Mohican Trail 100 - The Quest For Redemption

 The Plan

The plan going into this race had three essential parts.  The first was to go into this race with the mindset that aside from a broken bone or comparable serious injury, nothing was going to stop me from finishing the race.  The idea of a possible 32 hour death march to the finish was something I kept at the forefront of my mind from the very beginning.  The second was to revert back to using gel as my primary fuel source.  After the issues I had with Tailwind at the Indiana Trail 100, I just didn’t feel comfortable trying something new, and instead would go with what had gotten me to the finish in my previous hundreds.  The piece of the plan was both the most crucial and most difficult to adhere to.  I decided that I was going to start off with an average pace in the 13-15 minute per mile range and stick with it for the entire time.  In my previous events, I always went out quickly and would find myself nearly unable to run during the last 30-40 miles of each race.  I have always started off slow, but usually can only manage sticking to that plan for a short while before I talk myself into going faster. 

Loop One

Obiligatory "praying" photo - Christy always catches me doing this.

I chose to line up at the very end of the pack at the start of the race and ran with the pack through the park and onto the trail.  Once on the trail, it was an agonizingly slow walk up a gradual incline.  I kept having to talk myself out of picking up the pace and cutting in front of the conga line.  I kept repeating in my head “stick to the plan, stick to the plan”.  I was listening to a couple of older guys telling jokes and talking about some other ultra runs.  Dave and Greg were shooting for their 10^th and 11^th finishes and listening to them helped keep my mind off of darting around the pack – until sometime in mile 3.  At some point, Dave said he was going to stay in position for 5 more minutes and then was going to go around.  He asked if anyone was game, and I blurted out “YES!”  Dave shouted out at the 5 minute mark and we passed the group that we were behind.  We passed probably 12 people right there and got in with another group that we stuck with until the first aid station somewhere around mile 4.  I hadn’t drank much of my water up to this point so I just called out my number and kept moving through the aid.  I fell in with another group of guys who seemed like relative new comers to the ultra distance (based on their general comments) so I rolled along with them for a couple of miles until I just couldn’t handle being behind the guy who thought it was funny to fart in my direction.  I passed around and ended up talking with a runner named Aria, who happened to be from Oregon.  We chit chatted for a bit about our jobs, running careers and the Pacific Northwest.  Before I knew it, I was at a large set of man made stairs leading down to Lyon’s Falls.  Standing beneath the waterfall and getting doused with the cold water was invigorating.  The short section through the creek bottom gave way to the infamous hand over hand climb out and back onto the trail.  That area was a stunning sight.  Certainly nothing I would have expected to find in Ohio.  I soon found myself separated from all runners, and before I knew it, I had passed through the remaining aid stations and arrived at the start/finish.  I had told Christy to expect me there in around 6 hours, and I think I came in just beyond that.  Just a quick “I love you” later, I took off for the second loop with a fresh supply of gels and full water bottles.

Loop Two

Not being stuck behind the conga line of people during the first ascent of this loop was excellent.  I was still maintaining a slow but steady pace with lots of power hiking mixed with solid running.  After the second aid station on this loop, I met up with a runner named Tommy who was from Southwest Michigan.  We seemed to have the same approach to the race as far as pacing goes.  We were running the flats and downs well, but walking pretty much every climb.  We made our way down into Lyon’s Falls for the second time with me leading the way.  There are multiple points where you have to crawl either over or under some fallen logs.  I misjudged one of these, and mashed my forehead into one of them.  Fortunately, I was wearing a hat and the strap on in probably prevented me from splitting my head open.  After climbing out of the falls for the last time, we made our way to a point where Tommy’s friends were waiting for him.  I told him I would see him down the way and kept moving.  It was around this time that I started to feel some hot spots developing on my feet.  This was very weird for me since I haven’t really ever had any blister issues.  I guess the humid conditions combined with a few muddy sections and creek crossings were the culprit.  To this point, I had not stopped in any of the aid stations for longer that the time it took to fill water bottles, so I was actually kind of disappointed to resign to the fact that I would need to stop for a shoe change at the halfway point.  However, I knew that it was absolutely necessary.  I kept plugging along and realized that with 4 miles to the halfway point, I hadn’t had any low points or hit any walls yet.  Typically, I really tank somewhere between 23-26 miles and have to battle to get myself back in the game.  This gave me a great deal of confidence that my plan was working and I was proud that I had stuck to it as long as I had.  When I finished the loop, my overall pace was somewhere around 13:10/mile – right where I wanted to be.  I told Christy about me feet problems and she directed me to some ladies that were volunteering their time to help with blister issues.  They went to work on my feet, identifying the problem areas while I enjoyed a turkey sandwich.  I sat there for probably 20 minutes while they worked on me, but I knew that I would be much better for it when it was all said and done.  When I stood up, my body reminded me why I shouldn’t sit down during these things.  I hobbled over to my bag to grab my last items and told Christy I had to get the hell out of here.  After a quick kiss, I walked away and got back to work.

Halfway Point - Hot Concerned About Feet

Loop 3

The 3^rd and 4^th loops are shorter than the first 2, mainly for safety reasons.  The loops cut out the Lyon’s Falls section but adds on a short 2 mile bop between aid stations 2 and 3.   I met up with Tommy again for a short while and shared some random conversations.  He seemed to be moving along quite a bit better than I was so I just let him go on ahead.  I put in my headphones and just kept moving along, focusing on eating and drinking consistently.  After my stop for foot repair, my average pace had gone from 13:10/mile to 13:33/mile.  Part of me wanted to push really hard to get back to where I was, but I felt that it was still too early to consider deviating from my race plan.  That didn’t stop me from putting in a little more effort on the downhills though.  In fact, I kind of hammered the downhills from mile 20 on to the finish – something I’ve never been able to do.  When I got to aid station 3 (Covered Bridge) I tried to eat some Quesadillas that they had there but my stomach wasn’t having it.  This was a bit concerning.  My stomach was craving something more substantial that the gels that I had been having all day.  I turned my headlamp on at around mile 70 and when I made it into the Hickory Ridge aid station, I was very dizzy.  I didn’t want to mention this to the people working the station in fear that they might pull me from the race or make me wait around.  Instead, I grabbed 6 pieces of watermelon and sat in a chair and ate them.  One of the volunteers told me I shouldn’t sit down, but I just told him I had to get the food down.  Fortunately, he didn’t ask any other questions, but instead told me I was in 8^th place.  This gave me a surge of adrenaline and I jumped up and headed out.  The final few miles to the start/finish were a bit of a blur.  I know that I was pushing pretty hard to get out and started on my last loop.  When I got there, I was in and out, only filling my bottles and grabbing the last couple of gels that I would need to bring me home.

Loop 4

The Final Stretch - Running Under The Bridge 

Because I had sat down for so long before loop 3, I had to walk for a bit to get my body going again.  This wasn’t the case on loop 4.  I ran out of the park and back on to the trail.  Knowing that I was on my last loop, I felt like I could stop holding back.  I started to run more of the uphills and I was really pleased that I was still able to push the effort on the flats and downs.  Especially the downs.  Shortly after the first aid station, I ran into Tommy and I was very surprised.  He was walking and just mentioned that he was not a night runner and had no comfort that he would be able to run without injuring something.  I told him to keep working and moving and that I hoped to see him down the way.  (Unfortunately, it looks like he dropped.  I couldn’t find his name on the race results.)  I pressed on and actually pushed a bit harder to get into the 2^nd aid station.  Once there, again I tried very hard to be in and out, only grabbing some more water melon and dousing my head with ice water.  I was beginning to get sleepy, and the water really seemed to snap my head back in the game.  The next 2 mile section seemed to go very quickly on the way over to Covered Bridge.  A lot of the trail is downhill through here and I was going to take advantage of my legs allowing my downhill running as much as possible.  At this point, there was nothing to lose and everything to gain.  I had been passing people quite regularly for the last 10 miles or so, but I had no idea if who I was passing was on their fourth loop or not, so I had no idea if I was moving up in the rankings.  This changed at Covered Bridge.  I was again in and out, but this time I was leaving with a guy and a girl (don’t know which was the runner or the pacer) and I knew that one of them was on their 4^th loop.  I walked out of the aid with them and they wanted to talk a little so I obliged, but then mentally made a decision that I was going to run the next climb and hammer the down as hard as I could to not only put some separation between us, but hopefully demoralize them a bit.  At the time, I felt really cutthroat.  Now, I don’t really feel all that good about it.  I’m not in this sport for the high finishes.  Anyhow, I was able to climb that hill pretty well and I ran HARD down the next descent.  It felt great and I never saw them again.  From here to the end of the race, I didn’t see anyone else that was on the same loop.  The final aid stations came and went and on the last long descent off the trail, I just let go and let gravity do the last of the work.  Coming down onto the road for the last time was a very happy feeling.  I saw Christy on the road watching for me, and I gave her a bit of a fist pump but she didn’t see it.  Crossing under the bridge and up across the finish line was an amazing feeling.  I’ve never felt that good finishing a hundred, and it was even better considering the disappointments of Bear 100 and Indiana Trail 100. 

And Done.

Final Notes

• Final time was 22:22:20, 7^th place overall.  Highest finish in a 100 miler
• Total elevation gain was around 15,000 feet.  That made this course 2-3 times harder than Rocky Raccoon which is my fastest 100.  (21:46)
• This was certainly my most consistent 100.  My average pace at the end of the first loop was around 12:50/mile and my average pace for the entire race (assuming that it was in fact 100.71 miles) was 13:20/mile.
• Watermelon is probably my new go to solid food in ultras.  I ate a ton of it.
• No cramping or need for pickle juice at all!  First time since Arkansas Traveller!
•  Recovery from this race has been the easiest and fastest.  Very stoked!
• I dealt with chafing issues for the first time in a race.  Time to invest in body glide for the more humid ultras.
• I used the New Balance 1210 for the first half and the Pearl Izumi N2 for the second half.  The only thing I think I need to change about this is wearing the heaviest weight of Injinji socks with the 1210.  Either that or get a half size smaller the next time I buy them.  The N2 feels more rigid and stable and I think this was a good choice for the second half.  

Redemption