Two and a half weeks until El Scorcho! Wow--it's getting close. We're scrambling around and putting together the finishing touches. It's very exciting! With the run at capacity, we're still looking for volunteers. Send Coach Jim an e-mail if you're able and willing.

How cool is this? The Fort Worth Star Telegram just ran a quick blub about our run:

RECREATION INSIDER
Spots in El Scorcho race a hot commodity
By TROY PHILLIPS
Star-Telegram staff writer

It seemed reasonable. For Ryan Valdez's 30th birthday, he and buddy Jason Costantino, 24, would run 30 miles in the middle of the summer.

How hard could it be? Both had ridden the Hotter 'N Hell 100 bike tour in Wichita Falls, that legendary dead-of-summer beast.

"I won't say [running] is harder, but you don't have nearly the cooling effect of a bike," said James Newsom of the Fort Worth Running Company, which Valdez and Costantino approached for help organizing a small race for friends and family.

Newsom and his father, Jim, one of the area's top running coaches, convinced the duo to hold the July race after dark. Thus, the first El Scorcho 50K was born.

Scheduled for midnight July 15 at Trinity Park's 3.1-mile oval, El Scorcho grew from a goofy idea to a full field of 200 runners. At 31 miles, this ultramarathon will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

"When we first talked about it, we said, 'OK, that's fine and everything, but we don't want to kill anybody,'" James Newsom said of the July date.

Valdez and Costantino never expected more than 50 runners, but that was "150 more entries ago than we thought," Costantino said. He's had to call the city about 20 times to re-up the park permit number. People are begging in e-mails to get in. Next year, the event might move to the Trinity Trails.

Costantino wants to fit in a 201st runner, local ultramarathon specialist Dr. Stephen Hudgens, who is set to run the Badwater Ultramarathon on July 23, a ghastly 135-mile race starting in Death Valley. Hudgens has run ultramarathons in China, Greece and Antarctica, among others.
"Badwater is our race on steroids," Costantino said. "Hey, I'd ride the course and hand him water. I'm pretty sure we can fit him in."

Hudgens said he's considering a warmup at El Scorcho, which at this point would be easy for him.

"I don't think [finishing El Scorcho] would be a problem," Hudgens said. "If you want to do your first ultra, I think this is the best way to start. You use up your reserves in a marathon and hit that wall. The extra five miles is a way to push a little further and get past that fatigue."

Registration is now closed. I can't believe we got 200 runners to commit more than a month before El Scorcho.


It's amazing to think that this all started 9 months ago when Jason and I were talking on one of our long training runs. At the time, I had finally broken the 4-hour marathon barrier, and I was thinking about running an ultra. I told Jason I wanted to run 30 miles on my 30th birthday (July 16) and asked him if he'd like to join me. From there, the idea snowballed.


Why don't we run the 30 miles at night to beat the July heat?

What if we invite some more folks to run with us?

What if we made it an organized event?

What if we donated the proceeds to charity?


Knowing our limitations as race directors, we decided to look to the professionals for help. A few e-mails to Coach Jim led us to partner with Fort Worth Running Company. James Newsom (co-owner of FWRunCo) suggested the Trinity Park loop for the course. Perfect.


We set up the website, posted a few messages on some blogs, e-mailed a few listservs, and suddenly, El Scorcho was off and running.


And now, here we are, with 200 crazy runners committed to showing up at midnight on July 15 to run 25K or 50K in Fort Worth, Texas. We've got sponsors, medals, prizes, etc. Wow.


So what else do we need? Volunteers!!! E-mail Coach Jim to help out.

Wow! By the time you read this, El Scorcho may already be full. We've had a huge surge in entries lately. Last time I checked, we had 174 entries. We upped our permit with the City to accomodate 200 runners. But that's it. When we're full, we're full. It's incredible how quickly interest in the run started and took off. If this becomes an annual thing (and that's the idea), we're going to have to expand the field and find a new race site to take care of all the folks crazy enough to run a 50K at midnight in the middle of the summer.

We got another sponsor!

Located in west Fort Worth, The Body Firm provides personalized fitness and nutrition plans for all fitness levels through one-on-one personal training. Owner/trainer Dave Fannin has been involved with the fitness industry for over 20 years. He and his staff help their clients lose fat, tone or build muscle, boost cardiovascular fitness, increase strength and flexibility, recover from injury, and improve diet and nutrition.

We're very excited that The Body Firm is an El Scorcho sponsor. And...

Dave himself is running El Scorcho 50K! Very cool.