"By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail"

This was my second time running this race. Not sure why I ran it, really. I fell for the "sign up early or pay more later" trap. I spent the bucks so I was comited. I went into this midnight event as a "long training run with benefits". I secretly wanted to beat last year's time, but I knew that was a long shot, as I haven't been training a whole lot lately.

This race is run completely in a park in Ft Worth, and starts at midnight. There is a 25K flavor (La Scorchita) and the 50K both running the same 5K loop. There were about 400 runners in both events. Nice 10MPH breeze, temps started in the low 80s, and by the time I finished were in the upper 70s.
Like last year, I got to Trinity Park (in Ft Worth) about 2 hours early. Set up my aid station right along side the trail. Met up with a few friends, and sat around awaiting the stroke of midnight.

I was going to try to run as even splits as possible. I was also planning to walk through each of the aid stations, every 1.5 miles.

The 5K laps slowly ticked away.I kept talking to myself along the way.
1 down ("10% complete").....2 down ("only 8 to go")....3 down ("almost 10 miles...only 20 miles to go...uggg..why am I doing this?"). 4 down ("40%...1 more lap an you're halfway")...5 down ("half way...15.5 miles..that's the longest you've run since..should I quit now and call it a 25K training run?" ... 6 down ("only 4 to go...that's 12.4 miles remaining...that's longer than you've run since Steamboat in June"...

On the 7th lap, I ran about 1.5 miles with a guy from Houston. I thought he looked much faster than me, and was surprised to find out he was on the same lap. That 1.5 miles just flew by as we talked about our other races. I assured him that I wasn't going to try to race him for a spot, but just "wanted to finish". As we crossed the line with 2 laps to go, he must have stopped a while at the aid station, because I lost him, and wasn't about to wait up for him. He ended up finishing a few minutes behind me, but I credit him for lighting a fire under me to get my rear in gear!

The last 2 laps flew by..and my times improved. As I crossed the finish line at 4:43AM, I was surprised to find out that I placed in the top 10 -- which earned me a pretty cool shoe bag/back pack thingy (though it only has a single strap)..anyways it's the closest thing to hardware that I've earned this year.

I broke a few cardinal rule of running (and I didn't pay the price):

I wore a brand new pair of shoes (and socks). (but my feet felt great the whole way)

I ate/drank stuff I didn't train with. They had Heed gels and drink. Not great, but didn't make me hurl.

First run after El Scorcho on Sunday. Felt pretty good. Hills with Jo and Eric. 75F, 5 MPH Wind. 7:15AM.

I've been working with a couple of people from China over the past few weeks. After 3 straight days of eating at the Chinese buffet, I noticed a little extra bounce in my steps (not in a good way)..time to get serious about nutrition and training for St George!

AP: 8:10