The Volunteers of Mohican 1991
By Joe Eisenberg with Colleen Theusch
The volunteers had been invited to a big party on June 22 with around 70 people. Little did they realize that it would be a long party and that they would be spread throughout the Mohican State forest in groups averaging 5 people. Nonetheless they frolicked through their own fabulous festivities. The aid station captain hopes that all have forgiven him for being a ‘tad inaccurate’. With Bruce and Vicki Beverage as leaders, the Toledo Road Runners Club took on not one station but two! The Toledo contingent consisted of Don Lindley, Roger Puckett, the Bloomfield family (Ron, Jane, Tina, & Julie), Herb & Adele Kreutzfeld, Pm Husman, Ron Kusz, Jim Troknya, Millie Foote, Barb Corser, and the Kaczors (Steve, Terri & Jason). The group claimed the first two aid stations, Camp Walhonding and Rock Point.
Rock Point was the most isolated aid station. It also was the aid station that was open the longest number of hours. When someone asked the best way to reach it, a Mohican area resident said “The best way to get there is to run there. Getting there by auto is just miserable!”
At Rock Point they encountered the runners at miles 10, 46.5, and 79.9. While they aided all runners marvelously, they were particularly interested in runners Harold Foote and Tom Corser (spouses of two volunteers).
George Carr of the Northwest Ohio Sports Massage Team gave massages before the race, after the race and even during the race at the Rock Point Aid Station. George’s EMI training was nice to have available, too.
The volunteers sent desperate messages regarding a shortage of water through John Quinn’s ham radio operators. The amiable supply crew Tom Hord, Ken Miller, and Jin Comyns continued delivering water throughout the day. As evening fell Roberta Moorman supply captain, noticed that the water supply was dangerously depleted. Ken Miller recalled the many Rock Point deliveries. Rock Point had become secondary water supply depot.
In the late afternoon, Bob Blum was at the covered bridge and received a message from radioman Art. A conflict had arisen at Rock Point. John Quinn drove Bob to the site. A state forest ranger had just informed the Rock Pointers that they could not have any vehicles an the road. They were blocking a public thoroughfare.
“How many cars, not associated with the race, have you seen come down this road?” Bob asked.
“Not any,” came the reply.
Bob tried to call the state forest office, but could not get through. The Toledo Road Runners knew Don Baun had passed through Rock Point not long ago and was on his way to South Park. Using the invaluable radio help, Bob nailed Don at that station. “It was a helluva thing to do,” recounted Bob. “Don had already run 50 miles. I knew that Don, in real life, was an officer of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. I planned to ask him to countermand the order. While we were all discussing the logistics of moving the station, the last runner passed through. We guess the final resolution will wait ’til 1992.”
Ten minutes before the scheduled opening of the South Park station, its captain, Mark Breudigam, drove into the Post Plant and exclaimed, “Boy, am I ever glad that I finally found my station!” After arriving breathlessly at South Park minutes before the runners, Mark manned a great station with the help of Bobbie Straub, Mike Malloy, and Stephanie and Lou Karl.
Edina Moore had planned to be aid captain at the Fire Tower. However, when her father’s illness called her to Switzerland, Art Moore withdrew from the race to run Edina’s station. Tremendous commitment, Art. Thanks! Also thanks to Missy Dukov and the other volunteers whose names have been misplaced but whose faces shall be remembered forever. (We do have photographs as a reminder.)
Later, Art counseled and encouraged the lead runner who had gone miles astray (with the help of the excessive number of volunteers located at the Post Plant — see below) to continue and ultimately win the race.
The Northeast Running Club was the first club to accept the challenge of running an aid station. Since they had their pick of stations, they claimed the busiest most demanding station as their project. As the course passed through the Covered Bridge 5 times, they manned their station 20 hours. During this time, they became well acquainted with many of the runners’ likes and dislikes. The runners well remember co-captains Steve Novak and Maggie Berie, Maggie’s daughter Jenny and her friend Katie. Ann Ruth from Pittsburgh also worked this station. Ann had planned to run the race but an injury kept her out. One of her crewmembers, Jerry Agin, also joined this station when not volunteering elsewhere. Unfortunately, two ultrarunners from Dayton who helped at the Covered Bridge shall remain anonymous. Thank you, whoever you are! These two like to case a race before running. We will announce their names next year since they plan to run it in ’92. Mark Rothenhauser’s limited vision had been causing him difficulty in this tough race. Thus Maggie Berie paced him on the blue loop, the most challenging portion of the course. There was only one fault with the Covered Bridge crew. They did such a splendid job that we can’t find anything to roast them about. Better luck next year! The covered bridge also was the scene of the famed river crossing. This was another activity that the Covered Bridge Crew supervised. All the runners made it across the murky, calf-deep water challenge!
Terry Brown and fellow scout leader Paul Campbell led a contingent of Boy Scouts at the Hickory Ridga station. The Kolozvary family (Jon, Karen, Jon R. and Patrick) and the Andy Bemer family joined the scouts. Chip and Val Cooper also worked Hickory Ridge. The runners were particularly pleased when the scouts met them down the trail and escorted them into the station. Chip Cooper voluntarily paced many of the runners out of the station, running many of the runners all the way to the dam.
Due to the illness of the Post Plant captain, Martha Riggs and Ida Greiner were greeted on arrival with the happy news that they were co-captains of that station. All of this station’s other volunteers were actually members of the supply team — Jane Becaj, Joe Nainiger, Jim Quigley, and Roberta Moorman (when she had nothing else to do.) Joe Eisenberg, the director of the aid stations, and all the supply distribution people were headquartered at the Post Plant. To Tom Hord, the truck captain, his crew of two, Ken Miller and Jim Comyns, a great ‘ATABOY’. They set up, supplied, and disassembled stations exactly according to schedule. Ken Miller had pasted thumb tabs to his aid station instructions. He had optimized the supply delivery and pick up schedule to minimize the number of required trips.
Speaking of driving — Ernie Elzeer, the miscellaneous equipment captain, had been slightly surprised to learn that a 22 foot van was included in the ‘miscellaneous’ category and that he would have to drive it. One lucky break for Ernie — when loading the truck at Jim Comyns house, Jim insisted on driving the truck out of his own driveway so that Ernie would not bang into his gutters and downspouts. “You know the sound that aluminum foil makes when you crinkle it up?” stated Ernie later. “His aluminum downspout sounded just like that when the truck hit it!”
The aid station director was patting himself on the back for running a smooth operation, when two things occurred. He had forgotten to pick up the cookies from Archway — a twenty-five mile jaunt solved that. In addition, the erstwhile aid station headquarters crew sent the lead runner, Dave Drach, running off into uncharted territory. Dave had failed to make a turn onto a loop that was less than a mile long. The ‘helpful’ crew didn’t want to make poor Dave run back a 100 yards so they told him to run the loop backwards. When Dave failed to return after 15 minutes, they realized their slight error (Dave didn’ consider it ‘slight’.) See Fire Tower above for painful details.
Giffen & Beck, not one of the great intersections of the world (as far from Hollywood & Vine as you can get) saw each surviving runner only once. At mile mark 85 the first runner had a 13-hour lead over the last runner to pass through. Thus though not busy, the station remained open from dusk to dawn. The aid station director used Tom Sawyer’s example of whitewashing his fence to obtain volunteers for this station. ‘Have a fun weekend at beautiful Mohican! See the sun rise over the river...Meet stimulating athletes...’ Captain Paula Comyns, Barbara Faris, and Jill & Jay Hader could not resist this bait. Now that you’ve done this, volunteers, would you like to buy the Brooklyn Bridge? Thanks, you really did a marvelous job in running that station!
Cincinnatians Phil and Lucille Hengen, who first became acquainted with CWRRC at our one and only Edgewater 12 hour run, captained a fantastic aid station at Turkey Ridge, another all night station. They beckoned the runners with a display of Christmas lights. The runners greatly appreciated their hot bubbling soup. A little bit of heaven in the wilderness! Assisting the Hengens were Walter and Eileen Hahn and Steve Szydlik. The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray. The generator, which Phil had rented, had an oil leak. Lights out! The last runners missed the beautiful display.
A true tale from Turkey Ridge: The volunteers at Turkey Ridge had completely set up and were waiting for the first runners to arrive. They were expecting the first runner to arrive then, at 6:30pm, a time that the race management had given them. Over 2 hours would pass before the first runner would finally arrive. The radio representative had not yet arrived, so these folks were completely ‘in the dark’ as to where the runners were. Finally they decided to join hands in prayer. Just as they finished the ‘Amen’, Phil, Lucille, Eileen, Walter, and Steve looked down the road to a most beautiful sight — the tiny light of a flashlight coming toward them. It was the first runner! Soon after came the ham radios, providing contact with the rest of the race. A quote from runner Don Baun somewhere in the vicinity of Turkey Ridge: “How come I keep seeing (Race Director) Bob Blum all over the course? I know, I’ll bet he came to some of these points in a car!” Great thinking, Don! Actually, for having run 90+ miles, that’s reasoning pretty well.
John Quinn, ham radio manager, lost his map in the middle of the night. He decided to just drive the course to get to Turkey Ridge. His compact car could not climb one of the hills on this road portion, and he had to back down the hill.
Pacer stories: Tim Funke surely had the most unusual transportation to the race. Tim rode his bicycle, laden with camping gear, including sleeping bag, tent, the 80+ miles from Cleveland to Mohican Wilderness. Then he paced Regis Shivers, second to finish, the maximum distance allowed. After the race, Tim loaded his bicycle and burned rubber back to Cleveland.
Bruce Beverage, former president of the Toledo Roadrunners, surely ran the most pace miles helping several different runners — 57 miles!
Volunteer pacers Lou Karl and Pete Gladden paced Alice Thurau and Keith Hileman respectively. Even though they had already run 67 miles, Keith and Alice still set a mean pace, report Lou and Pete.
The Brinkhaven Aid Station, mile 95, had Jim Mackert the President of Lorain County Roadrunners as captain. Aiding him were Tim Coughlin, Brian Koepp, and Brian’s father. This station was right on the Mohican River, allowing ample opportunity for the pastime of fishing. Jim caught the biggest fish of his life during breaks in his aid station duties.
What would we have done without our ham radio operators! And here they are — Jeff Hardman, Mark Warner, Tim Toth, Doyle Braun, Tom Brown, Bonnie Adams, Duane and Mary Hart, Erik Bartholomew, Art First, Dan Halderman, Duane and Mary Hart, Gedhard Hibber, John Quinn, Steve Schendel, Bob Schwartz, and Ray Suing. Merv Nolt and Mike Brugger served as Net Control.
At the Finish Line: Ultrarunner Norm Roof recorded the time of each runner from 10pm through 11am Sunday! Colleen Theusch worked all night providing the finishing runners with food, beverages, blankets, and cots. Irene Weston, with help from Leo Lightner, prepared and served a pancake and fruit breakfast. The runners loved it! Not only did Irene have to see that the food items were properly sent to Mohican, she also had to procure the cooking utensils, table service, and even the propane stoves.
We had some great photographs of this year’s event. Hats Off to our shutter clickers: Betsy Case, Keith Moore, and Ted Kuhnen. Both Ohio Runner and UltraRunning Magazines published photos of the race.
Another feature of our race which the runners greatly appreciated — our fine staff of podiatrists who helped turn DeFeet into Victory for many of our entrants. Kathy Seisel, DPM, who chaired this team, is on the staff of the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine. Students who helped all over the course: Rhonda Hazell, Jeff Parker, Diane Parker, Brian Jackson, Susie Jackson. Also helping through the long Saturday night was Jim Lichniak, DPM.
Mark Elderbrock, MD, was our physician for the event. Mark is the greatest person to have. There are very few MD’s who am ultrarunners. We are honored and lucky to have Mark!