Anyone who has been following this blog will know that El Scorcho was last Saturday night/Sunday morning in Fort Worth. This was the 5th Edition of the race (El Scorcho Cinco) that includes at 25K (15.5 miles) and 50K (30 miles) starting at midnight in Trinity Park. The race has a cult like following and totally lived up to the hype, at least in my eyes. I have so much to write about that I decided to break this report into two parts. Since so many people have inquired about the logistics and timeline of a race at midnight, I thought that I would share that in Part I. Part II will be the story of the race experience itself and should be posted within a few days. But first let's take a look at the basic schedule of the day's events.8:30 am I enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Le Peep with Erik, my running partner and the other half of Team K. We were a little unsure of how the meals should play out that day, but knew that we needed a good breakfast. I am usually more conservative, but decided to have some pancakes along with a small serving of scrambled eggs and a side of bacon. I figured that I would need calories for the race and these looked good to me! After breakfast we ran a few errands and went home and packed up for our trip west.
1:00 pm We loaded Maggie and Mr. Sir, our pups, and headed to Fort Worth. Since the race is a solid 50 miles from our house, we decided that it would be easier to get a hotel room and have that function as our home base for the evening. It was easier to take the pups with us than find someone to watch them or worry about them being crated for the night. Fortunately La Quinta Inn has a very friendly pet policy (as in FREE) and the dogs love getting out of the house for an adventure.
2:00 pm We arrived in Fort Worth and got settled in our room and there is another tricky food issue....we never had lunch and are feeling very hungry, yet dinner will be around 6:00 that evening. There was a Subway near our hotel and we picked up a quick bite to tide us over. After eating we headed over to Fort Worth Running Company for packet pick-up and to scout out the race location, parking, etc. I was so excited with the race swag--simply a neon green shirt with the race logo on it--very cool!!
3:30 pm We settled in for nap #1. The best thing about having a hotel, aside from being closer to the race, was the black-out shades and the super cold air conditioning. I am a great napper and fell asleep in a matter of minutes. Erik was not as lucky, but enjoyed the cold and dark room. I woke up before my alarm went off and felt great. Time to find some dinner!!
6:00 pm After consulting the handy iphone for a listing of restaurants around us, we happened upon a lovely little place called Joe's Pizza and Pasta. We decided on pizza and even enjoyed a couple of beers as we talked about the upcoming race. The pizza was so good and if Joe's was closer to home I would be dining there more often. Erik decided that Tiramisu would make a great pre-race treat and took an order to go. Joe's was such a nice little surprise that we plan to make it a tradition for future El Scorchos. Check it out if you ever find yourself in that part of town.
7:30 pm We went back to the hotel and settled in for nap number 2. I set our alarm for 9:45 pm--what a crazy wake-up call for a race--and drifted back to dreamland. Again, I slept with very little trouble while Erik was not as successful. I woke up before my alarm sounded but felt fairly rested was ready to get the show on the road. We got our running gear together, loaded the cooler in the car, and headed out for El Scorcho. Periodic check-ins to Twitter told me that our cheering squad was already set up and that many of our other friends were arriving at the park.
10:30 pm We arrived at the designated parking area, carted our cooler and chairs to the park, and quickly found our home base near the start/finish line. It was time for all of the usual pre-race stuff: taking pictures, eating a small meal (bagel thin for me, Tiramisu for Erik), porta potty lines, visiting with friends, and adding flashing lights to my tutu. The atmosphere was great and I often forgot that it was nearly midnight.
Erik with Liza and Ben Pre-Race
12:00 am Ready, set, GO! The 50K runners started right at midnight and then the 25K runners started about 10 minutes after them. I will tell this part of the story in more detail in Part II of this report.
Rocking the tutu pre-race
3:00 am FINISHED! We pulled our chairs together, enjoyed some water and then a cold beer, changed out of some of the sweat soaked clothes, and cheered for the other runners who were still passing us. It was a really odd moment when I looked at my watch and noticed that it was 3:45 am. I can honestly say that I lost all track of time when we were running and hanging out. It just seemed dark to me, but my brain didn't realize just HOW dark it really was.
6:00 am We packed it up and headed back to the hotel. Our journey was finished and it was time to catch a few hours of sleep before making the drive home.
10:15 am Rise and shine (sorta)! Check-out time was at 11:00 so we began stirring and packed up the pups and headed back to the house. That light sure was bright when we opened the door to the hotel room--it was like we had been dwelling in a cave for the last day. We were starving and may or may not have picked up some deliciously bad food on the way home.
12:00 pm Home sweet home! It was great to be home and reunited with my sofa. We took the rest of the day very easy, napped when we were sleepy, ate when we were hungry, and tried to get back to "normal".
Coming up: Part II...the rest of the story.
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