Day 4,421—Running Bib on a Shirt!?!: 1 More Runs until the Mohican 100!—

 

Start time: 6:59 a.m.

Weather: Mid 60s, wind 3.4 mi/h, Humidity 94%

    Every race has a personality, which is usually driven by the race director and the community. I can already tell that Mohican has an interesting personality. They sent out an email yesterday without a race packet. This is the first 100-mile race I have ever done that doesn’t include a race packet in PDF form with all the important information. They have all the information that would be in a packet on their website, and I have received it in half a dozen e-mails, but this one was funny.

    There was so much all-caps screaming in the e-mail, mainly about how people were trying to go somewhere they weren’t supposed to be last year. It is funny to me because the people who break those rules rarely read the e-mails. They weren’t asking for anything that didn’t seem standard to me, but all the all-caps yelling at participants last year just seemed jarring, but I have seen it before. One of the oddest requests I have ever seen was in the e-mail. It asked us not to put the race bib on our shorts!? I am like, what?! I always put it on my shorts because I don’t change my shorts as frequently as my shirt, but today I tried a bib on my shirt, and it felt okay. I didn’t hate it, but now I am thinking about how often I might have to change it because I will most likely change my shirt several times during the race.

     I watched some of the race videos from previous years, and I liked seeing the course and getting a better idea of what to expect. It did inspire me to write a list of categories that I will try to rate somehow in future races. I should also revisit the questions that I wrote for the last race. I think that was a good idea, but I don’t know if I had the right questions.

The first race video I watched was of a guy I raced against a few years ago. He goes everywhere, and his videos are mainly of the trail. The second video I watched was of a guy who was sponsored. He was talking about running the Western State soon, but he made the most amateur mistakes I have seen any runner make, which could happen to anyone, so I don’t want to be judgmental, but he was so confident and still promoting his sponsors for nutrition and hydration but neither of his nutrition or hydration plan worked?! He was so sleepy that he said, so his solution was that he should have tried to drink caffeine sooner?! I am just thinking caffeine dehydrates you, and you should not drink it during the day of a 100-mile race!!! But I digress, I wasn’t there, and I have made all of those mistakes and more, but it made me realize more what I want to be included in my videos. Something I would never tell anyone to do in a 100-mile race is to drink caffeine on the first day, especially if it is hot. I am still concerned about my exact plan for my additional drinks. Will I be able to set up a cooler and a little mini aid station for myself at the start and finish? I think I will be able to, but I don’t know for sure.