: one phone can time the whole team.

For a race with at least one van, we recommend a timer in each van. Have more than one person time, so the runner isn't running with the timer phone. Swiping at each exchange is easy to forget, and that's OK.

Get the app installed and signed in the night before, while you have signal. How do I get the app?

Every team lives at one base camp. Every lap starts and finishes there, and runners hand off at one transition area in camp. Ragnar Trail is the best known: a team of eight takes turns on a few short trail courses, day and night, and sleeps in tents between runs.

Handoff treats these as their own kind of race. Your race page lists its loops by name, your team page has a running order, and the app on race day is built around camp.

A loop is one named course, like the Green, Yellow or Red loop. Each has its own distance, difficulty and climb. A lap is one runner’s single trip around a loop.

The team runs a fixed order of laps: the first loop, then the second, then the third, then back to the first. With 8 runners and 3 loops that is 24 laps, and every runner runs each loop once. Your race page shows the loops and the order they repeat.

Captains: put the roster in a running order on your team page. Handoff fills in the laps from it, so runner 1 takes the first lap, runner 2 the second, and so on around the team. You can still swap a single lap afterwards.

A smaller team runs the same laps, so each runner takes more of them.

The Handoff app alerts you before your lap. Because runners are asleep, a base-camp race alerts you 60, 30 and 10 minutes ahead unless you choose your own times in Settings.

The app also shows how long you have until your next lap, so you know how much sleep you can expect.

Trail and other base-camp relays have the lower Race Pass price, whatever the team size. It is one payment per team, per race, and the sales window and refund rules are the same as for any race. See What does the Race Pass include?.

Go to Races. Search by name, or pick a place and a distance to see relays near you. You can filter by month and format, or show only races where teams need runners or runners need a team.

Switch to the map to browse an area.

Yes. Send us the race name and website through the contact form, with the subject "Missing race".

1. Open the race's page and choose Create team.
2. Name the team, and pick a division if the race has them.
3. Tick "I'm also a runner" if you're running too.

You're the team's captain. Add your start time in Settings once you know it.

On your team page, choose Invite a runner (or Add runner at the top of the page) and enter their name and email. Leave "Email them an invite" ticked and they get a link to join.

You can also share your invite code, shown on the team page. Tap to copy it.

Everyone on the roster, joined or not, can share the expenses you split on the Expenses tab. See How do I split team expenses?

Yes. Add them with Invite a runner or Add runner. You can assign them legs and answer asks for them. If they sign up later with the same email, they're matched to their spot on the roster.

Open the team menu and choose Change captain. Only runners who've joined with a Handoff account can become captain.

When you hand the team over, the payment instructions are cleared; the new captain sets their own.

You can't undo this yourself. Only the new captain can hand it back.

Yes. Open the Badges tab on your team, make a badge with a name and a picture, then give it to any runner on the roster. You can give the same badge to the same runner more than once, and undo one you gave by mistake.

Runners see their badges on their trophy case under “From your captain”, and your whole team sees them on the team page. They are never shown on a public page.

To remove a runner, edit them on the team page and choose Remove from team. A runner who paid for an expense, or has a payment recorded, has to wait. See Why can’t I remove a runner who paid for something?

To delete the team, open the team menu and choose Delete team. If you've bought a Race Pass, you can delete the team once race day begins. Before then, contact us first. Refunds are only for technical problems, cancelled events and duplicate payments.

The captain adds the team’s expenses on the Expenses tab, and can let runners add the ones they paid. Handoff works out each runner’s share.

1. Open your team and choose the Expenses tab.
2. Choose Add expense, then enter what it was and how much it cost.
3. Under Paid by, choose who paid. The captain can choose anyone on the roster; a runner the captain lets add expenses can add only ones they paid for themselves.
4. Under Split between, choose Everyone, A van, or Pick runners, check the preview and save.

A van splits the expense between the runners with a leg in that van, and is offered when the race has more than one van. A runner with legs in both vans shares both vans’ expenses.

Shares are worked out to the cent, and any leftover cents go one each to a few runners (the payer first), so they always add up to the whole expense.

The captain always sees the Expenses tab. A runner sees it only when the captain lets them add expenses; everyone else sees their own share on the team page. See Can runners add expenses?

Every amount on a team is in one currency. A new team starts in the currency of the country the race is in, and dollars where Handoff doesn’t know the country.

The captain can change it on the Expenses tab, under Currency, until the team has an expense or a payment. After that it’s locked, because changing it would relabel amounts already entered. To change it, delete the expenses and payments first.

Handoff doesn’t convert between currencies, so enter every expense in the team’s currency. You can type a decimal comma or a point, such as 24,50 or 24.50.

A Race Pass is charged in US dollars, so it’s offered as an expense only to a team in dollars.

Handoff nets everything out. For each person it takes what they fronted, subtracts their share, and adjusts for payments already made, so everyone has one balance and a short list of who to pay.

Say Riley fronted $180 for Van 1’s gas, and his share of all the team’s expenses is $340. Instead of paying his full share and being paid back for the gas, he moves only the difference: $160 in total.

The settle-up plan pairs the people who owe with the people who are owed, which keeps the number of payments small.

The plan is a suggestion. Pay however you like, and the captain records what was paid on each line.

Money changes hands outside Handoff. When someone pays, open the Expenses tab, find the line under Settle up, choose Record payment, then one of these:

1. Mark paid in full records the whole amount still owed on that line.
2. Record a partial payment records part of it, such as $50 of $90.
3. See payments lists the payments from one to the other on that line, and Undo removes a payment recorded by mistake.
4. Clear payments removes every payment from one to the other on that line.

See all payments, under the plan, lists every payment on the team.

A runner the captain lets add expenses can record payments made to them too, under Paid to you on their Expenses tab. They can’t record anyone else’s.

Yes, if the captain allows it. On the Expenses tab, under Who can add expenses, the captain chooses one of three settings:

1. Only me: the captain enters every expense. This is the default.
2. Anyone on the team: every runner who has joined can add an expense they paid.
3. Picked people: the captain chooses who, for example one person per van. A runner who hasn’t joined yet can be picked, but can add nothing until they accept their invite.

A runner who can add expenses has an Expenses tab of their own. On it they add an expense they paid for, with themselves as the payer, edit or delete their own, and record payments made to them. They don’t see anyone else’s balance or payments.

The captain still sees and can change every expense, and everyone an expense includes can see it on their Settle up card, with who paid.

The roster shows where each runner stands:

1. Owes $70: they still owe that much in total.
2. Owed $160: the team owes them that much, usually because they fronted an expense.
3. Settled: they’ve paid, or been paid, everything.
4. No amount set: they have no share, fronted nothing and have no payments.

As a runner, your team page has a Settle up card: what you owe or are owed in total, who to pay and how much, and your share of each expense. Once you’re settled it reads “You’re paid up” until the race ends.

You only see the expenses you share and the payments that involve you. Other runners’ amounts stay private.

Shares follow the roster. When a runner joins, every expense split between everyone is shared one more way, so everyone else’s share drops. If you had already paid, the team may now owe you the difference.

An expense split by van is shared by the runners with a leg in that van, so moving a leg to the other van moves that runner’s share too.

Editing or deleting an expense, or a refund of a Race Pass that was added as an expense, also changes everyone’s share.

When your team paid for a Race Pass, the Expenses tab offers it as an expense, at the amount you were charged, discounts included. A free pass is never offered. A Race Pass is charged in US dollars, so a team in another currency isn’t offered it as an expense. Add it yourself as an expense in the team’s currency if you want to split it.

The captain chooses Add to expenses to split it, or Not splitting this to leave it out of the expenses. Once added, it’s split between everyone by default. The captain can change who shares it, but not its name or amount.

If the pass is refunded, it stops counting toward the expenses, and everyone’s share shrinks.

No. Handoff can track what each runner owes, but it doesn’t collect or move money between teammates. Any payment between teammates is between you and them. See our terms.

Handoff does the arithmetic and keeps the record. Pay each other however your team likes, and the captain records what was paid on each line of the settle-up plan. Anyone can add how they like to be paid, and runners who owe them see it on their Settle up card. See How do I set how to be paid?

Say where to send money, such as a Venmo handle, a Zelle email, or “cash at the start”, in up to 200 characters.

1. The captain adds theirs under Payments at the bottom of the Expenses tab.
2. A runner who has joined adds theirs under How to pay you, on their Expenses tab or on the Settle up card on their team page when someone owes them.
3. The captain can add it for a runner who hasn’t joined yet and is owed money. Once that runner joins, it’s theirs to change.

It shows only to a teammate who owes you money, beside the payment to you. Until you add it, they see “Ask them how to pay”. It’s gone once they’ve paid you.

Someone added an expense that includes you, so you’re told who added it, what it’s for, who paid and your share. An email lists each expense; a notification on your phone is shorter, and when several were added together it gives how many and your share of them. The share is “about” because shares follow the roster and can change. The captain is also told when a runner adds an expense.

If you add several expenses within a minute, your teammates get one notice for all of them. You’re never told about your own.

Phones with the race-day app get a notification, and everyone else gets an email. To stop them, turn off Expenses added to your team in your notification settings.

A runner who paid for an expense, or who has a payment recorded, can’t be removed, because the team’s totals depend on them. On the Expenses tab, reassign or delete the expenses they paid and clear their payments, then remove them.

The same goes for a runner who leaves the team, or who deletes their account before the race ends: the captain clears those first.

If you got an email invite, open the link and choose Join team.

If you have an invite code, go to Teams, choose Join with a code and enter it. Codes are case-sensitive.

Open your team page and choose Leave team. Your captain is told, and your legs open up for someone else.

You can rejoin later with the team's invite code. If you captain the team, hand it to another runner first.

If you paid for a team expense, or have a payment recorded, your captain has to clear those before you can leave.

Once your captain adds expenses you share, your team page shows a Settle up card: what you owe or are owed in total, who to pay and how much, and your share of each expense. Your captain records payments once they’re made.

See Who pays whom? and What do Owes, Owed and Settled mean?

Once you've joined with a Handoff account, your details come from your profile, so only you can change them. Update them in Settings, under Profile.

1. Open your team's Legs tab.
2. Pick a runner, then tap the legs they run.
3. Save the plan.

The captain can assign any leg. Runners can also claim open legs themselves; see "Can I pick my own legs?".

1. Open your team's Legs tab.
2. Tap a leg marked Claim to take it. Tap one of your own legs to give it back.

You can only claim a leg nobody has, and only release your own. If two runners tap the same leg, the first one gets it. The captain can still assign or change any leg.

When the plan is settled, the captain can Freeze leg claims so runners can no longer claim or release legs. To change a leg after that, ask the captain.

This is separate from the Time model's Freeze, which only stops runners editing their leg paces. Freezing one does not freeze the other.

Your van follows the legs you run. On a 12-runner relay with two vans of six, runners 1 to 6 ride in Van 1 and runners 7 to 12 in Van 2. On a 36-leg relay, you ride in the van for the set of legs you run.

The vans swap at the major exchanges, and the van that is off rests until its next turn.

One-day relays with six runners have everyone in the same van.

The race guide's rating is the organizer's own. The Handoff rating is ours: we take the leg's measured climb and descent and work out how much the hills speed up or slow a runner compared with flat ground, then round that to the same six steps, from Easiest to Hardest.

It looks at the slope only. A long leg on gentle hills can rate Moderate here and still be a hard leg, because length, heat and where the leg falls in the course aren't included. That is why the race guide's rating is the one we show first, and why the two sometimes differ. Where the guide gives no rating, we show ours.

Race guides often count running at night as extra difficulty. We don't: in the timing data we have seen, running in the dark hasn't made much difference to paces, so a night leg isn't rated harder. The Time model still shows which legs run at night.

Only races with a measured course profile have a Handoff rating. A race without one shows the race guide rating alone.

We measure along the route the organizer publishes, against public terrain elevation data. We read the ground height every 0.05 mile and count a rise or drop only once the height has moved at least 2 meters from the last height we counted. Small wiggles that come and go aren’t counted, but a gradual slope is, so the total reflects real hills and not measurement noise. The elevation chart for a leg is drawn from readings every 0.1 mile.

Our totals often differ from the organizer’s, or from a route site’s, and neither is wrong. Every source has to decide how finely to measure, and that choice moves the total. A watch, a GPS track or a route site reads an altitude at every point and adds up each small rise, so the wiggles in the data count as climb. On a flat course that can show two or three times the climb a runner would feel. Organizers usually take their figure from a recorded track or a mapping tool, each with its own smoothing.

We chose a middle setting. Smooth too little and noise becomes hills; smooth too much and the small rolling hills a runner does feel disappear. We tried several settings against the climb figures organizers publish for 20 trail loops and kept the one that agreed best while still ignoring noise. It tends to land close to the organizer’s figure on hilly courses, and below a raw GPS total on flat ones.

How to use the numbers:

1. To compare legs in one race, use ours. Every leg is measured the same way, so the hilliest leg here really is the hilliest.
2. For an exact figure, trust the organizer’s race guide or your own watch, which counts what you actually ran.
3. Expect differences of a few percent to a few tens of percent. On a flat course, a small change in feet is a large change in percent.

The Handoff rating is built from these measured numbers.

Routes can shift slightly from year to year, and organizers don’t always update their maps. If a route looks wrong, tell us.

Captains: open the team menu and choose Edit logistics. There is room for vehicles, the race-day meet-up, lodging, snacks and anything else.

Add your team chat there too: a WhatsApp or Messenger group link, or a group text. For a group text, choose Text as the chat service and the Team chat card on the team page has a button to copy everyone's phone numbers.

Everyone on the team can see logistics. Only the captain can edit them.

Each leg's pace is the runner's 10K pace times a multiplier for how hard the organizer rates the leg: 0.8 for Easiest, 0.9 for Easy, 1.0 for Moderate, 1.1 for Hard, 1.2 for Very Hard and 1.3 for Hardest, Black or WTH. On a trail loop, a trail factor based on the loop's climb applies too. The time model shows that math under each leg. A runner with no 10K time gets the team's median 10K pace, or 10:00 per mile if nobody on the team has one, marked with a *. Add your 10K time to your profile to improve it.

The Time model tab shows the projected finish, when each leg starts, which legs run at night, and each van's shifts and rest.

On the Time model tab, edit a leg and enter a pace or a time.

Runners can edit their own legs. Captains can edit any leg.

When the plan is settled, the captain can Freeze it so runners can no longer make changes.

Some races hold a team that reaches an exchange early. The team waits there until a set time, and then the next runner can go. Organizers use holds to space teams out, or because an exchange isn’t open yet.

Held time doesn’t count. Handoff takes the wait out of your team’s running time, so being held doesn’t make a team slower. The recap shows both numbers, your running time and the clock time, with the held time between them.

The Time model tab plans for it. When a leg is projected to end before an exchange’s hold time, the plan shows the team being held, and every later time moves back to match. It also warns you that the team may be held. Races don’t always hold every early team, so it says “may.”

On race day, have the timing phone swipe the exchange when your team arrives, not when it leaves. Handoff reads the swipe as the arrival, and the wait is the part before the leave time. A swipe made at the release subtracts nothing. If that happened, correct the finish of the leg that just ended to the arrival, and the next runner’s start to when they left.

Which exchanges hold a team, and when, is in Hold and cutoff times. A hold the organizer calls on race day, for heat or lightning, is recorded in the race-day app, as the answer about recording a hold explains.

An exchange can have up to three times. All three are optional, because races publish different ones.

1. Hold before: a team that arrives earlier than this is held.
2. Leave at: a held team may leave at this time.
3. Closes: the exchange is taken down, so a team that arrives later is late.

Each one is a clock time on the race’s own clock, such as 3:15 PM on race day, never a number of minutes. A time like “Saturday 12:15 AM” is fine.

The times are on the Time model tab, in the Holds and cutoffs card. The plan uses them to show a hold, to shift the times after it, and to warn about an early or a late arrival. Everyone on the team can read them. Only the captain changes them, with Add times or Edit times for your team.

Handoff fills in times only when the organizer published them for that year’s race, and we check each set against the organizer’s guide before it appears. We never guess or copy last year’s times forward. For every other race, the captain enters the times from the organizer’s guide, and a new year’s race has none until its guide is out.

If your team’s times differ from the race’s, see Why do my hold times differ from the race’s?.

Held time doesn’t count toward your time. See What is a hold for how the wait is taken out.

Each exchange says whose times it uses. “Published” is what the organizer listed. “Your team’s times” are ones the captain set. “Differs from published” means your team’s times are in effect, and the race lists something else.

A conflict is the case where the race changed its times after you set your own. You may have entered times before the organizer’s were added, or the organizer may have moved a time after you chose to keep yours. Your times stay in effect until you decide, so nothing changes under you. The captain sees a count of them on the team’s hub, which links to the card.

1. Open the Time model tab and find the Holds and cutoffs card.
2. For each exchange in conflict, you see your times and the race’s side by side.
3. Choose Keep my times to stay with yours. The race can change them again later, and the question returns when it does.
4. Choose Use the published times to drop yours.
5. For several at once, choose Keep all my times or Use all the published times.

If you enter times after the race has published its own, that is a deliberate choice, so it shows “Differs from published” with no conflict. Use the published times there takes you back.

Handoff never emails a captain about a conflict, so the count on the hub is the notice. Held time doesn’t count either way, so a different leave time changes only how long the plan says you wait. See What is a hold.

Asks are questions for the team and jobs someone needs to take. Your captain posts them on the Asks tab. There are two kinds:

1. Everyone answers, like an emergency contact.
2. Someone claims it, like bringing the water. The first person to tap "I've got it" takes it.

Captains: choose Nudge on the ask to email everyone who hasn't answered. You can nudge once a day.

Captains can also answer for runners who haven't joined yet.

1. Open the race's page and choose I need a team.
2. Say a bit about yourself: your pace, where you live and the kind of team you want.
3. Choose whether to share your profile with captains, then post.

Captains can message you or invite you to their team, and you'll get an email.

You can also reply to teams listed under "Teams looking for runners" on the race page.

On your team page, choose Find a runner. Say how many runners you need and what they should know about your team. Your post shows on the race page, and replies come to you by email.

You can also message or invite runners listed under "Runners looking for a team" on the race page.

Requests show on the race page to anyone who visits. A captain only sees your profile if you choose to share it.

The Race Pass turns on race day in the Handoff app for everyone on your team:

1. Live timing at every exchange, synced across your vans
2. Projections that update from real splits
3. A countdown to the next exchange, and alerts before your leg
4. Works offline, and syncs when you have signal again
5. A live page for family and friends to follow your team
6. A post-race recap with every leg time, ready to share as an image
7. Find your other van at an exchange: a direction and distance to it, and a way to ask it to light up (van relays only)
8. The weather for your next leg, timed to your live ETA and kept when the signal drops

Without it, the app shows your plan only.

Captains buy it from the team page. It is one payment per team, per race. The price depends on the length of the relay, and it has an early-bird price until 60 days before the race.

Captains can split what the pass cost across the team on the Expenses tab. See Why is there a Race Pass cost?

A Race Pass isn't refundable once it's bought, except in these cases:

If the event is cancelled, we automatically refund the pass in full.

If a technical problem with Handoff kept your team from using the app as intended, contact us and tell us what you saw. Screenshots help. If you can show the problem, we'll refund the pass in full, before or after the race.

If you were charged twice for the same team, we will issue a refund for the extra payment.

Live timing in the app turns off once a pass is refunded.

Once your last exchange is recorded, the Handoff app turns the board into a recap: your total time and every leg against your plan.

1. Open the Handoff app after the finish
2. Tap Share recap
3. Pick where to share it, or save the image

The same recap is on your team page on the website, with a link to download the image. The recap needs times recorded in the app, so if nobody swiped the last exchange there is nothing to show yet.

The Handoff race-day app is on the App Store for iPhone. An Android version is coming to Google Play.

Install it and sign in with your Handoff account. Your roster, legs, logistics and projected times all work on the website too.

No. One phone can time the whole team, and it can hand timing to another phone with a code, even without signal. Everyone who has joined the team can use the app to follow along and get an alert before their leg.

For a race with at least one van, we recommend a timer in each van. Have more than one person time, so the runner isn't running with the timer phone. Swiping at each exchange is easy to forget, and that's OK.

Yes, from the phone that’s timing. Open the Legs tab, tap Change on a leg that hasn’t started, and pick another runner. It works with no signal: teammates’ phones get the change when the timing phone syncs, and the web leg plan follows.

You can also give a leg to the runner who just finished, so they keep going, or swap two upcoming legs. A leg that has started keeps its runner, so awards and badges stay with whoever ran it. Swipe the exchange between two back-to-back legs as usual.

If someone edits the leg plan on the website after a change, the website edit wins.

When the organizer holds your team for heat, lightning or anything else, the timing phone taps Team held on the Board, chooses why, and saves. It works with no signal: teammates’ phones get the hold when the timing phone syncs, and everyone sees a banner until the hold clears.

The time doesn’t count. Handoff takes the held minutes out of your team’s running time, stops the running clock while the team waits, and moves every later time to match. The recap shows your running time and the clock time, with the time held between them.

Tap Clear hold when the organizer lets the team go. If the organizer said when the team may restart, enter that time and the later times move at once. To fix a hold or take back one recorded by mistake, tap Edit. Removing a hold makes the time it covered count again. If the organizer also moves your team ahead, see skipped legs.

Alerts such as “You’re up in 10 min” pause while a hold has no restart time, because nobody can say when the team will go. They come back when the hold clears. Only the timing phone can record a hold. For holds that an exchange publishes ahead of time, see What is a hold.

Some organizers move a team ahead: after a long heat or lightning hold, or to keep a slow team inside the cutoffs. The timing phone records it, and Handoff never expects the skipped legs to be run.

After a hold, choose The organizer moved us ahead on the Team held screen, whether you are recording the hold or tapping Edit on its banner. Set how many legs, and Handoff suggests one leg for each whole hour of the hold. Confirm, and Handoff saves the hold and the skip together. When there is no hold, tap Skip ahead at the top of the Legs tab. Choose the first leg to skip and how many legs, and save. Everyone sees the skipped legs marked as skipped once the timing phone syncs.

The team restarts at the leg after the skipped ones. Clearing the hold starts that leg. Without a hold, the timing phone slides to start the leg on the Board when the team is back on course. The drive ahead doesn’t count in your time, and a runner whose only leg was skipped gets no award.

You choose how the skipped legs are scored, the way your organizer told you. At our average pace gives each skipped leg its distance at your team’s average pace across the legs you ran, so your time stays a full-course time. Not scored adds nothing for the skipped legs, and Handoff marks your time as not a full-course time: the recap says so, and the share images say Short course under the time.

To change a skip, tap Edit skip on a skipped leg. To take it back, tap Edit skip, then Remove this skip. Only the timing phone can record a skip. The first and last legs can’t be skipped, and a base camp has no legs to skip. For a hold with no skip, see what to do when the organizer holds your team.

The Vans screen (Camp, for a base-camp race) shows a phone icon beside each runner who has opened your team in the app. A faded icon means they have joined the team but haven't opened it in the app yet, which can also be because they have only used the app for another team. No icon means they're on the roster without an account or haven't joined the team yet.

Captains also get a notification a few minutes after teammates sign in. To stop it, turn off Teammates set up on the app in your notification settings.

Yes, if the captain lets you add expenses (see Who can add expenses?). Expenses, in the Van Life tab of the app, works with no signal and needs no Race Pass.

1. Open the Van Life tab (Camp Life at a base camp), tap Expenses, then tap Add expense.
2. Enter what it was for and the amount.
3. Choose who shares it: everyone, a van or picked people.

The expense is saved on your phone and sent as soon as you have signal. Until then your total says "about" and "Estimated", because the roster can change before it syncs.

Editing an expense, changing how it's split and choosing who may add expenses need a connection. To fix an expense that is still waiting to sync, delete it and add it again.

A runner the captain hasn't allowed to add expenses still sees what they owe and who to pay, with or without signal.

After your leg the app asks how many runners you passed. Save keeps your count; Skip leaves the leg uncounted. You can also say how many runners passed you.

Counting works with no signal, and the app sends your counts when it has signal again. To count or change one later, open the Roadkill card on the Van Life tab and tap Count or Edit beside your leg. Only you can count your own legs.

On an iPhone with iOS 17 or later, the Live Activity on your lock screen shows your count with a +1 button while you are on course. Press it each time you pass a runner, without unlocking your phone. It adds one to your count for that leg, and you can change it later from the Roadkill card. Force-quitting the app ends the Live Activity, so leave the app running in the background. If a press doesn't move the number, open the app and count there.

Your captain can turn the counter off in the team settings on the website, or choose "passes" instead of "kills" as its word.

After the finish, the recap has a "Share kills card" button (and a "Download kills card" link on the website) with the team's total, the finish time, the distance and the champ. The team's total also shows on the public live page during and after the race, without anyone's own count.

Van Life (Camp Life at a base camp) is the tab for everything around the race itself: your kill count, your Expenses, your awards and your badges.

Expenses shows what you owe or are owed, and works with no signal. Awards unlock when your team finishes with Handoff timing, one for every runner. Your badges are the awards, relay milestones and race patches you have earned, kept on your phone so they open offline.

Settings moved to the gear at the top right of the Board, Legs, Vans, Van Life and Handoff screens.

An expense marked Waiting to sync is saved on your phone, and the phone hasn't confirmed that it reached the team. The app sends it on its own when signal comes back or you reopen the app, and sending it again is safe: the team never adds it twice.

Until then your total says "about" and "Estimated, waiting to sync". When the expense syncs, the team's numbers replace the estimate. They can differ if the roster changed while you were offline. Who pays whom is always the team's answer, never an estimate.

You can delete an expense that is waiting to sync at any time.

When your phone sends an expense the team can't accept, the app keeps it with the reason instead of dropping it. The usual reasons are:

1. The captain turned off adding expenses for you.
2. You're no longer on the team.
3. The person who paid, or who was paid, is no longer on the roster.
4. The team already has 100 expenses.
5. The amount or the name wasn't accepted.

Tap Fix and retry to change it and send it again, or Discard to remove it. A refused expense isn't counted in your estimate. If the captain turned off adding expenses, ask the captain. If runners you picked have left the team since you added it, the team drops them and still adds the expense, so that alone doesn't refuse it.

Signing out clears this phone's data, so an expense or payment that hasn't synced is lost. The app counts them and warns you first. Choose Keep them, stay signed in to hold on to them.

Wait until you have signal, and until Expenses no longer says Waiting to sync, before you sign out. Fix or discard any expense that was refused too, because signing out removes it.

Go to Settings, then Notifications, to choose which emails you get as a runner and as a captain.

To change your email, open the account menu, choose Manage account, then Add email address. Enter the code we send to the new address, then choose Set as primary. Your roster entries and team emails then follow the new address. If that address already belongs to another account or roster entry, we keep your old one, so contact us and we’ll sort it out.

Open the account menu, choose Manage account, then Delete account. You confirm by typing DELETE, and it can’t be undone.

It removes your profile, login, team memberships, messages and answers to team asks, and your email and phone on any roster. You come off the roster of any race that hasn’t started, and that team’s captain is told. Race Passes and payment records, and the rosters and timing history of races that have started, are kept.

If a team expense or payment still names you when your account closes, the team keeps your place on its roster, with your email and phone removed, so everyone’s totals stay right. That’s rare: you can’t delete your account while you’re on a team that hasn’t settled up, but it can happen when an account is closed another way, such as through our sign-in provider.

If you captain a team whose race hasn’t finished, make another runner captain first. Stuck? Contact us.

If you paid for a team expense, or have a payment recorded, on a team whose race hasn’t ended, the captain has to reassign those expenses and clear those payments first.

Use the contact form.