Mohican 100

Early June arrived and I was ready for my first NUE race of the season, the Mohican 100.  I hadn't been able to do this race in the past five years because it coincided with June-O training.  We had a stretch of dry cool air in the week leading up to the race, but of course, come race time brought heat, humidity and storms.   It wasn't too hot, maybe 80ish, but the humidity was through the roof.   On the Friday before the race there were scattered afternoon thunderstorms.   Heavy localized downpours.  I brought Eli with me to register and we rode the first few miles of the trail together.  He did pretty well considering everything was slicked up from the rain in the area.   That night it poured a whole lot more.

Morning came and I drove back down to Loudonville, parked and got my gear together.  There was a sizeable crowd in downtown, seemed like a bigger field than some other races.  I decided to bring the El Mariachi because I figured it would handle the mud about as well and be better for all the dirt road stuff. 

The gun went off and we went up the first paved climb of the day, super steep.  I didn't want to burn my legs out too early so I took it easy and was well back in the field.  After a brief dirt road stretch we entered some farmer's woods on some singletrack.  There was a significant backup as we all tried to cram onto the narrow path.  I figure I only lost about 5 minutes total in the first 15 miles of the race by being held up.  So it wasn't tragic but it just felt that way everything someone was in your way.  We went through the camp ground and onto Mohican SP trail proper.   We did the first 90% of the trail and the hardtail was bumping me around a great bit.   I wanted the superfly.   The humidity was super aweful.  I felt like I was overheating all throughout the race.

We jumped off the SP mtn bike trail on to some powerline cut.  It was incredibly steep and a huge hike-a-bike.  It sucked.  Then we were on SP horse trails which were pounded into oblivian and full of mud.  This section absolutely sucked.  I could tell this wasn't going to be a good day.  I didn't feel right, had no energy, was suffering in the early season heat, and just had no go in the legs.

The rest of the course was kid of a blur.   There were a bunch of gravel climbs and some singletrack mixed in.  Lots of steep little climbs.   There were sections I started feeling a little better, but nothing that would stick.   I even had to walk a smooth gravel climb near the end.   I made it back to the trail and came in at 10:30 or something like that.  I had been hoping for something closer to 9 hours. 

I didn't like the course.  Especially with all the rain.  It would have been infinitely better in dryer conditions.  I hated the humidity.  I had a bad day.   Nothing like the good vibes I got from my 171 mile romp up to Cleveland the week before .. probably had some residual dead legs from that effort.