Shade, snacks, ice, and slushie machines make for the ultimate trail run hydration station.
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At this point, building a custom mobile nourishment and hydration station for a 100-mile trail running competition is simply Rivian doing Rivian things. If most of that sentence didn’t make sense to you, keep reading and we’ll break it down.
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What? And Why is Rivian Doing This?
Trail running has evolved from just another form of outdoor exercise to a seriously competitive sport, with ultra endurance competitions taking place across the country. It’s not unusual for the premier events to cover 100 miles (the average distance of a single-day ultra marathon; multi-day, 200-mile ultra marathons also exist) and more than 20,000 feet of total elevation change. To say it’s hard is an understatement of the grandest order.
As with marathons, these ultra trail runs also have hydration stations providing not just water but sports drinks, snacks with specific nutritional properties, and energy gels. Getting both the consumables and the equipment out to the side of a trail in the mountains, though, is a lot harder than getting it to the side of a paved road. Traditional remote aid stations with melted ice, warm drinks, and no shade are consistent complaints from runners.
That’s where Rivian, the EV automaker who has built its whole brand around doing outdoorsy stuff, enters the picture. For the upcoming Siskiyou Out Back trail running festival—specifically, the Brink 100 Mile Trail Run—Rivian partnered with Nike’s ACG (All Conditions Gear) brand, which specializes in trail running shoes and clothing. In just 12 weeks, Rivian’s Special Projects division fabricated this special R1T Quad pickup into a mobile hydration station and bodega it’s calling “R1T Recharge Truck.” Together with six other Rivian vehicles, they’ll form the “Ultimate Aid Station.”
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What’s a Recharge Truck?
The R1T Recharge is more than just a truck with a wrap and some off-the-shelf parts. While you’ll find roof and bed racks built by Küat, along with Kammok extendable awnings, those are just the base off of which the rest is built.
The setup’s star feature is the Slushie Station that slides out of the bed and onto the open tailgate, secured by carabiners and paracord. Powered by the truck’s onboard outlets and massive 140 kWh battery, one of the twin slushie machines will be loaded with a Mango Pickle blend developed by Nike nutritionists that smells like pickles and tastes like mangos, while the other will have a Coca Cola flavor for the less adventurous.
Runners will be just as interested, if not more so, in the twin coolers located in the R1T’s frunk. One is for clean ice meant to go in water bottles using the supplied scoops, the other for ice you can put on your body and grab with your bare hands. Special enlarged drains keep them from turning into giant ice soup containers. The Special Projects team decided against installing minifridges partly because the ice is expected to be replenished so often (brought in by other support vehicles) and partly because the slushie machines will be using most of the available onboard power. The cooler handles are made from headlamp bands runners will find familiar.
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The Gear Tunnel between the bed and cab, meanwhile, has been repurposed as a snack rack. Sliding out from the tunnel, it has shelves and hooks for snacks, water additives, and energy gels that runners can quickly grab on the go. Additional snacks are on the shelves located next to the slushie machines.
Mounted on the bed rack panels are removable storage boxes for additional gear such as first aid kits, blister lancing kits, toe warmers, and more.
Shading the whole setup are the solid Kammock pop-outs on the sides of the truck, overshadowed by massive, perforated sail panels extending 360 degrees around it. Made from the same Radical Airflow material ACG makes its running garments out of, it’s constructed entirely from recycled polyester, is lightweight, and its 3D texture actually creates a small venturi effect that accelerates airflow and provides a localized cooling effect. Just two posts hold up the sails, with only two guy wires each to minimize tripping hazards. Custom triangular concrete blocks act as tie-downs when stakes aren’t an option. LED light strips are attached all the way around the perimeter of the sails and are powered by the truck, complemented by hidden LED underglow lights under the body for early mornings and late nights (the Siskiyou races last 38 hours 40 minutes and the Recharge station is expected to operate continuously for the entire event).
To make this all useful to event organizers, everything above has been designed to break down easily and fit completely on or inside the truck. Pelican long boxes on the roof rack hold the shade structure, the slushie machines and snack rack slide into their storage locations, and the rear seats have been replaced with a platform and tiedowns to hold storage boxes for everything else. No tools are needed for setup or teardown.