Mohican 100 report

Summary:
Conditions were terrible
Completed in 12hrs8min - 19th of 33 singlespeed starters

Rain - lots of it.  I was watching the weather closely leading up to the race, and it had rained pretty much every day last week, rolling in to the area on Friday it rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain - most cars stopping on the highway.  It stopped for a while, long enough for me to register and get the tent set up.  It was an early night to bed, as race start was 7am.

It rained overnight - a lot.

Lined up with 600 starters - and it was't raining ....

We headed out of town up a long hill on a paved road, felt good, single speed gearing felt great (32x19 on the 29r), had to remind myself that this is a hundred mile race, take it easy, onto some dirt roads, then down a mud trail...slick slippery.

Before long we were into the Mohican MTB trails...we covered something like 35k of these trails...very cool, bench cut switch backs..technical rock gardens, would be fantastic riding if it wasn't covered in 2" - 4" of mud.  The mud got worse and there were lots of hike a bike sections...seemed like a lot of people were having chain suck issues (again, happy for the SS).

I think it took me about 5 hours to reach the aid station #2 - the 34 mile mark.  Crazy. Things did pick up after this...there were some dirt road sections, some country lanes....and climbs there were some crazy climbs that went on and on that would have been tough to walk in good conditions...add the mud and a bike to push.  Did I mention steam crossings?  Swollen streams 2-3 feet deep.

Here are a couple shots I took while pushing the bike up a dirt road  - I promise I wasn't tilting the camera...it really was that steep :)

Anyways...at this point I had been all over the map mentally...quit at the next aid station, I'm not having fun...I don't want to quit etc.  Well I came to aid station 3, mile 46.  This is where the 100 kilometer racers start to head back.  There was a big sign showing  <-100km  100m->. Decision time. Coming into the station I was close to bonking (last section was a ride across soaked grassy fields..just sucking the power out of the legs) I was getting encouragement from a rider behind me, (don't bale...do it!).  I pulled in to the aid station, popped a couple ibuprofens, and ate a PB&J mmm....*

I took a few minutes and watched what the other racers were doing...waited to see anyone take the 100 mile direction (a long long climb up a grassy hill).  I saw a singlespeeder head up the hill, and thought..what the hell, give it a go.

So climb, push bike, controlled slide down hill, climb push bike... fun...feeling good on the climbs again.  Then some road section, and the skies open up...rain..biblical rain.. I hit the rail trail (10 or 12 miles, gradual up hill) and it is a river...I am riding uphill into this river averaging 3" deep, with sections over 1 foot deep.  During this time I did not see one other rider...I just put my head down and turned over the cranks...being on the SS, I was concerned about getting caught/passed by geared riders (strange..at this point I am only trying to finish the race, and I am still thinking about passing/being passed).  At one point with the rain raging around me (amazing thing is it felt good at first...got all the mud washed off me) I hear a siren - loud.  Really Really loud, like something is going to run me down....I found out later this was the tornado warning.

Before hitting checkpoint 4 (yes, it was a long 26 miles between 3 & 4) I got caught by a couple other riders..one of them was Doug from Syracuse ...he passed me, I passed him, and in the end we ended up working together on the road sections, and just generally chatting, his positive attitude was infectious.

At Aid station 4 it was 28 miles to the end and "only" another 4,000 feet or so of climbing - the rain had stopped, but  the damage was done...the singletrack was 4" deep mud.  Lots of push bike - and the final 6 miles of the race was single track. The final 1 or 2 miles was mostly downhill singletrack switchbacks, rock gardens just trying to keep the bike upright. One final stream crossing and we were at the finish line..

...the beer glass that the finishers get...was filled with beer a few times after the race.

In closing...this was a "mental" race, the decision to keep going.  I am glad I completed it, and the feeling afterwards was really really good. I am already thinking about doing the Wilderness 101  Cleaned up and back at the campsite with my feet up listening to Tom Petty's Highway Companion, enjoying a glass of wine. Cool.
btw...it rained overnight again.
I cannot get over the results of the top people..the top singlespeeder finished almost 4 hours before me...at the same time it looks like half of the 250 registered entries in the 100 mile either dnf'ed or dns.
Full race results are here...http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/national-ultra-endurance-nue-series-2-mohican-100-ne/results


My race details are here

*Yes the aid stations were really well stocked pb&j, bananas, Heed, gels, cookies etc.  The volunteers were truly amazing - so many people .. marshaling, working the aid stations - in some miserable weather, and everyone of them that I met had a smile and words of encouragement.