2018 Mohican 100

Before all the pain. Photo by Tammy

The week leading up to this race I had looked back to two years ago at the blog I posted from the Mohican 100k. I found it interesting that I mentioned the split at aid 3 and said that I didn't think I would ever be ready to take the right for the 100 miler. Maybe I should have read that report before I was talked in to signing up for this race but, it seemed like a good idea at the time. After being talked in to signing up for the Marji Gesick 50, all the decisions for the 2018 year were made with that race in mind. I am trying to put events in to my calendar that would be good training points to get me ready for the MG50. I had several friends that were doing the 100 miler and the time it would take me to do the race would be more conducive for what it will take to finish the MG. When you consider that Jeremiah Bishop won the Mohican 100 in 6:57 and also won last years MG100 but it took 10:24 it might help that previous statement make a little more sense.

It seemed like it took longer for my legs to recover from PMBAR than I expected. I could ride flat stuff pretty well, but the hills would hurt more than normal. The last couple rides I did get in before the race had me feeling like my legs were ready. The one issue I did have was that I was not able to ride for several days about a week out. With travel soccer, 8th grade achievement, HS graduation and graduation parties kept me pretty busy and getting to bed a lot later than I should. I really don't know how much it effected my riding (good or bad), but I am sure it did. Thankfully the soccer game on Thursday was pushed off to the next week so I could get all my stuff ready to go for Friday morning.

View from the deck

I still had a little trouble getting up Friday morning, but I didn't do too bad getting everything loaded before E2 showed up. I still felt like I was running around trying to do too many last minute things right before we rolled out. I did forget a couple things I wanted to do, but none of the things I forgot really caused an issue. Overall the drive was not too bad for being 6 hours, but right before we got there the sky opened up and it poured. That is not exactly what I wanted, but I knew it was a possibility. Once we got there and checked in to our cabin we were going to go for a little ride. One more car was almost there so we waited before riding. When we finally got ready to go we found that some of the trail we were going to ride was a little muddy. No one really felt like getting everything all messed up. We took the bike path toward town and just spun around a little bit. Not as much as I wanted to do but it was what we did. I almost went a little longer, but several had made plans to meet up for some food.

Once I ate too much, we headed back to the cabin. I tried to get all the stuff ready that I would want in the the morning. Oiled the chain, put number plate on and just tried to be as prepared as I could be. The planned wake up time was earlier than I wanted it to be, but it was the time that was needed. I feel like I got to bed fairly early, but I really don't remember what time it was. I did sleep pretty good right up to a little after 3. Made a trip to the bathroom, but then I could not get back to sleep. My mind kept wondering about a lot of things race related. Finally I must have dosed off but not too long before it was time to actually get up. The morning started slow, but as usual it was time to head to the start quicker than I want.

 

Once we got to the start area and settled down, I couldn't believe it but I had to pee again. Thankfully this race as a very nice public restroom near the start. Back to the start line and try to find everyone. I end up somewhere around mid pack. The announcements started and before we took off I felt like I needed to pee again. This time I was just going to have to deal with it and hope it went away. At some point I grabbed my brakes and the rear lever went straight to the bar. Well crap!! Now what. I tried to pump it up, but it didn't really get any firmer. Not much I could do at this point but hope they work good enough when I need them.

The horn went and off we rolled down the street. As I got over the hill and could see the front of the race, I was way farther back than I wanted. Spinning along in my spinny climbing gear is not ideal for long road sections. I had hoped to be a little closer to the front than last time so I would not get stuck in the conga line in the trail but I don't think I was any farther up. Even with the more neutral roll out I felt pretty far back. The first trail section went pretty well. Some people were going slower than I wanted, but that is not always bad. There was really no need to blow myself up in the first 45 min of a 100 mile race. 

It seemed like I was moving along pretty well. I passed some people and just stayed behind others. There were a couple climbs that I had to go pretty slow. I am not sure if that hurt me or not as sometimes I can get in to a different type of groove and climb pretty slow and actually relax and recover some. There were also a lot of sections that were soft and slick. This made the roots and rocks a lot more tricky then they normally would be. I rode most of this pretty well, but the soft ground was taking its toll on my legs. I rolled in to aid 1, made a quick stop to get some stuff out of my pocket and off I went. Somewhere a little before aid 2 my legs starting giving me signs that they wanted to cramp. I was a little worried since I had a long way to go. I backed off the pace a little and tried to not burn too many matches if I didn't need to. I ended up walking some of the steeper hills because I was trying to reserve some for later.

I was still all smiles at this point. Thank you Tammy for the pictures

Aid 2 I took a little more time than I wanted. I didn't park my bike in a very good place and needed to do a few things. I tried to eat some food and even took a couple shots of pickle juice to try and help keep the cramps away. I was 30 some miles in and finally decided I better pee since it was not going away. This next part was tough at times and I kept trying to pace myself. I know I was going slower than I could have, but since I was not even half way done with my race I figured I still had too much to go. The trail section in the zip line area is always tough. Short steep climbs and lots of rocks and roots. This section has been wet most years, but this year seemed to be even more so. I rode a lot of the technical stuff because I didn't want to walk, but this also took some energy from places that I normally don't use as much. I was feeling pretty drained as I rolled in to aid 3.

I even had thoughts of taking a left when I leave and heading back toward the cabin. Tammy was there and helped me get my bottles taken care of so I could eat. He was doing a good job of lying to me about how good I looked and how well I was doing. I was wanting to take more time to rest, but with all the help I got, I was really ready to go quicker than I would have been with out it. Before I knew it she was kicking me out of the aid station and I just went right like I was supposed to and didn't quit. It didn't take me much to get around the corner and then wonder what just happened. I was not ready to keep going. I wanted to sit down or even take a nap or lots of other things more than heading back out for a 40 mile loop that would bring me right back to the same area.

The grass hill didn't look good and it didn't take much for me to get off and walk. I got back on when I thought the climb was over, but after a tight turn I could see that I had more climbing in to the woods. I had never been here so I really had no idea what to expect. I really hate that I would get off and walk so easy at this point, but my mind was in conservation mode and I was just trying to survive. Even though my legs had yet to cramp, then kept giving me warning signs that they wanted to. I just kept moving forward the best that I could.

Photos by Stephanie Heichel

The climb up to 3.5 was pretty brutal. I felt like I was moving like a snail. As I was at the aid station, about 5 other riders showed up. I knew I was going slow and it didn't surprise me that I was getting caught. I really thought there would be more people catching me. I tried to grab a couple things and take off. I left before any of the other guys did, but I figured they would catch me soon. After that section I had a point where I thought I took a wrong turn. I was just about ready to turn back and then I saw another sign. I was really happy as I didn't want to add any more miles to this day.

I knew I was riding slower for a while and figured some people would be passing me at least some out of the 5 people at the rest stop. Oh well, this is a good thing. Maybe I'm not going as slow as I thought. Somewhere on the rail trail I could see a rider over my shoulder. It took a little bit for them to catch me and when he did, I was happy to see it was E2. I didn't see any yellow in the jersey so I didn't think it was him. I had figured he would catch me before now, but I was kind of hoping I would hold him off a little bit. The longer I could hold him off, the closer we would finish time we would have. I jumped on to his wheel for a little bit and did the spin coast thing, but his speed was not where my legs could go and I watched him pull away.

I was a little bummed, but figured it was inevitable. So, I was back all alone and spinning too small of a gear with very tired legs. I rolled in to aid 4 and grabbed my stuff from my bag. All the volunteers were really helpful, but I was in a darker place and was not on full race mode. I got my bottles taken care of and ate some food and started to be on my way. I heard a lady say, well there is #92. I looked over and here was E2. I asked how the heck he got behind me and all he could say was he took a right back there. Oops! I said I'll see you in a little bit and rode off. The next section was more gravel roads, but will a little more climbs. This was not easy, but better than spinning out on a flat rail trail.

Rode semi-hard and still put away wet

At some point I took a right turn on to what looked like a logging road. That got muddy real quick. I was trying to pick a good line so I could keep moving, but had a place that I slid out. When I put my foot down it went half way up to my knee. It took me a second to get to where I could actually pull my foot out of the hole. It almost kept my shoe! I would have been in a mess if that pulled off. I made my way through the worst section and as I was crossing a creek, I could see E2 coming down the mud road. From there I was climbing a crazy path, kind of riding up a creek bed. I looked back a couple times and could still see E2 hanging back there a little ways.

Somewhere down the road I hit another trail section. It was pretty harry with all the rocks and roots being wet and the hills being pretty steep. I had passed a guy part of the way down and at the bottom I missed the line that would take me up to the bridge. I had to get off and walk up the stairs. As I started to go again, the other guy hit the bottom of the trail and wiped out. I made sure he was good before I rode across the bridge in to aid 4.5. This aid station had all kinds of mixed drinks. It was very tempting to stop and have one or three. But, I knew this is where the 100 mile and the 100k route joins back up and that meant I was getting close to the finish. E2 had yet to make an appearance, but it was time for me to go.

The next climb has always been tough for me. I did have to walk a little bit of it, but not all of it. I started to pass 100k riders and that gave me a little more motivation to go. I started to feel a little better than earlier and knowing I was getting closer had me pushing the gear over pretty good. I had a couple riders I would ride with a little bit and then I'd move on. As I got closer to where aid 5 would be, I took a couple looks over my shoulder for E2, but didn't see him. Somewhere along here I also started doing some fuzzy math and figured I can still finish under 11 hours. This also sparked some motivation. From just before aid 2 up to around aid 4, I thought I was going to be close to 12 hours with my slowing down to save the legs.

The added motivation and turning the gears over harder had my legs finally cramping after threatening most of the day. They were not too bad and I fought my way through them. I did the loopty loop on the road to under the road and headed toward aid 5. I came up to aid 5 and downed a shot of pickle juice and took off again. I was pushing it in to the woods. I knew there was a climb, but after that it was pretty flowy and down hill to the finish. The climb hurt, but I kept moving good. Once I was at the top I started to go faster. I could smell the finish line and motivation was pretty high. My I9's were buzzing loudly and everyone I passed moved over quickly. I'm sure the hubs sounded like I was doing 30 mph!

Late in this section I was flying along and my leg cramped pretty bad. I was pedaling through it, but I guess I was not doing so well and clipped a tree. I ejected at full speed and was a complete yard sale. I did a quick assessment to see if I was hurt. The bars were twisted almost 90 degrees. I straightened them out the best I could and took off before anything started hurting too bad. I rolled in to the familiar campground and knew I was close. I did the last sections of trail, crossed the bridge and headed over to the finishing road. I was giving it everything I had still worried about finishing time. My leg cramped up hard and slowed me down a little, but made it to the turn and crossed the line!! I finished my first 100 mile MTB race in 10 hours and 22 min. I ended up in 12th place in the SS class. This time would have put me in 56th place in open.

I got my growler and glass of water. I could not me more happy. All the pain that I felt earlier was no where to be found (at least for a couple minutes). I sat there a minute talking to some friends and then headed to the cabin to get a shower. When I got out of the shower, E2 was there. It turned out that he was about 10 min behind me. I feel bad finishing in front of him because of a wrong turn. I was moving pretty good at the end and it is hard telling if I would have caught him or not, but it would have been close. By the time I finished getting ready the rest of the group was there. We hung out for a little bit and headed to eat way too much food. I did stop by to check out the results on the way and also talk to some friends.

I really should not be disappointed with my finish time. I went in to the race realistically thinking 10 hours. So, with a wet, slippery and soft trail, I only finished 22 min off of my goal. That is not bad at all. The things I am not as happy with is that I was much weaker than  I thought I should be. I also slowed down in the middle way more than I want. Even finishing close to my time, I have a lot of time to cut off if I want to finish with top 10 guys.

One of the things that makes everything all worth it is the people. Hanging out with fun people and hearing all the stories is the best part of the trip. One of the bad things about racing the 100 miler and not being as fast as everyone, is that they all have been hanging out and the finish line drinking beer waiting on me to finish. By the time I get there, they are all done with hanging out there. I would have liked to hung out in the finish area and talked to a few more people that I don't get to see very often and maybe even meet some new people that I only know online or from the middle of the woods.

One thing for sure is you never know what shenanigans might happen.
This is a picture of my bed that I received after the fact. 

The Mohican 100 is a great race. The trails are a blast and the amount of road/gravel is not too bad. The locals come out to volunteer and support this event like no other race that I have ever attended. I plan on making a return to see if I can put in a better time, well at least in the 100k. I am not sure if I will ever do another 100 miler, I think that 100k is long enough. One thing that even I have a hard time not being happy about is that if I take the extra 40 miles out of my ride that differs from the 100k, I would have beaten my time from two years ago by 30 min. That is a pretty good improvement by itself. Then if I think that it was a slick/wet and slower year or the fact that I slowed down early so I could ride the extra 40 miles and lastly that I rode the last section after I rode the extra 40 miles. Plenty of places that I could take a lot more time out. Maybe I will see next year.

I commend you if you have made it this far. That is a lot of babble above. I would like to thank you for stopping by. I have been asked several times why I put these things together. There are a couple reasons. One, I like to look back and read some of my previous adventures. The other main reason is that I enjoy reading other peoples stories on races and events that they do. So, if you like what you read and would like to know when I post, look to the bar on the right and click to follow. This will send you a notification when a new post is uploaded. Hope to see you at the next adventure!