Another Huge Success at 2004 Mohican
By Colleen J. Theusch
Were you there? Or did you miss this year’s magnificent Mohican? After torrential rains throughout the preceding week, the trails were muddy, really muddy, with portions of the orange loop under about 5 inches of water. Fortunately the worst rains were over by Thursday so that Tom Todrank and his hardworking trail marking crew did not have to remark the entire trail as was necessary in some previous years. Nevertheless, they spent race days checking and touching up markings as necessary. Many runners commented that this is the best-marked trail that they have ever run. Nevertheless, some people did manage to get off course. So easy to miss a turn or misinterpret a marking when sleep deprived. Shane Sampson and Lori Dawson were two very sleep deprived runners due to airplane connection nightmares on the return from a Nevada business trip. Unfortunately they could not recover the time lost after several miles off trail.
Depth of the river caused the crossing to be canceled. Fortunately the river crossing is under the covered bridge so that canceling the crossing is not a logistic nightmare – go over instead of under. Canceled river crossing did not equate to dry feet. The rains had turned some of the creeks into streams almost as deep as the river has been in some years. Some runners used those streams as a chance to wash their mud caked legs. A rope was strung over the water-covered portions of the orange loop to aid runners as they traversed that area.
Children were on the beautiful, difficult, blue loop. They called out to others: “Runners coming!” One child looked and innocently replied: “They’re not running; they’re walking.”
Race directors, Bob Strong and Don Baun, assisted by several hundred others brought the event to new heights. Jimbo Schalmo and his crew provided a great breakfast for all. Robin Strong (Bob’s wife) and Debbie Lemmer (CWRRC member) were among those who aided Jimbo in feeding hundreds of people. Robin had also procured the purple table coverings, colored lights, etc. Rob Powell and crew procured and distributed the supplies. Ron Duke and crew were responsible for the footprint at the campgrounds – setting up the tents, the fabulous new finish line with lights all the way from the Wobbecke house, etc. Bob Close and crew entered the times provided by the amateur radio operators as they tracked the runners’ progress. The radio operators have been with the event since 1991 and provide much needed communication throughout the race. Local residents comprised many of the aforementioned crews. Many CWRRC members and members from other clubs captained and staffed the aid stations throughout the long hours of the race. Members of runners’ families spent long hours assisting at some of the aid stations. Joe Eisenberg and Ida Greiner fed the tired runners who finished the race before breakfast was served. These few sentences cannot describe the heroic time and effort needed to support a race of this magnitude and caliber. Hearty thank you and congratulations to all involved! Many runners commented on the quality of the Mohican event – how much they appreciate the attention shown to the end of the pack runners as well as to the elite. Some runners were here because past Mohican runners have spread the good word about our “runner friendly” volunteers.
Dr. Mark Elderbrook was medical director for the event. His crew expanded to include thirteen-time Mohican finisher, now a physician’s assistant; a team of three EMTs from the Cleveland area; and several nurses from the VNA of Mid-Ohio. The VNA used the Mohican race as a fundraiser, soliciting corporations for funds in honor of the runners’ efforts to go the distance. In exchange for piggybacking on the Mohican event, the VNA contributed a small portion of the funds to the event for awards and also provided some personnel during portions of the race. One of the EMTs went above and beyond his medical duties by contributing a hundred glow sticks to help the runners throughout the night. Podiatrist, Kathy Siesel, and her podiatry students provided foot care throughout and after the race as they have done since the first Mohican in 1990. Over the fifteen years many have finished the race who would have been forced to drop had they not had received blister care during the race.
Dr. Jeff Lynn from Slippery Rock University chose the Mohican event for a physiology study of ultra runners. They tested the 15 men and 8 women who agreed to participate in the study before the event at the Mohican Wilderness Campground, at the Fire Tower, at South Park, and again at the campground finish line. Jeff & his research team had the testing down to two minutes so that runners would not be delayed during their race. Testing examined body composition, strength, flexibility, and psychological factors among other things. I found it interesting to see how agile many of the runners remained at the end of the race. Results of the study will be available at a later date.
There are many little and many big stories associated with the entrants in this year’s Mohican, as well as many stories unknown to me.
For the first time in its history, the Mohican start line had over 100 runners – 110 to be exact. Approximately 45% of these were attempting to finish their first 100-mile race. Some had attempted the distance previously, either at Mohican or elsewhere. Of the starters, 64 crossed the finish line. Twenty-three of these basked in the glory of finishing their first 100 miler: Eric Grossman, David Livingston, Jody Chase, George Blust, Frederick Hindman, Jim Davidson, Logan Samson, Rob Hill, Al Eder, Darrin Dunham, James Chiado, Kathy Firlotte, John Marten, Bill Dey, Tom McGinnis, William Manley, Barbara Mack, Alicia McElroy, Sung-Sik Pak, Kristen Adelman, Thomas Stone, David Pazgan, and Carl Wooten. Congratulations to all of you, and also to those who attempted but did not complete their first 100 race. Remember, the F in DNF does NOT stand for failure. As encouragement, consider Alicia McElroy and Darrin Dunham. Both DNFed Mohican last year and finished this year. In fact, Dunham had attempted Mohican twice previously – the third time was his charm.
When I saw Eric Grossman’s predicted time of 17 hours I thought someone entered it incorrectly on the spreadsheet. These things do happen. Eric assured me that even though this was his first 100 miler, he was going for that pace. I expected him to die as I’ve seen others with great shorter distance ultra times drop after seventy or so. So he promised that if he hit the wall, he would crawl to the finish line. I am now eating my words and happy to do so. Actually, Jose Wilkie, former Mohican finisher and one of the unreal people who have run over a dozen 100-milers in a year, assured me that Grossman would finish strong. Strong? After the rabbit marathoners dropped out before the marathon distance, Grossman led all the way to finish in 16:21. Grossman brought much family along to celebrate his victory. He had ordered a whopping 10 pasta dinner tickets. His mother is a runner in her own right, planning on doing the Sunmart Texas Trail race. Maybe Mohican next year? That would be a first – we’ve had brothers, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, but never a mother and son. Will they go for that honor?
Rounding out the top five, Tim Lee took second place. He usually doesn’t run this late in the season but had miscalculated the race date and thought it would fall on his 42nd birthday. He trained in the 93 degree Alabama heat. Some years we’ve hit 98 with high humidity, but this year remained in the 70s dropping to 40s at night. Lee does not like the horse mud in Ohio – they don’t have that in Alabama. Russ Goodman came in second in 19:00:21, over an hour better than his 2003 time. Terry Hawk believes his fourth place finish is quite appropriate because now he’s finished every place in the top five. Fifth place John Dove considers Big Hill at the end of the race a cruel joke. Another cruel joke is the loop just before Hickory Ridge, where the runners are just a couple yards from the aid station but must still run a mile to reach it. Some runners toss a water bottle to be filled while others toss their whole pack so they don’t have to carry it that mile. Don Baun will smile about these cruel jokes – he makes minor adjustments to the course each year as needed and has sworn that Big Hill and Hickory Ridge loop are here forever.
Tanya Cady who had finished the event five years ago is now in the over-fifty age group. She not only was the first woman across the finish line in 22:13:35 but also set a new grand master’s (50+) women’s record shaving seven minutes from the previous record. While other records remain in tact, there was a run for the grand master’s men’s record. Joe Hewitt had just turned 50 so predicted a time of 19:50 just a minute shy of the record set by fellow Canadian Les Michalak last year. Regis Shivers, a 1000-mile buckle holder, wanted to regain that record. The Hewitt & Michalak duo and Shiver’s leap-frogged into many of the aid station. Unknown to them Barry Ege a very strong runner was also in their age group. Unfortunately none of these were able to set a new record. Michalak left Hewitt in his dust near the end of the race. Last year the two had crossed the finish line in tandem. His reply when questioned why he had abandoned Joe at the end was, “This year he’s in my age group.”
Rain clouds threatened at times on Saturday, but remained unproductive. Temperatures held in the low seventies. Nighttime brought bone-chilling low forties to the runners, some of whom were not prepared for that drop. After leaving an aid station, Californian Trudy Nygren’s crew came across several freezing runners including Tom McGinnis. Tom had run extremely well through 75 miles, and then had an unexpected low spot. He was most grateful to the Nygren group who gave him and the others towels as a shield against the penetrating cold. McGinnis recovered at the bottom of Big Hill and had a spectacular finish. Trudy considers the Mohican a fantastic event and will spread word to other California runners. Trudy and others were amazed at our mid-west firefly phenomenon. We take much of our beauty for granted.
Kristen Adelman is one of the runners who impressed me the most. You may have seen her - a beautiful young (34) lady with gorgeous black flowing hair and a contagious smile. Why the smile? Happy to be alive! I know she was wearing a black outfit at least during part of the race. This was her first 100-mile race and she finished! Nothing super special about that, until you realize that she has had three life threatening bouts with cancer, the last one just two years ago. She is grateful to the clinical trial that transplanted her brother’s donated stem cells so that she is now cancer free. She is a member of Lance Armstrong’s 2004 Nation Tour of Hope bicycle team that will ride across America in October. Website www.tourofhope.org provides information on that event as well as a picture of the team and Kristen’s biography.
Mohican Sunday was Father’s Day. Jody Chase gave her father the best Father’s Day gift possible – her first 100-mile trail finish. Adrienne Heger gave her father, Roy, a great gift also, running many miles with him to the finish line. Bill Johnson and son Perry celebrated the weekend together running 70 miles as Perry attempted his first 100-mile race. Bill holds multiple Mohican buckles.
Kathy Firlotte joined the Medina group that possesses Mohican buckles. This includes friends and past first women, Connie Gardner and Kim Martin. Last Christmas Kathy’s sister wrote a poem for her about running that included references to Connie and Kim. A poem in itself is a great gift, but the rest of the gift – the entry to the Mohican 100. Kathy is among the first timers who earned the buckle – if she returns next year she can earn another buckle for her poet sister to wear.
Mike Cargill and Richard Szekeresh have been running Mohican for many years. Each of those completed his tenth Mohican to receive the beautiful 1000-mile ten-time finisher buckle. The three previous recipients were all at the race this year: Regis Shivers finished for the eleventh time; Robin Fry served as physician’s assistant and in many other capacities (including Espresso dispenser); Arthur Moore was aid station volunteer coordinator, ably assisted by wife Edina (or is it Arthur assisting Edina?). Robin also posted trail conditions and weather forecast on the group list during the weeks leading up to Mohican, while Regis led some of the familiarization runs. Cargill’s family has been at the Hickory Ridge aid station for many years. They plan to continue serving all the runners. Mike hasn’t decided on his many options: enter the race, help at the aid station or elsewhere, serve as a pacer, etc. We hope that Szekeresh will also return.
Bob Engel reminded us that last year when he hit the wall at the Bridle Staging area other runners were advised not to step on the runner prone in front of the food table. He continued his run after aid station caption, Chris Shick, made hot soup especially for him, and the EMTs checked his vital signs. This year Bob showed up with relatively little training recuperating from a broken ankle still containing hardware that slowed his time by an hour. Running with hardware? Jim Davidson can tell you all about that. Eight years ago he crashed an airplane, broke his back, had some vertebrae removed, a bone graft from his hip. He now runs with two rods in his back, a bad ankle, and other accident residue. Fortunately, he was able to obtain the services of a surgeon who operates on the INDY500 racecar drivers. Runners are addicted. While Davidson was still recuperating in a body cast, he left the house as though going for a walk, but really to jog. Horrified doctor told him he could jar the rods loose, but promised him that if he would lay off the running for six more weeks, he could remove the body cast. This time Davidson refrained from running and became cast free – six months earlier than original projection. He is delighted with his Mohican buckle representing his first 100-mile finish.
Dave Harrill was plagued with breathing problems since his Vietnam days. Recently he turned to his church and believes that God healed him so that now he can breathe easily and could enter this 100 mile race. In gratitude, he used this run as a fundraiser to obtain literature to help spread word of God’s goodness to people in other countries. . Last year when he finished his first 100-mile race, Greg Trapp asked me if he could buy a second buckle to mount. This year he thanked me for telling him to come back and earn the second one. Both were sub 24-hour finishes. He ran with others part of the way and was happy to help rookies watch for turns and tell them about the trail and distance to next aid station. He also shared his extra batteries with those whose lights were dimming.
The Wooster Daily Record featured David Livingston in a pre-race article. David’s co-workers were behind him all the way in his endeavor to complete his first 100-mile event. They even decorated his cubicle the day before the race. His wife and son met him at the pacer station and walked with him to the Bridle Staging area. From there to Rock Point he slowed his pace to match that of the co-workers who had joined him. This shows that the finish time is not critical (other than making aid station cut-offs & 30-hour time limit.) The journey is the important thing – sharing part of that journey with family and friends makes it more memorable. Even with matching slower paces, Livingston clocked a 22:25:48 finish time. Many runners understand that the journey is even more important than finishing the race, that just being at the start point is a great accomplishment.
Physicians Marty Fritzland, from Cincinnati OH and Barbara Mack from Southern Pines NC met at the Boston marathon’s medical expo. For their first date Marty asked Barbara to the Mohican 100 mile trail race. Sean McCormick and Alicia McElroy joined these two to form “Team Marty”. Marty had his name emblazoned on his shirt, so shouts of “Marty” greeted them at each aid station. Marty was unofficially voted “Mr. Congeniality”. Had Tom McGinnis been aware of that vote, he may have mounted a challenge to Marty for the title – perhaps resulting in a tie. Fritzland and McCormick remained together to the end crossing the line at 27:23:04. When daylight arrived, Mack and McElroy dropped back and then separated to run at their own pace. Each delighted in earning her first 100-mile buckle.
Our “Last of the Mohicans” this year is Rich Limacher, a seasoned ultra runner with over ten 100-mile finishes including Hardrock. His pace was somewhat slowed by the effort entailed recently in a Massanutten attempt. In need of a finish to offset that disappointment, he appeared in good shape as he crossed the line with over twenty minutes to spare. His special award was a ceramic figurine with two eagles representing the courage needed to start a 100-miler, the strength needed to finish it, and speed to soar like the eagles in future runs.
Colored light strings along the finishers’ chute and the announcements of the approaching runners contributed to a spectacular finish for each runner, whether he/she continued running, gave a last effort sprint, or walked on screaming feet towards the finish line. Don Baun, Bob Strong, Mickey Rzymek, and Vertical Runner owners Vince Rucci and Steve presided over the enhanced award ceremony. Rich Limacher accepted his Last of the Mohican award. Each non-finisher who completed at least 50 miles received a medal. Of course each finisher received the buckle. Cargill and Szekeresh additionally were presented with the much-coveted 1000-mile buckle. Special framed certificates for places in various age groups were presented. Vertical Runner Store in Hudson had donated many items such as fanny packs to be used as awards in various categories. Race directors will send the various awards to those who had to catch a plane or were otherwise unable to remain for the award ceremony. At the end of the award presentation, a drawing determined the recipients of the remaining Vertical Runner donations – winner must be present to receive these. The best was held for last – an $80 hydration system. Frederick Hindman is glad that he stayed for that drawing.
Next year will bring old and new runners, old and new volunteers, unpredictable conditions, more implementations of further plans of the race directors. Each race director builds on the shoulders of the preceding one. As a new director gets his feet wet, he conceives fabulous ideas to make an already outstanding event even better. Mark your calendars to be part of it – Saturday & Sunday, June 18-19, 2005, with Friday, June 17 for the pasta dinner.
This article has been written for the CWRRC newsletter. I anticipate that it will also be available at www.cwrrc.org and www.mohican100.org . I am writing an article with a different flavor and some overlaps for the national running magazine, UltraRunning. I expect it will appear in the September issue.