My First Mohican 100 Mile
June 27th, 2010 (Running)Doubled over in the middle of the woods somewhere between Mohican Adventures and Covered bridge, I stared at the no longer edible Raman noodles and other bits of food now all over the trail and yelled back to Ashley, “This isn’t what you expected when you signed up to pace me, was it?” “No”, she replied, “but I had no idea what to expect.” This exact phrase had been running around in my thoughts for the last 6 weeks since I decided to switch from the 50 to the 100-mile Mohican trail run.
I didn’t think I would ever have the desire to run an ultra-marathon. My first exposure to the ultra-community was doing a short pacing stint for my good friend Dave Huss at the Mohican 100-miler in 2009. He had talked about how great it was to be on the trails, but I just didn’t see it after the 4 hour, 15-mile night hike.
2009 was a frustrating running year for me in general, as I dealt with an IT injury first in my left knee and then my right, causing me to question whether I wanted to just give up on running altogether. As winter approached however, I realized that I needed something to keep me from getting too depressed during the short days and the cold nights. Right around that time, Dave mentioned the Lean Horse 100 to me as a race to possibly consider. Being a relatively flat course, it might be a good way to experience my first 100 miles. Somehow, hearing about this race that was nearly 9 months away intrigued me more than my first exposure to an ultra earlier that year.
As the winter months flew by, I got to know a number of other runners through a group Michael Patton started up this year called Central Ohio Trail Runners. I began to realize just how much everybody within this community supports and encourages each other. Soon, I signed up for some races for the year: the Cleveland Marathon, a couple of 50K’s, and the Mohican 50-miler. Miles and more miles kept adding up in my running log, and after an inspiring night run with Michael, Jay, Terri, Dave, Star, Ashley, Tom and Suzanne, I declared that I was going switch my entry from the 50 to the 100 at Mohican. I figured it was time for an adventure whether I was ready or not.
The Start
As I stood on the starting line among many familiar faces, I felt a mixture of excitement, exhaustion and anticipation for what the day would bring. This was it. All the training was finally going to pay off. The blast of a vuvuzela jolted me out of my thoughts as 241 headlamps began to pour down the road and into the woods. Michael and I chatted a bit as we made our way along the river to Covered Bridge. A slight drizzle cooled us off and we made it to the first aide station a little ahead of a 23-hour pace. As we started into the next 4 mile loop, I began to realize the beauty that surrounded us in this slice of Ohio. After a quick climb up the falls, Mark Lemke (and a horse and buggy) greeted us at the road. Dave Huss caught up with Michael and me sometime along the road section and the three of us ran along at a good clip back to Covered Bridge. Spirits were high at this point as the endorphins had kicked in and the tiredness from the short night of sleep the night before had worn off.
The next 10 miles to Rock Point went by quickly. Amidst refreshingly cool stream crossings and more vuvuzelas, there were great stories being told and encouraging words being passed around. Reaching the quaint church that signals the nearing of Rock Point, Dave mentioned that this was the fastest he ever remembered this section going by. Of course, this was only the first time running this section and, well, the day was still young.
Michael started to feel a little queasy soon after Rock Point, so Dave and I ran together for much of the road section. Despite the heat, the miles were going by like clockwork. I think part of this has to do with the fact that I feel more comfortable on the roads than the trails, as the majority of my training is along the Olentangy bike path in Columbus. When you run a familiar road or trail time and again, your mind begins to form memories that are triggered by being in that location. I tend to remember things such as what I was listening to (I usually listen to podcasts when I run by myself) or how I felt along that stretch of trail. For instance, I will always think of the time that Mark Carroll encouraged me to run the hills with him on the section from Rock Point to Fire Tower. A couple of miles out from Fire Tower, I completely bonked – mostly from my lack of experience and not realizing the amount of effort it takes to run every hill. Although it felt bad in the moment, I think fondly of that memory every time I run that portion of the trail – I learned a good lesson about running hills and I was in good company which makes it all worth it.
Because this road section (miles 19-43) was all new to me, I had the privilege of forming new memories as well. A guy running in sandals asked if he was still on course for the 50-miler. I replied that yes, I was pretty sure he was still on course, and wondered to myself why he was running in sandals. Dave pointed out to me that this was Micah True, of Born to Run fame – I guess that explained the sandals. I realized every time I come to an ultra event what an honor it is to be able to meet and run with so many rock-star runners who constantly exhibit humility and freely give advice and support to much less experienced runners like myself. Other memories along this section include a surprise visit from my beautiful wife, Leigh (who was an amazing and selfless support to me for the entire weekend) and Dave’s wife, Katie at Mohican Wilderness. I didn’t think they were planning to see us until later on in the race, so it was a huge encouragement to get a kiss from Leigh and a “Go get ‘em” to send Dave and myself back out onto the road. I will also remember Dave pointing out all kinds of landmarks that he recognized from last year (he seemed to remember one guard rail in particular that we couldn’t seem to find this year) and the absolutely beautiful farm scenery we witnessed along those stretches of road.
Around Buckhaven, Dave decided he was going to hang back a bit to try to get his stomach righted. I ran with Greg for a while back to Rock Point and was entertained by his jokes, stories and laughter. The miles flew as we yo-yoed back and forth to Rock Point, South Park and then Fire Tower. As I stopped to pee somewhere along this stretch, I thought of Mark’s blog post about inspecting the color of your urine (you’ll have to read it to understand) and realized I was getting dehydrated. I was not too concerned as I still felt pretty good and figured I would be able to catch up if I started drinking just a little more.
My Dad and Mom (who had a bruised and swollen ankle from a mishap just days earlier) had driven up from Columbus just to see me for a few short minutes at Fire Tower. As I was crossing 97, they were driving by (following Leigh and Katie) as they were trying to find the Fire Tower – just one of the cool ways that God works in every little detail. As I approached Fire Tower, I was greeted by my Dad in the woods as he snapped a photo and welcomed me in. There were many smiling and familiar faces at Fire Tower including Leigh, Katie, both of my parents and Lindsey (who we had worked with us at Covered Bridge during the “Forget the PR” 50k earlier this year). I got a chance to visit with everyone for a bit and then was sent off to continue the adventure.
Uh Oh
In the next several miles, I started to realize that something was up. Now, for those that know me, I do not deal very well with discomfort…especially nausea. So, why do I run at all when discomfort is inevitable? For me, the high felt from running is so much stronger than the lows (and lasts much longer) that it is well worth a little discomfort. And, I’ve felt some discomfort on my training runs, but I was not prepared for nausea that hit me on the way to Hickory Ridge. As I passed by others looking at least as bad as I felt, my only thoughts were on getting to mile 65 where I would see Leigh again and be able to take a little break to hopefully right myself. Ashley would be there as well to pace me if I felt like continuing on with this madness. Unfortunately, things were only getting worse and I didn’t feel like drinking or eating much of anything. In fact, I hadn’t been able to stomach any food in the last three hours. As I ran in to the Mohican Adventures campground, Leigh came running out to meet me. She knew instantly that something was wrong. I had already slowed down considerably from my earlier pace and I must have looked pretty rough. I told her I was ready to drop the race. At this point, I lay down on the ground as Leigh tried to feed me something. Almost immediately, I jumped back up to my feet as I began dry heaving on the side of the campground road.
As I was making a feeble attempt at composing myself, Jay Smithberger (who had already won the 50 and was hanging around to offer his support) came over and asked, “Steve, what IS the problem??”. I explained my situation and was assured by everyone there that I was not the only one feeling this way. They kept telling me that I would get through it. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to run – I just couldn’t bear the thought of jostling my stomach around any longer. Dave came through Mohican Adventures at that point, tried to reason with everyone there to let him drop due to a painful knee injury, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They told both him and me that they would see us in about 7 miles. I had already sat for 45 minutes at this point, so I asked Ashley if she was up for giving this a go, and we both headed back off into the woods.
Ashley and I chatted for a bit and she offered some encouraging words to get me going. After a brief encounter with a snake (this is now the second snake I’ve seen at Mohican) and a couple of miles of trails I had run earlier in the day, I stopped suddenly (giving Ashley no warning) to leave all of the food I had just eaten earlier (the plate of food Leigh brought me, the Raman noodles that Jay had made me) on the trail. That was the moment I decided I was done with this stupid race. If I couldn’t get the nutrients my body needed, I just couldn’t keep running. Ashley did an amazing job during this section to hold it together herself after seeing my techni-color display and later bonking her head on a fallen tree. I told her as we were nearing Covered Bridge that I was all done. As we ran across the bridge, we saw Dave sitting in a chair echoing the same sentiments. “We’ve just got to get to Bridle Staging” he said, “but then I’m done”. I was so done at this point and tried to convince him that we should just radio up there to get Leigh and Katie to come pick us up, but he convinced me that we should at least try to make the 2.7 mile hike up there. Withdrawing into the misery I was feeling, I gave it a go, but just couldn’t do the up-hills without the heat exhaustion bringing on more nausea. I told Dave and Ashley that I couldn’t make it and Dave was just going to have to send someone down for me. Ashley and I made our way back down to covered bridge where I let them know I was DNF-ing. I saw Michael sometime around here and he encouraged me to just sit and wait it out as he had done the year before, but I wanted to hear none of that. I was ready to be done!
Sitting for the next 1.5 hours at covered bridge was the lowest point of the race for me. Not the nausea or the puking, but the sitting, the frustration, the disappointment. Sitting and shaking from the cold and thinking that I didn’t want to run now, but that tomorrow I was going to be disappointed with myself for not finishing. Oh well. Whatever. At least I would get some sleep tonight.
I didn’t say much to Ashley at that point and she didn’t say too much either. She had put up with my whining and complaining, and had just accidentally sat in a puke covered chair herself. It was a miserable time for both of us.
While we were sitting, waiting for a ride, Mark Carroll came rolling through with his crew. He sat down next to me and invited us to run with him and his group as they were all feeling chatty at that point and it might help take my mind off my discomfort. He told me that I could run and get through my stomach problems if I just kept sipping water and pushed through it. While I declined his offer, just hearing that it was possible to work through the issues while running got me thinking again…I began to doubt my decision to drop.
Leigh and Katie finally showed up! The first words I blurted out of my mouth when I saw them were “What took you so long?” They took one look at me, brushed my question aside, and Leigh said, “Why are you quitting? Is it because you can’t run, or because you don’t want to?” I told her that at this point I didn’t want to, but I realized that my stomach was starting to feel better. They told me that Dave kept going after Bridle Staging. Just as misery loves company, so does a little friendly competition help to motivate you to get back out on the trail. Ashley said she was up for getting me through to at least Bridle Staging where Leigh promised that she would have a pacer for me. As Leigh and Katie flew over to Rock Point to see if Ted Niemann could come to pick me up at Bridle Staging, Ashley and I had a nice hike up the trail as my spirits started to improve. Ted, a friend of Michael, had agreed to pace me from Rock Point to the end when I was looking for a pacer at the last minute before the race. We made it to Bridle and Leigh let me know that when Ted heard I had dropped the race, he had gone on to pace someone else to the finish, but that she would run with me to Rock Point instead. This was such a selfless act on her part as she had been up all day crewing already and had never run this far on trails before, but she was willing to do whatever it would take to get me through to the end. I told her that this was a tough section to run (and long at almost 8 miles) and Ashley agreed at that point to run with me through to Rock Point although it was much later than she had anticipated being out there.
At some point along this section, I started feeling miserable again, but decided that if I had made it this far, I might as well make it to the end. The mental was righted again even if the physical was not. I complained a lot, but just kept putting one foot in front of the other. The trail seemed to go on forever, but we finally made it to THE ROCK where we were met by Leigh and Katie’s smiling faces once again. I have to say, the crew at Rock Point also knew how to take care of us. It was great to see Julie, Jen, Tom and others there that had put in a long couple of days helping many runners get through. At this point, I started hearing whispers of cutoff times. My clouded mind hadn’t even thought about that until now. It was getting to be very close, but we had been moving well so far. So, after some deliberation, Ashley decided she would hang in there and get me through to South Park. I honestly don’t know what happened along this section as I began to run in my sleep. I had a dream that I had replaced my stomach with another one and I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of doing this earlier. The one thing I do remember about this section was hearing myself say that I just wish I could get better from this nausea as Ashley replied, “You know, it may not get better until the end, but just try to take your mind off of it.” Somehow, just hearing this was comforting to me. I was focusing so hard on trying to fix my problem that I didn’t realize how much it was making me focus on the problem itself. Maybe the solution was just to try not to think about it.
We were both elated to reach South Park (mile 84). Ashley had just achieved a distance PR and Leigh was there (after battling her fears of coyotes and running away from strange people in the woods) excited and ready to run with me to the end. The sun was coming up and life was starting to seem livable again. Leigh propped me up when I started to fall asleep and kept me going, going, going. She was conscious of the time and made sure that I had what I needed emotionally and physically to get me to Fire Tower before the cutoff.
A quick stop at Fire Tower and Katie graciously offered to run with me to Covered Bridge to give Leigh a chance to rest up a bit before the last 11 miles in to the finish. She entertained me with all kinds of stories, and kept me fed and on pace. Then, out of nowhere, with less than a mile to get to Covered Bridge, Ted ran up to us. After being up all night running 22 miles with another runner, he had run back (I’m not sure if he ran all the way back from the start?) to pace me in the rest of the way. Everyone was excited to see Ted because they knew I would need someone to kick my butt to the finish line if I was going to make it in time.
On to the finish line
Another miracle happened on the way out from Covered Bridge – my nausea began to subside. I still wasn’t moving extremely fast at this point, but Ted was nice enough to let me ease my way back into running. As we approached Hickory Ridge, he told me we would need to pick up the pace just a bit. With a quick stop for some Mountain Dew (I was falling asleep again) and a few words from Leo letting me know that I would make it, we got back out on trails. I was getting scared at this point that we wouldn’t make the cutoff, so I just started running every section that was not a steep uphill. “That was a 12-minute mile back there.” I heard Ted say behind me. “You only need to do 18’s to make it”. OK, I just had to pace myself so I didn’t burn out in the last 5 miles. We chatted a bit and pushed the pace anywhere we could. Suddenly I heard a voice yelling at us from up ahead, “Steve!” It was Star…and Dave! It couldn’t have been better timing to be able to run in the last mile and a half with Dave and two amazing pacers beside us. As we entered the finish line, I couldn’t stop smiling as I thought of how ridiculous the last 29 hours and 44 minutes had been. A flood of thankfulness poured over me as I realized just how many people it took to get me across this finish line.
Awesome report and run Steve! I was out there all night with an out of town runner just a touch ahead of you guys (he did 29:24) and I can just envision every stretch of your journey!!! Great job not giving up and making a comeback. Good meeting you today at Highbanks.
Great job running and communicating it Steve! Just read the whole communique to mom and we both enjoyed living it with you. What an ordeal!!! And what great perseverance. Well done.
love, dad
Mike, it was great meeting you this morning as well. I hope I’ll see you on future runs and get to know you better. Go for Burning River – you will do great!
Dad, so glad you guys could make it up for the race. Now, on to the next one =).
Great race report and accomplishment, Steve!! Wow…
You’ve clearly proven the importance of having some hardcore crew people and pacers. While many might think it’s a one man accomplishment, you’ve proven otherwise. You’re very blessed to have surrounded yourself with so many amazing people. I think it’s safe to say that you’ve taken this distance running scene by storm, sir.
Congratulations on your epic milestone. Who knows, maybe we’ll cross paths again very soon.