Crewed twice for a friend in a 95 mile ultra that started at 1am, he DNF’d both times. I think the start time played a part.

My advice would be try to take the day off work if it’s not a weekend. Get everything ready the night before and fill the day as much as possible with relaxing things and naps eg trip to the cinema, Netflix, reading a book in your favourite chair etc. Eat your normal meals but maybe try to get your evening meal early at like 5pm. Going off schedule will likely throw your guts out of whack and you don’t want that in a 50miler.... Find something suitable for a pre-race you could eat at 9pm and enjoy the race.

If you have the chance, try going for a run at midnight for three hours to see how your body responds. The only race I’ve DNF’d was an 50 mile ultra that started at 11:30am and not having practiced starting long runs at that time was a major error of judgement, I was all over the place.

Curious though - is the midnight start due to temperatures or a particularly hard course? Seems a really unusual to start a race!

Best of luck!

Thanks for the feedback. I don't know what the rationale is for the midnight start. Hong Kong in February - no need, temp wise, for a midnight start.

Unless you live in HK (or in a similar time zone), disregard! Just figure out how to schedule your sleep times so that you arrive a couple days early and are in the habit of waking up around 10pm or so. After the race, stay up till 10pm. Set the alarm for 8am. Then, you start your vacation!

Did 50 mile race north of Phoenix twice back in the day, started at 3AM. Did nothing different other than taking Day before off from work, race was on a Saturday. You will be fine, just rest up and try to nap day before, you are just getting up very early :)

I live here. Local race.

Maybe they backed off the start time to accommodate more running in daylight, or anticipating daytime finishes? Because who wants to finish in the dark?

YMMV

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I've done a few midnight starts and through the night races (last one started midnight and I finished 30 hours later so ran through 2 sunrises!), don't think the start time really affected me too much, but a couple of things to keep in mind:
- research suggests you may be able to bank sleep, so try to get some extra sleep in the days before
- take care with pre race nutrition, don't have a large evening meal just before the start, I tend to have a large breakfast/brunch, and a lighter early evening meal
- your bowel may be inclined to "move" at different times than normal, take note of where the facilities are and take loo roll/wet wipes with you in case you need to go "al fresco"
- rest up as much as possible on race day, have an afternoon/evening nap if you can
- take it easy with the caffeine, I tend to leave it for late in the race
- be very careful driving afterwards, best to not drive at all or at least have a nap before you drive any significant distance
- your body clock will be out of sync for a couple of days afterwards
- have fun, running at sunrise can be a magical time !

I have done one.

I think it is a little more mentally draining have to concentrate a bit more early, but the flip side is the race is easier mentally in the end when it is typically harder.

To me it is all about setting your expectations. Running is running.

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Brian

you didn't find it harder at the end, from accumulated fatigue/sleepiness?

Hard to say. Every race is so different. I usually run a 50 in about 7 hours, so none of it is in the dark. This one was 75% dark, 15% dusk, 10% daylight. Daybreak brought some mental relief for sure. I would say it was one of the harder 50s I have done, but also hotter/more humid. I don't really think lack of sleep was an issue.

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Brian