Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

EVENT REPORTMOHICAN 100that makes up the Mohican Memorial State Forest, ithas to be the most beautiful trail I have ever hadthe privilege to run. Absolutely stunning, mostlysingle track trails through heavily covered woods.Switch back trails taking you up roughly 1,000mascent (and descent) every lap through gorgeousforestry, past lakes, under waterfalls, jumping fallenlogs, running along rivers and even including ahand over foot climb up a massive set of tree roots!We chose to stay in the nearby town of Mansfield,which was only about a half hour drive away, but inhindsight would definitely arrange to stay in theMohican Adventures Cabins located directly acrossfrom the finish area to make it even easier. The racestarted at 5am on Saturday 20th June, so alarmswere set for 3:30am to ensure we were at the racestart in time. The weather was quite difficult tojudge with some light rain to welcome us at thestart but it was already so muggy! I decided to stickto my X-bionic shorts with a short sleeved top anddonned a buff for my head to keep the cool off. Ishouldn’t have bothered with the buff, within 5minutes of running I was absolutely dripping insweat and the buff was off and put away for good.There was loads of runners starting with just a pairof shorts not even a shirt so that is a pretty goodindication of how warm it was, due to the densecover the sun never really came through the trees infull light so the sunglasses I had in my bag were awaste.A head torch was needed for the first hour and ahalf especially with the forest being so dense it didtake a while for the light to be strong enough toturn the torch off for good. But oh my; howbeautiful it was as the light came through.Absolutely stunning, the forest was shrouded inmist and had an ethereal quality about it and thiswas certainly the most magical part of the day.I ran the first lap strong, I had my race plan oftaking on fuel every half an hour worth 30g of carbsto keep me going and this certainly worked for me.I had a mixture of gels to take with differentflavours from Torq, High 5 and Hammer, along witha few ‘real food’ options such as Torq bars andbounce balls along with a few treats like Doritoscrisps and a donut (planned for later in theevening). There were checkpoints roughly every 5miles, all of which were really well stocked with icecold water, Hammer Heed, coke, ginger ale and avariety of snacks such as orange segments, pretzels,sweets, turkey sandwiches etc and of courseHammer gels (the event was sponsored by Hammer)and all the checkpoint volunteers were superfriendly and always willing to help.The route was absolutely beautiful, I made sure Iwas looking around and soaking up the beauty of itall. The ascents and descents were steep thoughand I started to regret my choice of shoe size. Withthe humid heat my feet were swelling a lot morethan I have experienced ever before (even in MdSand Kalahari I didn’t have this problem) and thiswas causing my left big toe to be very sore,meaning I was running on the side of my foot to tryand take the pressure off my toe, causing then asore ankle, all compounded on the descents.Covered Bridge was the 3rd checkpoint along thetrail loop which stored your other drop bagensuring I could maintain my nutrition plan bypicking up my packed mini bags I had preparedwith gels/food I had brought with me. It also meantI didn’t need to take long at checkpoints or eatmuch of the checkpoint food provided, just the oddorange segment which tasted a treat in the heat.The temperature was certainly rising and thehumidity was high, I’m taking a guess thetemperature would have been in the 30’s withabout 90% humidity so it was thirsty work whichwas a bit of my downfall. I was running with myUltimate Hydration Ultra Vesta which had thesupplied 10oz bottles (284ml) on each side. Oneone side I was using this for purely water and on theother I alternated between Torq Energy andHammer Perpetuem (both high carb energy drinks)so my water intake was too low, I was constantlyrunning out of fluid before each checkpoint, andeven though I was drinking a cupful or two of waterat each checkpoint as well I still ended updehydrated through my second lap.The laps started and finished at the MohicanAdventures checkpoint so this was the location forthe other drop bag, so on finishing the first lap inabout 5.5 hours, as 2nd lady I found out whilstthere, I restocked with my fuels and headed off to12 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://