Mohican 100

Since the initial flub races I have, I have taken a few weeks just to focus on my equipment and myself. I have some pretty big goals for myself and not correctly focused on getting ready for them. Yoga clears the head, so that's where I'm at!

JP still in a cast, I head out to the Mohican 100 with a racer carpool & camper friend. We are both focused on just doing our best, racing for so long now, we pretty much know where we will finish it's just a matter of how bad we will feel when done!

This year the course is rerouted with miles of new singletrack put in and the venue located in new start area. The camp area is nice, the start was good. The prologue was a WAY too short & fast road section for this large pack, and led straight to the new trails right away. So the beautiful new 25 miles of flowing singletrack turned into no more than a cluster of frustration for most people! Even though there was a road hill, a hike a bike and few other things it was just not enough to get the field spead out. This cramped everyone's style for the first quarter of the day.

I leave the 60/100 split with just a few peeps, glad to get some quiet time!! Then quickly I regret it as I end up not seeing anyone for miles and miles on the 40 mile out and back. I am stoked to get to the 'out' checkpoint, in bad need of a pbj. But then quickly in dispair as it only has oranges out. I am not prepared for this! I was counting on the food stops in this event and had nothing with me excpet a few gus. I now have to ride another 20+ with no food. I am so screwed. I head off and decide to get it started. This is the best part of the trail for me, it gets a little more backcountry-ish and I like that. So at least I had that to look forward to. Eventually back to the park trails and to the 60/100 checkpoint again, and SO looking forward to a pbj. Again I was told there were leftovers, which was watermelon and heed and all the drop bags were packed up! ok, NOW I am not just frustrated, I am outright mad. I check my watch, I clarify that the station was open until 7 in the rules and it is only 5. They tell me it closed at 5, I pull out the printed rules from my pocket, there is silence. My drop bag is pulled out, I get my drink mix, and refuse the offer to wait for a sandwich to be made. I don't have 10 more minutes to hold up the entire show. I take off for the last climb disgruntled but not really feeling THAT bad except my damn bunion feet are really hurting. The last checkpoint was GRAND! They were jovial to be helping and HAD FOOD and were in no hurry to pack it in as they stated they knew more people were still behind me! Finally some happy helpers and some food:-)

By now, my time is a typically 12 hourish route for me. The course ended in some disheartening hike a biking and climbing but was obviously close to the roll in finish and some good grilled food.
Overall, I was hoping to improve on my typical 100 time, but didn't. I did improve on my first Mohican time, which was also my first 100 in 2006. I am soon getting custom orthotics and hope that will help with feet issues, other than that I need to just keep focused on 'training' & having fun!!

Congrats to my baby bro for doing his first 'long' race, the 100K, and on SS.

Thanks to Garth, Ryan, OMBC, etc. for the event.