Mohican 100 Mile Trail Race - June 17th, 2017
General race details
The Mohican 100 mile trail run is located within the Mohican State Forest in Loudonville, OH about 45 mins north of Columbus. The race is almost entirely on single-track trails which consists of 4 loops. The first 2 loops are 27 miles each and the last 2 are 23 miles long. There are 5 aid stations total including the start/finish area. The Mohican 100 is one of the oldest ultra races as this was the 28th year.
Pre-race happenings and thoughts
I was lucky enough to have my Dad, Mark Robillard, and Matt Shaver as my pacers and crew members. Mark and I drove down Friday straight to packet-pickup around 3pm. We parked across the street from the pavillion and right as I stepped out of the car I noticed how extremely hot it was. I don't sweat very easily but began right away. We went to packet-pickup, took some pictures, and left a drop bag for the Covered Bridge aid station. I had planned on meeting up with some of the other runners and socializing but I wanted to get out of the heat and limit my exposure. We stayed at a hotel in Ashland which was about half an hour away. It was nice to get into the air conditioning to relax and get gear organized for race day. 3:15 a.m. came early as we woke up and drove down to the start. My dad had driven through the night and met up with us at the hotel to follow us.
The Race Itself
Through the last couple of years I have learned to calm my mind before the start of a race. I simply do not allow my mind to think and worry about the fact that I will be running for the next 22-30 hours. I undermine the situation and take a low-key approach at the beginning which helps ease the anxiety and nerves. Soon enough the race started in a very mellow fashion. Coming into the race I knew that I wanted to run with my friend Peter who I ran with for 50 miles at Kettle Moraine 100 (
race report here) last year. I knew that we were capable of keeping each other company for as long as possible. Once we hit the trail it was an immediate climb up to the top of the bluff. We settled into a comfortable pace by walking most of the uphills and controlling ourselves on the descents. Both of us noticed that we were already sweating heavily which is concerning at 5 am this early in a race.
The first loop went fairly well as Peter and I continued to run together. Peter did mention a headache a couple times but we continued on hoping that it would go away. The best scenic feature of this race is the waterfall that seemingly pops up out of nowhere. Very surprising geographic feature for Ohio. I love having the opportunity to explore new trails. The 1st loop was very enjoyable and we finished in about 5 hrs 30 mins. Peter's headache hadn't gone away and he had only peed I think once since the start of the race even though he was taking in tons of fluids. A couple miles after the first loop Peter was starting to slow down quite a bit and the headache hadn't gone away. He decided to take a walk break and I continued on. I saw his pacer/crew Chad Hause at the next aid station and told him we had separated. Peter ended up dropping around 31 miles. Took him 10 hours until he was able to pee!! Very smart decision to call it a day.
At some point during the 1st loop, Chad mentioned that the dew point was in the 70 range. I knew it was super hot and I was sweating a ton but I didn't give it much thought at the time. Dew point refers to the amount of moisture that is in the air. The higher the dew point the higher levels of air saturation. Basically since the air was already saturated with moisture, my sweat had nowhere to go. Obviously the entire purpose of sweating is to cool the body down...that ability is what makes us extremely efficient and able to run these long distances.
Chart from Wikipedia
| Dew point | Human perception[6] | Relative humidity at 32 °C (90 °F) |
|---|
| Over 26 °C | Over 80 °F | Severely high, even deadly for asthma related illnesses | 73% and higher |
| 24–26 °C | 75–80 °F | Extremely uncomfortable, fairly oppressive | 62–72% |
| 21–24 °C | 70–74 °F | Very humid, quite uncomfortable | 52–61% |
| 18–21 °C | 65–69 °F | Somewhat uncomfortable for most people at upper edge | 44–51% |
| 16–18 °C | 60–64 °F | OK for most, but all perceive the humidity at upper edge | 37–43% |
| 13–16 °C | 55–59 °F | Comfortable | 31–36% |
| 10–12 °C | 50–54 °F | Very comfortable | 26–30% |
| Under 10 °C | Under 50 °F | A bit dry for some | 25% and lower |
Nevertheless, I continued on by myself for the majority of the 2nd loop. Despite the temperature I was actually feeling really good. Around mile 40 I specifically remember feeling AMAZING. I was listening to music and just on cruise control. I could have busted out a 5-6 min mile easily. I did my best to control myself and not get caught up in my current energized state. After loop 2 I was able to run with my buddy Matt for the 3rd loop (23 miles). It took me 11:45 to run the first 54 miles. I was well under 24 hr pace and feeling great.
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| My Dad and I after loop 2. |
Having company during these races is always welcoming. Matt and I had an awesome conversation and everything was going very well as I continued to pass other runners who were struggling.
All of a sudden around mile 70 I noticed my skin itching and a rash beginning on both armpits and the "nether regions". It was extremely itchy like poison ivy and raised. We made it to the aid station before the start/finish and asked a volunteer what it could possibly be. I put some ivy rash lotion on it to see if that would help. No one really knew what it was and so instead of just sitting around we took off for the last section of loop 3 with headlamps now on. I was still moving fairly well but the rash was really uncomfortable and it was continuing to spread.
We continued to move and during the last mile or so of the loop there is a long, uphill dirt road that we walked up. Once we made it to the top I felt extremely light-headed and dizzy. I knew right then and there that something was not right. I sat down on the side of the road attempting to gather myself. At that point the rash had spread basically everywhere, we had no idea what caused it. We eventually made it to the aid station at the end of the 3rd loop. This is where reality started to set in. I still had 23 miles to go. It was an absolute mess at the aid station because everyone wanted to analyze my rash and no one really knew what it was. The volunteer medical doctor was insisting that I drop from the race which I wanted no part of!
I played football all the way from 5th grade through college and I had NEVER seen my Dad, who is a college football coach, so concerned about my well-being. My freshmen year of college I was thrown around like a rag doll every day during practice by guys twice my size, yet this was more concerning! More attention started to come my way and I was slowly losing hope of finishing. No matter how bad I was feeling, I had to get out of there and keep moving.
My good friend Mark was ready to pace me for the last loop. I somehow convinced my Dad and the people at the aid station to let me leave for the last loop. I felt a little bit better for first mile or so with Mark. But then I kept getting very dizzy, light-headed, and weak every time we had to walk uphill (which was a lot). Usually after going up a hill it takes a couple of seconds to re-gain your breath and heart rate, but my body was not able to do so.
It came to a point where the only thing that seemed to help was laying down on the trail on my back and focusing on breathing/sleeping. I just wanted a couple minutes (the funny part is that Mark was not wearing a watch, so who knows how long it actually was). Mark said he was starting to freak out a bit because he didn't know if I was still conscious each time I did it. We got to the next aid station which was only about 3 miles away and I just wanted to get out of there quickly. It was about 5 miles to the next aid station so Mark and I didn't waste any time and kept moving. This last stretch to the next aid station was brutal. I have no idea how long it took but it seemed like forever. I am someone who internalizes issues and problems, so Mark wasn't fully aware of how bad I felt. I couldn't run and could barely walk. We eventually stumbled into the next aid station where I decided to lay down on a cot to somehow gather myself. At this point I was shivering uncontrollably, dizzy, light-headed, and itchy from the rash. My Dad kept ice on me the whole time but it didn't help much. My body was burning up and I was experiencing heat exhaustion and close to heat stroke.
I know my body extremely well through training and doing these types of races. I had only experienced these types of symptoms once before, during a 100 degree baseball tournament in Colorado in middle school. I stayed on that cot for at least an hour and a half hoping that I could make a comeback and the symptoms would go away, but it kept getting worse. I only had 15 miles left but I could barely walk and I had to decide to drop out.
Even in hindsight, I'm really glad that I did. I honestly don't think there was anything that I could have done at that point in the race. It was extremely disappointing and I had a tough time dealing with the fact that I had to stop at mile 85. I had a strong mental attitude, great physical shape, no stomach problems, no blisters, etc. Congrats to all of those who were able to finish that race. 76 finishers out of 183 total runners = 41% finishing rate. Overall, I was able to learn a lot about myself from this race. I pushed myself pretty close to my limits on that particular day. Mohican 1, Me 0.
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| Peace out |
Training Reflections/Thoughts
-Cold showers / baths after longer or intense runs
-Turmeric and Ginger root every day
-No alcohol for 8 weeks
-Specific workouts for: intensity, hills, trail, road, night, eating/not eating
-Best physical shape ever been in for a race
-Best mental attitude during the race
-Excellent hydration management
*Picture credits: Matt Shaver and Mark Robillard
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| Mark |
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| Matt |
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| One of the only "open and exposed" sections of the race |
Gear and Nutrition info
injinji socks
nike terra kiger shoes
buff
tailwind - lemon
carried 2 bottles, 1 handheld and the other tucked into shorts
garmin 630
vaseline
body glide
The nice part about Hallucination 100 is that I had already finished it once before, you can read that report here------>Hallucination 100 race report. It's only about an hour and a half drive from Battle Creek. I have been part of this event since 2012 which was a huge advantage in terms of how familiar I was with the course and overall logistics of the race. All I had to do was show up and run!
