I would vote for 2+ crew minimum as well. Especially if you want multiple nutrition hand-offs without having to stop.
More important than the crew number, however, is to really go over your race plan in detail with the crew prior to the race - I had exact mile markers to look forward as far as crew location. It was interesting because we went with the "less is more" approach so I only saw my crew about 5-6x on the entire bike course and 3x on the entire run leading up to the base of zombie but others were stopping ever 3-5 miles on the bike and every mile on the run. I would be curious to see the strategy used by some of the leading guys.
The one thing I was disappointed to see this year was that there were a few cases where it was clear an athlete had more than one support vehicle (only one is technically allowed). On the bike, it's very interesting because you are riding in the same vicinity as the same 2 dozen or so people and so get very familiar with the support crews (both by their car/# on the car decal and seeing them on the side of the road). This was great because some of the other support crews would cheer you on each time they drove past but bad but you could also tell who had more than one car per athlete out on the road. This was kind of annoying since I ended up spending 6-7 minutes in transition waiting for my support team to get through the traffic.
It was also unique in that the crew was scoping you out each time you passed - likely to convey that info to their athlete. Each time I passed a competitor crew you can bet I was trying to downplay the pain and effort level! ;)
But otherwise outstanding event! My short & sweet summary of the day:
http://maggierusch.com/...a-long-cruel-course/
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