El Scorcho 25k/50k - Who's in? (Read 1034 times)

Thanks for bringing the camera, Tim. Where's the "after" picture . I had a pretty fun time at this one - it was warm, but I was expecting much worse, so I was able to run it a little faster than I had planned. Lynn, I did see you coming through the start line at one point after I finished, but that must have been the start of your loop 6 since I didn't see you come through again.

Thanks for the pic, Tim, and it was great meeting all of you! I simply loved this race and can see why some of you prefer the trail runs over the road races.

Here's a picture of my flushed white face coupled with a little bloody nipple action.

So, now that I've caught up on my sleep, thought I'd write up a report of sorts. My longest run ever was a horrible 15 miler last weekend and I've had a bit of hip and shin soreness last week, so I woke up Saturday morning questioning whether I really wanted to run the 25k that I had so nonchalantly signed up for. I tried to rest up as much as I could on Saturday - but my wife convinced me that I was falling behind on my cross-training - so I headed out to mow the lawn and do some pool maintenance. My wife also recently started running - so we headed over to the Ft. Worth Running Company (co-race directors for El Scorcho). While my wife was being helped by one of their people, another staff member remembered me from signing up for the race and chastised me for not me home resting with my feet up. After dinner, we headed home so I could get in some more chair time. I laid down for a while but couldn't actually get any sleep, so I got up and got ready and headed over towards the race site. The race site was in Trinity Park. It was a good 1/2 mile from where I parked to the packet pickup - got my stuff and headed back to the truck to get some things and drop off the packet. A little disappointed that the only shirts they had available were S and XS - all other sizes were late from the printers and they would mail them. Works for me. When I got back to the starting area - I ran into Modal (Tim) - who was heading out to grab his camera. In the meantime, I found jlynnbob (Lynn) and tschepsit (Michael). It was starting to get close to starting time and they were doing pre-race announcements. Turns out that the course, which was supposed to be 90% lit going to be half dark, due to the city not turning on enough lights. They had some spare headlamps to loan out, but I decided not to bother. There were, in my opinions a fairly good sized group of spectators hanging around the start/finish area and after the group picture you saw above, I dropped my bag over by Lynn's stuff and we headed to the starting line. I was originally planning on this being a pure training paced run. Michael and Lynn took off ahead and Tim and I ran 10:15-10:20 pace together for most of the first 2 loops. After that we picked up the pace a bit. A mile or so into the third loop, Tim was getting tired and slowed a bit and I was feeling good, so I went faster. Somewhere in the third loop, Michael lapped us - we were amazed that he was that fast. I kept feeling better so I kept running faster every mile/loop. I didn't see Tim or Michael again until after the race. On my final loop (8:37 pace), I caught up to Lynn not too far from the start/finish line. I was almost done - and was glad - I felt a little sorry for Lynn's feet, because I knew he still had another 4 or 5 loops to go. My time was around 2:30 (still waiting for official results) - about what I expected. I got my medal and had my chip cut off and then found Michael in the finish area. We chatted for a bit and were waiting for Tim to finish and hoping to see Lynn so we could tell him goodbye. We were amazed at how some of the 50k runners - who had already completed at least 25k - were still running through at good speeds. I was equally amazed that Michael had finished in 1:50 something. When Tim came in, we noticed that his shirt was bloody and told him he needs to get a box of bandaids. Of course it happens to all of us at some point. Tim was more interested in getting a picture (which you can see above, as well). We waited around for a bit longer waiting for Lynn. Seeing what he wrote earlier - this must have been his 6th loop. So we said our goodbyes and headed home. This is a race that I will definitely do again. I am also going to have to get a headlamp of some sort for this race and any other night trail runs. We didn't need it much, but for those few seconds here and there - it would have very handy. I thought the race was well organized, well supported with volunteers and spectators. I had a great time and may consider doing the 50k next year.

Here's my El Scorcho experience. Split times are from memory and probably wrong. This is the first time I've written a race report, so if you're smart, you'll just skip this and go to the next post. I hate the heat. For pretty much my whole life, whenever the temperature approached 80F and I tried to run, I'd end up bent over and sucking air after a mile or so. It didn't matter how slow I was running or how fit I thought I was. I managed to get past some of this over the last couple of summers, running up to 10 miles at 5am (still 80F+, usually), walking into the house, and laying on the floor under the fan for half an hour or more. So, when I saw a race called El Scorcho, I naturally had to sign up to find out if it would kill me. I figured 25k ought to be sufficient to do that - no need for the overkill of a 50k. I arrived at Trinity Park before 11pm, picked up my chip and number, ran into Tim, put my stuff back in the car, and stood around for a while getting eaten by mosquitoes. Thankfully, I wasn't standing around by myself getting eaten by mosquitoes. We ran into Mike and Lynn after a little while. Lynn seems to be on a first name basis with everyone else who was at the event, so he introduced us to a few other runners who were apparently regulars at various other masochistic ultrarunning events. Of course, this made me feel like a wuss for doing the 25k, especially since it didn't feel as hot to me as I thought it would (NWS says it was 76, but it felt more like 70 to me - this was a good sign). We talked a little bit about what kind of pace we were planning on - I said I was hoping to be in the neighborhood of 2 hours. I had been thinking I'd go out at around 27 minutes for the first loop, then down to around 25 for the other 4 - maybe slightly faster on a couple to try to come in at around 2:05. I figured if I was feeling good after the first couple laps, maybe I could try to come in under 2:00. Since it didn't feel as hot as I thought it would, why not just go for 2 hours flat from the start? Anyway, the race director herded us all to the start line. I started out pretty comfortable, though maybe weaving a little more than I should have. The first mile or so (no mile markers, and I don't own a Garmin, so I may be way off) to the north end of the course seemed to go by pretty quick. When I saw the leaders headed back my way, I decided to count, out of curiosity. I got to 20 before hitting the turnaround. This probably meant that I was going too fast, so I tucked in behind the next guy that I caught and stopped passing people for a while. Fortunately, that guy had a headlamp on, because it got pretty dark at times. This section included a curb illuminated by a car's headlamps, and a small eroded part of the trail lit by a lantern. Fort Worth may have failed to keep the lights on, but the organizers did a great job of improvising to keep it safe. I followed the headlamp guy for a while, then got bored and figured that if I was going to crash and burn, I might as well do it while having fun, so I went by him and just ran at what seemed like a comfortable and fun pace. I came through the first lap in 23:42. Oops! That had me a little worried, but I decided I'd deal with the pain later. The second lap flew by, and I felt great. The clock read 46:19 after that one. Oops, again. At this point I was starting to catch the back end of the pack. By the time I was halfway through this lap, there were enough people at enough different paces that it really didn't feel like a competition as much as just a run in the park. This was kind of fun - there were enough people that I was never completely alone, but the spacing was such that nobody was really in each others' way, either. I started to feel a little uncomfortable towards the finish of the third lap. As I went through the starting area, I eyed the port-o-lets and wondered if I was going to regret not stopping. By the time I reached the turnaround on this lap, I was occasionally stopping to waddle and very much regretting the decision not to stop. Still, I kept going, and by the time I finished the fourth lap (which felt like forever and was almost as painful for me as reading this report is for you), I was feeling just well enough that I didn't want to stop - after all, it's only 5k left, right? At this point, the clock said 1:31:??, and I didn't want to burn my shot at finishing under 2:00 by sitting down. I suffered through the first half of the last lap, then the discomfort suddenly subsided, permitting me to finish with some semblance of a kick in 1:53:??. I headed for the water table, where somebody with a FWRunCo shirt on asked about my name and phone number so he could let me know when the shirts come in. According to him, I was 5th overall, though I don't remember passing enough people for that to happen. I don't think they do any age group things at this run, which is somewhat disappointing since I turned old graduated to a new age group last week. After that, I stood around for a few minutes, they took some group pictures of the first 10 or so finishers, and then I made a beeline for the portajons as the discomfort returned. I've never stepped in a portable toilet that smelled so clean and felt so comfortable in my life. I came back out in time to see Modal come through. I said something to try to encourage him, but he seemed too exhausted focused to recognize and respond. Turns out his discomfort had the opposite results that mine did. I hung around until Bonkin finished, and he's described the rest of it already for you, so I'll spare you the additional agony of reading this (seriously, why haven't you moved on to the next post already? Are you a masochist an ultra-reader or something?). I got back to my car, checked my phone to be sure that my wife didn't go into labor and have our kid without me around, and drove home. I ended up arriving home around 4am. I was showered and in bed by 4:30, only to be awakened by my son the human alarm clock a little late at 7:10. Funny, I didn't remember hitting the snooze button. Good thing we're going to have a redundant alarm clock around soon. Anyway, I thought the race was well-organized, and I expect to do it again next year. Who knows, maybe it really will be hot next year and I'll decide that the 50k isn't overkill after all.

Official El Scorcho results are up here. Congrats on the nice finishes you guys. 6th overall for Michael in the 25k and 12th overall for Lynn in the 50k. Woohoo!

jlynnbob! Wow! 8:50 min/mile? You sure you did not make two quick loops through? modal

jlynnbob! Wow! 8:50 min/mile? You sure you did not make two quick loops through? modal

No way I was running 8:50 miles (at least after the 4th loop)! 4:35, HA!...That may have been my time after 8 loops...I know some of the times are correct, as one of my friends ran 4:15 for 6th overall, but I see some other times that are not close. I am sure they are working on it... At least I know I didn't stop running until after 5:30 AM, maybe I lost track of my loops, maybe I DID run a 4:35....naaaaahhhhh!