El Scorcho 50k

Race day finally arrived and I loaded up the truck, picked up Reese, and headed south. The trip to Fort Worth was relatively uneventful and we arrived at the Fort Worth Running Company with about 30 mins to spare before the end of packet pick up. One look at the race shirt and I knew this race was designed to be visible from the International Space Station. I wondered what odds the astronauts were giving me?

After packet picket I decided to make a quick run to the REI in Dallas. I usually make a side trip there when in town. This quick jaunt turned into an all day affair thanks to a missed turn and me not paying too much attention until the Galleria loomed into sight (about 15 miles after my exit). By the time we got back to the hotel it was between 5 and 6 pm and the thought was to catch a little shut eye before the 10:30 check in time for the race. It was a nice thought but never really happened all things considered I would have been better off staying active as trying to sleep unsuccesfully just made me feel groggy. Of course by checkin time for the race I was def. ready for some shut eye - which was just exacerbated by the hour and half wait until the actual race start.

During the wait I alternating between lusting for a pillow so I could sleep to chatting with two runners Michael and Jauque from the Houston running club. Michael was a veteran with a couple of ultras and a sub 3 hour marathon under his belt who admitted to signing up just to shut Jauque up about the race. Jacque may have been a newbie to the world of ultra marathons but being from South Africa originally he kept me spell bound with tales of the Comrades Marathon. The Comrades is probably the worlds biggest ultra and is on my lifes list of races. From all accounts it is a very hilly tough 56 mile race. By this time the race was ready to begin - sorta. Maurice and I stepped about 15 feet behind the starting line vowing to not start out front or go out to fast (like I'd ever do that). The only problem was eveyone else lined up behind us. I kept thinking the frontrunners would crowd the line at any minute and leave us at the middle of the pack and they continued to defy my expectations. The race finally started about 5 mins. after midnight as we waited for the arrival of a local news station reporter to arrive and video the start.

The race itself had little suprises. As usual my stomach was my albatross. Although I guess there was one suprise - my ability to stay awake. Now with my previous night owl lifestyle and latter a career that often called for 24-36 hour "emergency shifts" you'd think that would be no problem for me. Well this night owl has become an early bird and by the middle of the third lap was sleep running. Thankfully Reese came by and gave me some caffine tablets (of which I should have taken several more of) which helped for a lap or two. And after the fourth lap I was really hurting. The pattern was my normal. Hold off on fluids until my stomach settles, by then I'm seriously dehydrated and have to take in enough fluids to get my stomach upset again - repeat. By the start of the seventh lap I managed to get angry and threw down my bottles and ran the last three laps hard without taking any nutrition. I was pushing hard trying to get back for a 5:30 finish pace. Unfotunately I saw the clock at the start of my tenth lap and realized I would need to run a 24 minute 5k to finish within 5:30. Normally that's no big deal for me but after 45k trust me its a challenge. This is one area I was dissapointed with myself, instead of pushing for every minute and probably finishing about 5:39 I took it easy the first half of the last lap and didn't turn it on until the last 2k and came in at 5:45. Overall a good experience and one the again reminded me I have to figure out my nutrition in the heat - no matter what I manage in training the stress of race day (or night) will make it tougher