Monday, July 20, 2009

El Scorcho Tres Recap

For those of you who don't know, my buddy Ryan and I decided to run 30 miles for his 30th birthday. Well that was three years ago and now it has turned in to an annual Ultramarathon with over 500 people running it this year. We are proud of the great event Scorcho has become, and man it can be a lot of fun and work all at the same time.

This recap is going to be short, basically just a weekend timeline. Ryan usually does a great all out recap on his blog so I may just leave that up to him.

10am- Toilets delivered to the park. Toilets were the wrong kind, without the locking mechanism, but didn't have much choice in refusing them at the time.

11am- Run over to Fort Worth Running Company to pick up some supplies. Got an awesome new headlamp for the race.

1pm- Head over to Costco to pick up food, water, extra coolers, and various other race goods. It is amazing how much money you can spend when you are taking care of 500+ people.

4pm- Make sure I have everything gathered up and in the car ready to go.

6pm- Had to stop by work and pick up all the radios. It takes a lot of wall plugs to charge 16 radios.

8pm- Start unloading. Gotta get aid stations, packet pick-up, PA systems, parking area, and a ton of other things set up and ready to go. Jmoney had already set up most of the course during the day so that was a huge help.

10pm- Volunteers and runners start to arrive. GandaMan and Six Pack make a run through the course to check on everything. Still running around trying to get everything set up.

11pm- Last minute details, dealing with the sheer number of people, almost showtime

12:01am- Race starts, I get to lead everyone off (on bike of course), dropping glowsticks while I pedal to give runners a better visual guide of the route (new idea this year that everyone seemed to appreciate)

12:15am- Aid stations are getting crushed but volunteers are handling it well

1am- Things are starting to settle down, runners going through water and cups like crazy

2am- Some of the 25k speed demons are finishing, everyone is finding their rhythm, have to make a run to CVS for hand wipes for the Aid Station Volunteers

3am- Keith Pierce finishes the 50k in 3:08 (new course record), most of the 25kers are starting to trickle in. We are starting to run low on cups so we make a Wal-Mart run

4am- Thing are starting to get quiet, mainly just 50k runners left.

6am- Sunlight starts to break and we do our best to cleanup as much as we can, enjoying cheering on those runners still out on the course, between the volunteers and runners it is just a great group to be around

7am- Cleanup begins hard and heavy, unfortunately it is mainly just the race directors and a select other few. The volunteers had been with us all night and done an awesome job so you they headed home. Hopefully next year we can have some extra help with cleanup after the race.

9am- Finish up at the park and proceed to go and drop of supplies and equipment.

10am- Dirty, Sweaty, and Stinky, but screw it we are going to Ol' South Pancake House to eat some breakfast.


Personal Timeline after 10am

11am- Drive back home and get ready to drive the wifearoo (who surprised me by showing up at El Scorcho), back to Austin.

11:30am- quick shower and on the road headed south on I-35

2:30pm- In Austin taking care of errands

4:30pm- Find myself enjoying life floating around in Lake Travis with a beer and some great friends.

12:30am- Finally pass out back in Austin at Dori's apartment. First time I slept since the start of El Scorcho preparations.

One unforgettable weekend!!!!!!!!

Thursday, July 09, 2009

AC Outage Culprit

So my air conditioning atthe house went out yesterday. Turns out this
little wire was the culprit.