The gap between an ultra sign-up and the gun going off is brutal — six months of dark-morning base miles, strength work, and consistency that nobody sees and nothing rewards. Runners drift, skip the boring weeks, and arrive under-trained or scratch entirely. By the time you notice the drop-off, the DNS list is already long and there's nothing you can do about it.
- The months between registration and race day are a black box — you have no idea who's actually putting in the miles until they show up (or don't)
- Base-building is relentless and unglamorous, so motivation cracks in the exact weeks that matter most for finishing a 50K or 100-miler
- Strength and cross-training get skipped because nothing holds runners accountable to the parts of the plan that aren't the long run
- DNS and DNF rates quietly eat your field, your reputation, and your repeat-entry revenue — and you find out too late to intervene
How Cadoo solves it
Put money on the miles, not just the entry fee
Runners bet with training partners and crew on hitting weekly step targets, strength sessions, and consistency streaks. When real cash rides on tomorrow's dark-morning run, the boring base weeks stop getting skipped. It's the accountability a training plan alone never delivers — turning a solo six-month grind into a stakes-backed commitment your whole field feels.
Verified work, so the streak actually means something
Cadoo counts and form-scores pushups, squats, situps, pullups, dips, and plank holds straight from the phone camera, and reads daily steps from the runner's own health app. No honor-system checkboxes, no padded logs — the strength and volume your athletes claim is the strength and volume they did. You get a training culture built on work that's genuinely proven, not self-reported.
Leagues, leaderboards, and wins worth sharing
Rank your entrants in leagues and on leaderboards through the whole build-up, so the community that toes the line together trains together first. Every verified session can become a shareable, skinned highlight clip — runners post their grind, tag your race, and pull the next wave of entrants in. Your event stays alive in feeds for months instead of surfacing once on race day.
Frequently asked questions
How does Cadoo help Ultramarathons?
Cadoo keeps your entrants training through the long build-up between sign-up and start line. Runners bet money with partners on hitting daily steps and strength goals, every workout is verified by AI (camera-counted reps and form plus steps from their health app), and leagues, leaderboards, and shareable clips turn solo base miles into a community your field shows up for. The result is fewer DNS scratches, better-prepared runners, and a race that stays visible for months.
How do you make sure runners aren't faking their training?
Verification is the whole point. Cadoo's AI counts and form-scores pushups, squats, situps, pullups, dips, and plank holds directly from the phone camera, and pulls daily step totals from Apple Health or Google Health Connect — the camera handles reps, the health app handles steps. There are no manual logs to inflate, so the streaks and stakes on your leaderboard reflect work that actually happened.
How do I set up Cadoo for my ultramarathon?
Spin up a game in the Cadoo Upside Hub, or email Tim@cadoo.io and we'll help you build training challenges tailored to your race, your distance, and your build-up timeline.
Ready to launch a game for ultramarathon organizers?
Set up a branded, camera-verified fitness game through the Cadoo Upside Hub, or talk to us and we’ll build it with you.