Free tool

Course Cutoff Calculator

When the first and last runners reach each aid station, which arrivals are after dark, and whether the cutoffs you have set will pull people who would have finished. Built for ultras, where all three are hard to guess.

The course

Nothing is saved or sent anywhere but the calculation.

Distance and climb

Total distance Miles

Total elevation gain Feet. Leave 0 if flat

The clock

Start time

Sunset

Sunrise

Finish times you expect

Winning time H:MM

Final cutoff H:MM, your slowest finisher

Aid stations

How many

NameMileGain ftCutoff H:MM

Cumulative gain is optional. Give it and the projection uses effort miles instead of flat ones, which matters a lot on a station that sits at the top of a climb. Cutoff is optional too: leave it blank to see what is suggested.

Last finisher in at

Station	Mile	First in	Last in	Suggested	Your cutoff

Runners do not hold an even pace over a long race, so these are not straight-line splits. The back of the field is given a steeper fade than the front, which puts a 30-hour finisher at halfway around 13:25 rather than 15:00. Elevation only counts where you give it per station; total gain alone cannot say which segment is the climb. And none of this beats last year's splits. If you have them, use them.

Cutoffs are only half of it

The race day timeline turns these into a schedule your aid station captains can actually work from.

Open the timeline builder