Mohican 100 Trail Race (pacer/volunteer report)

Monday, June 18, 2007 - Mohican 100 Trail Race.

My experience this weekend began with arriving on Friday afternoon to the campground at the start/finish line of the race around 4pm. There was a pasta dinner about to begin and after finding our way to the cabin we would share with Kim (and watching 72 year old Leo flirt with my wife - with his furry chest of white hair blowing in the breeze...), we spent some time at the race pavillion chatting with different runners and friends. I spent some time with Vince of Vertical Runner and met many new friends, awaited Josh, reviewed race day strategy with Kim, as well as aid station duties with Vince.

Once the spaghetti and side salad was consumed, I found out Vince was planning a run of the Blue Loop and I invited myself along. I would not get to run the Blue Loop with Kim in the race and wanted to see it so bad. Vince and his pups Sadie and Dexter, Mike George, my wife, and I all headed over to the Blue Loop around the time that all the runners were getting their pre-race briefing. I cleared it with Kim before I went, because I did not want her worried in any way that it would affect my pacing ability for her the following night. She said GO!

My wife not being a runner (yet) the loop would be run by Vince (w/pups), Mike and I. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and had really looked forward to seeing the hand over hand climb at Little Lyon Falls that I had so often read about. It was really neat, and Vince's dogs made it up as well...Sadie climbed and Dexter needed a little push from the cheetah, during which I think he clawed Vince up. My wife stayed behind and enjoyed the area near the Covered Bridge (henceforth CB - a central point of the race.)

We never had a final time elapsed for running the blue loop because Mike stopped his watch accidentally, but we were all good and sweaty when we were done, so we know we did a good job. After going back to the Campground, my wife and I drove a little ways back towards town to find some more food, and also some cellphone signal to say goodnight to the kids who were staying with my parents.

Got to bed fairly early for us, and I would wake up with Kim so I could witness the start of the race, something I did not want to miss. Kim and I got her last bits of running gear ready and after her ceremonial prerace poop for her (sorry Kim, but real life is real life) we headed to the start around 4:30am. I was able to shake hands and wish good luck to Kim, Josh, Roy (going for #10 and the 1000 mile buckle), and many others I have come to know.

The race packet says they start the race PROMPTLY at 5:00 no matter what. Bullshit. They were still trying to check everyone in at this time and didn't start the runners til around 5:07 by my watch.
Off they went, and off I went, back to the sleeping bag for another hour or so of slumber. We got up and went into town to get some breakfast before we would have to report to Hickory Ridge aid station for our duties starting around 8:30am.

As we awaited the leader of the race, we stocked our aid station up with water, Gatorade, GU2O, fruit, pretzels, fig newtons (!!!), raisins, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, various candies, and a few first aid type items and a body lube called Chamous Butt'R that I had never seen before, but later used to lube my feet before pacing.

Aid station work is pretty straight forward. You fill their water bottles, and basically do whatever you can to get them what they need quickly, so they can get their asses back down the trail. Good aid stations mottos:

"Take whatever you need, and get the hell outta here!"

"Beware the chair" (courtesy of Roy Heger to me last winter)

"Drop from the race? Why don't you just sit over there and think about that for awhile....we can't get you a ride right now anyways..." (courtesy of Vince Rucci, saved a guy's race....he stayed with us over an hour...left and went on to finish in 21:30....afterwards he was so grateful to Vince!)

Our aid station would be at miles 25.8 and 68.0 during the race. I would actually go through here as a pacer later on with Kim. We closed down the aid station for two hours around lunch time, because all the runners were through for the first time, and the leaders would not be back through until late afternoon. On our way out to lunch in town, fate brings me to the intersection of Rt. 3 and Rt. 97 at the same time as guess who....

Back at the aid station in the second shift the runners would be more spread out and we would watch the lead change as the first runner who came in had to sit awhile and one or two guys passed him while he was there. The first female runner came through in about 4th place overall: Connie Gardner, no surprise to anyone around here, she is legendary. The second female was a surprise though, Cristal Harris I think, and it was her FIRST ultra of any kind. Only marathons before (are you listening Tony!) She stayed in second place (female 2nd, they talk about it that way) and finished her first 100 miler there, maybe you can contact her Tony and get some strategy? Red, can we expect to see you out there soon? You can do it!

I was happy to be able to see Roy Heger come through the second time around before I had to head out to the Fire Tower (mile 60.9 on the Green Loop) to await Kim to pace her. The comments to Roy from Vince and Joe Jurczyk when he came through were "968 miles done, only 32 to go...." This was referring to his 10th finish or 1000 miles.

When I got to the Fire Tower I reconnected with Wendy from the February training run and she was awaiting her husband Rich who was somewhere near Kim. SHE is the evil being behind my fig addiction. Back in Feb when I was out of food and we had a few miles to go on our 25 or so mile run, she offered up the fig and I bit...now I need to find a place specializing in Fig Rehab because of her. Fig Pusher! She has two very polite teenagers and we talked for awhile waiting on Kim and Rich. At some point, I overheard a young looking guy in front of me talking about being signed up to run his first 100 miler in August. I approached him and his name was Christian from Columbus and he was 27. We talked a lot about the BR course and eventually when he talked about needing more trail and night running experience, I asked him why not run with me and Kim? I knew she wouldn't mind. So he says sure, he wanted to run about 10 miles and he will run out with us awhile and then come back.

We move out and the first leg is only 2.5 miles down to the CB. Things are going well, Kim is looking so DAMN STRONG! I marvel at how she is running when I remember how I felt after my first 50 miler. As we near the CB she tells me to run ahead and ask the podiatrists located there to be ready to repair two blisters on the sides of her heels. (Kim, let me know if you think those are because of shoe choice? sock choice?) I do so, and they get ready while I go fill water bottles and get Kim and I some soup and stuff. She gets there and they start fixing the feet and my duties included getting her finishing bag (normally called a "drop bag" by everyone else, but I got to be me....) and bringing it back so she can get what she needs. As I watched the doctors work, I wondered to myself why one of the spare doctors couldn't do the left ankle/heel while the first one worked on the right? I am an idiot, why didn't I speak up? After about 10-12 minutes the other doctor suggests this and I whip off Kim's shoe, bandage, and sock so the doc can get to cutting. (worshipping at the foot of the trail goddess here.) Think about that though, that is maybe 12 minutes of WASTED time letting the docs do one foot only, and I am supposed to be her helper....just standing there with my mouth shut! I reiterate, I am an IDIOT.

When Kim got to me at Fire Tower she had just under one hour of cushion time on the cutoff there, and when we left at CB, I could see that we would have very little cushion at all at the next stop of Hickory Ridge (mile 68.0) I was excited crossing the bridge and going into the woods, because I had not run any of the Orange Loop at all. It is primarily uphill to Hickory Ridge so of course we mixed in a good amount of walking with a still impressive amount of running to me for this late in the race. As we got closer and closer to HR I was more worried about the cutoff, and hatched the plan that I would take the water bottles ahead and fill them while Kim either stopped VERY briefly or not at all depending on her needs. I charged into the aid station hard and as I was filling them and grabbing stuff, she just ran right on through and kept going. So I blasted out and took her the bottles, almost forgetting my camera and her Ipod.

Well, by now we had suckered Christian into running the whole night with us because he had no headlamp of his own and we suggested it would be dangerous to run back alone in the dark. He was an easy sell though, because he recognized the value of the experience he was getting for August's race. He borrowed Kim's extra light and ending up running with us all night. We were treated to stories about his gay alter ego that he keeps on Myspace and that kept us laughing all night.

We wound around and around down the Orange Loop towards Grist Mill and I had gotten the cutoff time back at Hickory Ridge so I could plan our attack. They said 3:23 am and at the halfway point down Hickory Ridge, it was going to be too damn close for comfort. I began cracking the whip and doing everything I could think of to get Kim to run faster. I made jokes to take her mind off the pain in her legs, I ran ahead and while Christian talked to her, I kept the pace up hoping she would follow and go faster just trying to stay close to me.....At the end of the loop coming off the last hill, I could see it was just crazy close, and I started really pushing her verbally by telling her that she had better make sure I was getting everything she had short of injury....telling her that her race was RIGHT NOW....telling her a story I heard about how we can do more than we think when we are fatigued like this. Keep in mind that this is 3am and she has been running since 5am....22 hours. Dammit if Kim didn't push herself and just put her head down and make that cutoff! We got in and they informed me the cutoff was actually 3:35 and we had 5 minutes to spare.

This is where one of the funniest things happened. Kim told me she needed my light because her batteries were weak and I rushed it to her as she went along side this building at the Grist Mill that I ASSUMED was a bathroom. After a few minutes, and knowing that we had no time to spare I was asking the aid station volunteer about the bathroom over there so I could go hurry her out of it....the volunteer tells me, "That is not a bathroom, the trail goes up there past the building..." OH shit! Christian and I tear up into the woods like nutcases to catch Kim, not that she really needed us, but just the adrenaline of losing my runner and I was flying like madman uphill. I caught her at the top about halfway through the loop, and we finished it off going back in. We had to be back in to the Grist Mill by 3:47 am because this was a very short loop, but because it is all up and down, and Kim's quads are very sore at this point, she could only climb and descend so fast, and we made it in around 3:50 am.

Kim's 2007 Mohican finished at 75.0 miles counted, and 75.9 miles covered because they don't count the loop you don't make in time. That is around 15 miles farther than she went last year, 7 miles farther than one very seasoned and fit runner I know made it. I cannot help but think if I would have spoken up at the CB to the doctors, we would have been able to start the orange loop at least and maybe get her 80 miles. I know Kim doesn't hold it against me, because she could have spoken up too, and there are many others aspects of her own race that she will discuss on her blog (www.ultranewby.blogspot.com)

Does my race experience end here at the Grist Mill?

Come on, this is me. I came here to run ALL night, and I wanted "Mo" running. So I told Christian I was going out on the Orange Loop anyhow because I thought I could pass some runners and maybe pace them further into the race. He wanted to come along. Kim looked at me, knew I was crazy enough to do it, and she and the volunteer there gave me a little shortcut trail to take to help me pass some racers and beat them to the CB so I could see if they wanted pacers. We filled our bottles and took off.

We went into Mohican Campground A and entered Hemlock Grove trail at the back of the campground, after stopping at the ranger station and grabbing a map, and bypassing a hilly section the runners of the race have to do. We ran up the Mohican River to CB and when we got there, the only runners coming in didn't need or want pacers. DAMN. Well, we thought about what to do for a bit, it is now 5am and starting to barely lighten up...a crew member comes out of the woods and is loading up his truck....I ask him if he would mind driving us to Rock Point so we could get in front of more runners (hopefully Josh!) and try to get more work pacing. He drives us, me upfront for directions, and Christian sitting in the bed of this S10 pickup.

When we get there I check in with the timer, and I may have misunderstood her, but I THOUGHT she said Josh was already through there. So we ask the next runner if he needs a pacer....Nope....then the next..."Hell yeah!!" We got our job. Sean McCormack of Cincinnati (funny that is where Josh is from.) Out we go, and right from the start I can tell we have a smart runner. 90+ miles into this race and he still has the energy to run ALL the downhills and flats and we are only walking the uphills. Many around us are walking everything....they will still finish but they are wiped out, and Sean is still running.

Sean was a real joy to run with and told us about his 8 day old first daughter back at home. Quinn Hailey was her name. We just talked and talked and hopefully distracted him a good amount through those final hard miles. Before we knew it we were at Landoll's Castle aid station where I filled his water bottle, and grabbed half of an egg and cheese sandwich...out we go, 5 miles to the finish. I pushed Sean a little bit to challenge himself, but he didn't need it. Up and down a few more hills...we see Gabe from near where Kim lives and I am so shocked because I thought he had dropped....it must have been another Gabe.

Country Roads, please take me home....

I have Kim's directions in my pocket and have been pulling them out and giving Sean distances to each turn....we are now on some rural roads to the finish so I have distances to each intersection. At about two miles to go I just put them away and tell Sean "I would keep giving you distances, but it doesn't matter, because you are just going to run it whatever it is!" That got a laugh. The last real climb and descent is Big Hill Road, aptly named. We walk up it, and it is so steep with loose stones and dirt on the down side, that Sean just walks down. Cool. We can see that we are going to finish around 8:30 or so, about a 27:30 for his race. Sean was very appreciative for our company, and Christian and I both felt more grateful to be there witnessing a 100 mile finish with him. I ran ahead at the end and got pictures for Sean.

After Sean gets in, my wife asks me if I saw Josh out there. What? He is still on the course I am told.
OK, what do you think I would do? I wolfed down a sandwich, and got a ride to find him. I found him cresting Big Hill Rd., and I jumped out and started running with him. We run down Big Hill Rd together, he preferred to run it, and do our best to run as much as possible of Wally Rd to the finish. I got to run maybe a mile and a half with him, and again I darted ahead to get pictures. Even though I was through an hour earlier as a pacer people still freaked out when I took what looked like a wrong turn so I could get in position for photos. I had to shout out "I am a pacer! NOT a racer!" They were trying to help and thought I was running the race.

I am so grateful for all the experience I gained this weekend that will go into making me successful in my journeys. From Kim's example, to Vince, Sean, Josh, Roy, Wild Bill Wagner, and more I will take something with me that will make me better.

Now, I think I am ready to do some Mo Running! Next year I will experience this race as an entrant.

Mohican 100 Trail Race: www.mohican100.org

My full photo album from the race can be viewed at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jetfuelburner.mike/Mohican1002007