AM I INSANE? Reflections from Bill's adventure

Monday 4/20/09 9:55am
While stretching out at the start line yesterday, at the "Forget the PR Mohican 50k" I contemplated a couple things: Am I INSANE? Why would anyone want to run 31.2 miles unless forced to by some Orwellian communist regime? Will all the miles I put in the last couple weeks pay off? Will my feet blister What if I have to poop? Is it going to rain or not? As I thought of these things I almost lost my breakfast. The race started and we were off, and thought was soon replaced by action, and thoughts were replaced by reacting to the here and now, not the future maybe's. Within the first quarter mile we were out of the park roads and into the woods, and started the trails with a long hill. That set the mood for the day- a hilly course that combined great scenery with ups and downs at every turn. By the time I got to the first checkpoint at 1:10, 5.9 miles were behind me, and two competitors had already tripped and fallen. Many hours would be spent watching the ground in front of you for roots, stumps, and rocks, and not looking at the surrounding terrain.

As the hours slipped by everyone fell into their own rhythms, some by talking with others and some (myself among others) passed the time with my MP3 and Genesis, Dire Straits, Hans Zimmer, Philip Glass, Ennio Morricone, and Bob Marley, among others. I dipped in and out of conversations occassionally. One guy had done the Mohican 100 nine times. This was merely a warm up race for him. Another racer had chosen this as his first footrace- no 5k or 10k- let's go straight to the 50k! Talk about diving in! Still the most interesting story I overheard was the guy who while driving into the race from Cinci hit not one, but two deer along the way. I think that if it was me, that would have been an omen that maybe today's not your day to race. But still we chugged on...

The "Forget the PR" title was appropriate, as some of the course was not even walkable, let alone runnable. Some sections involved traversing creeks and streams, and another stretch was a mucky bog filled with mud and horse manure. Watch your step! Still another part at Littly Lyon Falls, which matches anything in Hocking Hills in terms of beauty, involved climbing up a cliff while grabing onto tree roots and rocky ledges. Great fun but won't make your time any faster. Shortly after that I checked into Aid station #3 at the Mohican Lodge, where I checked for blisters, ate orange slices, banana pieces m&m's, licorice, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and slugged down two glasses of water and three cups of coke. I left there with a time of 3:15 (that's hours and minutes!).

The rest of the race came and went swiftly. I actually increased my pace, making the second half of the race faster than the first half. I started eating less, reducung the time at aid stations. Many people that I had passed on the course the first half of the race were passing me at the aid stations, making it necessary to pass them again two, three, and sometimes four times while on the trail. I left them all in the dust the second half of the race, and not a single one caught up. I was hoping for a finish time of seven hours, and wound up bringing home the bacon in 6:25:57. While the smell coming off my body probably could have felled a grizzly bear, as a whole I felt pretty good, being mentally alert and physically capable.

Today I have the day off to let my muscles recover. The scale said I lost seven pounds, so a little fast food reward will be needed to get the weight back up. The funny thing is that I felt worse after the Col's Marathon last year- 26.2 miles of pounding hard concrete and asphalt is much more taxing on your feet than 31.2 miles of trail running. See everyone Sunday! Keep chasing your goals!

Bill