Well, I got it done! The Mohican 50 Mile is in the books.
11:34:40
39th overall out of 191
2nd AG (60-69) out of 7
12:12/ mile
2 loops with 6400 feet of elevation change.
It was a tough one. Had some mishaps that didn't help. I fell 4 times, 3 times in 1st loop. 2nd time I fell on my head and broke my sunglasses. I got a nice bruise and a good 1/2 inch cut above my left eye. It bled for awhile and I probably ruined my shirt wiping it away, but it did stop and coagulate. Fall number three effected me the most. I managed to wrench the lower back a bit. Although it wasn't terrible, I felt it for most of the 2nd half. Even had a couple of thoughts of dropping after the 1st loop. Fortunately, I didn't. I did slow down some, though. What was the worst part of the 2nd loop, was without the sunglasses, I was constantly getting having problems with my contacts. First one, then the other. Some kind of particles were constantly getting in my eyes. So, I would have to walk slow or even stop to mess with them. In particularly, the 2nd to the last section of the 2nd loop, I struggled mightily. By the end of that section, I was beginning to think I wasn't going to get even close to the sub-12 hour finish I wanted by that time. But something wonderful happened and all of a sudden on the last section, I felt strong again and managed Run most of it except for the big hills. In fact, I ran it faster than on the 1st loop. And I not only broke 12 hours, but almost ran under 11 and a 1/2.
So, overall, I was pretty pleased. Although I would have loved being in the 10 to 11 hour range, I was pretty sure going in that would have been very difficult and everything would have to have fallen into place. I felt sub-12 was going to be tough, but within reach and I achieved it.
