Figured I'd start a new post for the Race reports.....I'd like to hear the details from the other people...especially those with the fortitude to finish!!
 
It was a pretty tough course for sure!!!   I had a lot of trouble out there!  The course was really rocky and had a lot of holes that were often partial obscured by leaves.... I had taped (using the horse wrap I mentioned in an other post) my ankles for added support and that really helped a lot but I still torqued my ankles and knees several times.  The course had man looooong (not toooo steep though) uphills and down-hills which also wreaked havoc on my knees.
 
My personal estimation is that the first 20-ish miles of the course are the most difficult in terms of elevation change.....there's still plenty of ups and downs after, but they didn't seem as long.  The first 20ish miles also had the most damage from the wind storm last year.....of course I haven't seen anything after mile 77...so it could have been worse there.
 
I started running with Dexter in order to keep myself from going out too fast as I am prone to doing....The first part of the trail had a lot of trees down from the storms...which means there was a lot of new undergrowth this year.  I was wearing shorts and my legs got pretty bloodied up from the thorns.  The race crew had tried to clear some, but 100% just isn't possible  
 
Dexter and I split up in the 30 mile range when I was feeling pretty good and wanted to speed up a little.  I met some guy named Bill Fairfield on the trail and continued on with him.
 
I started dragging really bad in the late 50mile-60mile time frame....it was cold and dark and we (Bill and I) had been ROCKING since the mile 43.5 aid station and were coming down from that high.  We got to the mile 68.5 aid station around 2:10am.  Bill went off on his own since I needed a little extra time at the station.  I went off solo at 2:40AM.  Right out of the 68.5 mile station I found a good solid pace for a mile or so but still died back down to a walk shortly thereafter.    This segment was supposed to be 7 miles to the next aid station but I think it was longer.  Other people came to the same conclusion.  It was also poorly marked here, and combined with the added distance, it didn't really help lift my spirits because I was expecting to find the aid station much earlier than I did and started worrying I got lost (Which is VERY easy to do at night out there!)
 
Like el-DR said...I finally got to the mile 77 aid station at the 5:30am cut off for that station,  the guys at the station said I could have gone back out if I just grabbed the aid I needed and left, but I knew I wouldn't make the next station by the next cut off since I was dragging so much
 
So I got into the sag-wagon....and found a sleeping Jack....who had burned out a few hours earlier at the 81.5 Mile aid station...  
 
All in all I would say it was a good experience.....
Not much in the line of blisters, except for a swollen big toe from constantly kicking rocks in the dark...I think the swelling may be a large blister under the nail??
 
It was a PR for distance for me....27 miles more than the farthest I had run previously... Not too shabby I think.
 
I'm going to find some other 100's that have better footing so that I can learn more about just doing the distance before I try to avenge myself at that race.   I need to learn some tricks on how to pick back up the energy at 3AM when I feel like I'm mostly dead.   if there are any tricks to keeping knees alive on long downhills I'd like to know those too....this is a recurring problem for me.
 
 
so lets hear from the others!?

Yeah, I cringed when I saw the time limit.  I've hiked around that terrain (Merrimac State Park has a 10 mile loop) and it is hilly and mostly rocky.  I can't imagine trying to run on that, especially in the dark while tired.  
 
good job on 77 miles.
 

I too, made it farther this year - hit 68.5 at Hazel Creek (Jack's old nemesis)    Awesome job everyone, especially BJ, Paul, and Spencer - I can't imagine what it took to finish.  I feel good about what I did and realize now that the temps last year were only part of the story - you've gotta have enough sections of runnable trail without playing soccer with rocks...  I'm sure I've got a hundred in me, just not sure if it's ever gonna be on this course.  We'll see!

dex and greg, you guys gotta do javelina with me next year  
 
great RR greg and incredible effort by all of you. must be a brutal course!!!!!!!!!

Great job everyone, sounds like a brutal course.
 

Checked the OT website, looks like the 60% number is a little high - may have figured all entrants and not starters.  I think there were 75-77 starters and 37 finishers, works out to about 50-52% drop rate.  Still...

This race has a lot going for it.  The uniqueness of a point-to-point in the Midwest, a beautiful course, plenty of challenging but manageable hills, and GREAT aid station workers (how can you beat warm Milwaukee's Best Ice at mile 34?).  That said, I'm not sure I would run it again.  If the race was held before the leaves were on the ground I would definitely be back next year.  As it is I consider myself lucky to not have mangled feet or a concussion.  The leaf/rock combination was brutal.
 
There were stretches that get enough traffic that there were few rocks and leaves and those bits were a joy.  At the other end of the spectrum was a 2-3 mile stretch that was so rocky and leaf covered that I had trouble even walking.  I ended up using two branches as walking sticks.  The majority of the course was runnable with focused attention and careful foot placement.
 
My hat is off to those of you who ran or paced there last year and went back knowing what you were getting into.      
 
Before the race my only goal, aside from finishing, was to enjoy as much of it as possible and to try to avoid the death march at the end.  In spite of the footing I did manage to have a good time for just about the whole way.  
 
I did have a rough spell in the same 7 mile section Greg had mentioned.  I thought I had taken a wrong turn and I assumed when I eventually got to an aid station that it would be the wrong one.  In addition to that I was behind on food and caffeine.  There were a lot of obscene comments made to the race, RD, trail, trees, rocks, and myself.  
 
Once I got past that low point I felt good mentally and physically for the rest of the race.  During the day I had taken a handful of 5ish minute breaks to stretch and elevate my legs.  I think that and using a reasonable pace helped prevent the meltdown/death march at the end.  
 
It was great to see everyone down there this weekend.  Considering the tight cutoff times and playing rock soccer everyone did great.  Hell, the first 20 miles would make for a tough race just by itself.        
 

good effort, all.  enjoyed the reports.