Hennepin Hundred: The Quest for sub-24

Prelude

Since I started running 100's, the goal had been to run 100 miles in one day, or under 24 hours time.  I had attempted it twice.  I had failed to meet that goal twice.

Hennepin, 2016 was to be my third attempt.  However, due to a personal situation, I was a DNS.  So Hennepin, 2017 it was!

Hennepin is a point to point race that starts in Rock Falls, IL, and ends in Colona, IL.

I had chosen Hennepin because it was advertised as 'flat and fast'.  That, in and of itself, can lead to problems, which I will address in the training section at the end of the report.

In the month or two leading up to the race, my primary goal had switched to one of sub 23 hours.  I thought that I was totally capable of doing that.

Friday, October 6, 2017

My good friend Pete had volunteered last year to crew for me.  And my ever present running husband Kurt would be my pacer.  Pete picked me up Friday around 10 am.  We then picked up Kurt and headed to the pre-race meeting, which was held near the finish.

After that, we headed back to the hotel I had booked for us near the starting line.  The first order of business was to go over instructions for Pete and Kurt.  I had made up a spread sheet for them. 

I also went over what was in my race bin, and in the specific bags within it.

I made the mistake of mentioning to Kurt that if I could get to the 50 mile mark in 9 hours, I believed a sub 22 was possible.  That'll come into play later.

We all had a great time cutting up like a bunch of teenagers.  We made a trip to the Walmart across the street for some items we had forgotten, and were able to get to bed by 830 CDT (the three of us live in EDT).

Race Day

Hennepin is a point to point hundred, with a 5.2 mile section that's run twice.  It's shaped like an upside-down "T"

You start at the top, run down to the base of the T, turn left, then turn around at the star.  You then run straight for the duration of the race.  It follows a canal for the entirety of the course.
This is the .gpx file from my run

I was the first to wake up, at 430.  I had never before had 6 hours of good sleep prior to an event, so I decided to get dressed and get myself ready.
I had put aside the clothes that I was going to wear to the race a month prior.  My 'business handling' outfit is what I called it.
I had purchased a Greater Flint Track Club shirt from the local running store.  That was the only thing I wore that was colorful.  I had on grey undershorts, black race shorts, and a grey headband which had skulls all over it.  I also chose the most subdued pair of shoes I had trained in: my black and red Altra Torin 2.0.

Pete and Kurt woke up shortly after I.  We got ourselves ready, then packed up the car.  The hotel was serving breakfast, so we stopped in to eat real quick.  We then headed to the start line, 15 minutes away.

Kurt, Pete, and I

I remember telling them on that ride that I was, "calm, cool, and collected".  That too was a change for me.  Usually I'm a ball of nervous energy.  But I had complete faith in God and my training.  And being anxious was a waste of energy.
We got to the start line about 30 minutes before the gun went off.  I'm glad that we did.  They only had four port-a-johns, so I stood in line for ten minutes to empty my bladder.
I had two GPS watches with me: my Garmin 310 and my Suunto Ambit.  The former was to track my pace until I picked Kurt up at mile 47.1.  The latter I had set to track the entire run.  (it's the one at the top of the following list)

UPDATE

I stitched together the GPX files from Pete's watch and my watch, then uploaded it to Strava.  Here's the entire GPS data from the race.

I powered on my Garmin, and it wouldn't start the process of locating satellites.  I started freaking out a bit at this point, because keeping track of my pace for the first half was key to me.  Pete saved the day by breaking out his 310.
The plan was for me to get the majority of my calories during the race from Fellrnr's Go Juice.  I had one hand held filled with that, another handheld with water.  I would drink a full water between every aid station (AS), and a full Go Juice every other.
I made my way to the starting chute, and threaded through the crowd gathered there to the front.  I was there to handle business, after all.  I was not there for a good time.  I had brought my two mp3 players to listen to until I picked Kurt up.  I put in the punk rock one, the gun started, and I was off.

Kurt and I pre-start

Pete and I pre-start

The report will be broken down into 25 mile segments.

That's how I remember it

Miles 1 - 25

All I recall about these miles is towards the end.  I was well rested from my taper, so I went out there fairly fast.  I was holding a pace in the low 9s.

Before I had reached mile 10, my right quad started to get really tight.  It wasn't affecting my gait, so I thought "well, guess I'll be living with this for the next 90 miles".

The original plan called for me to run to the second AS, then start my cycle of running five miles, and walking two.  I don't rightly recall when I started walking, but I believe it was at AS 3, mile 14.9.  I know I only walked a half of a mile, then started running again.  I pushed quite hard through the first 25.  I finished this quarter in an average pace of 9:59.  I walked less than two miles during this 25 miles.
I rewarded myself with a half mile walk.

All of my AS stops were under one minute in length.  I would see the AS up ahead, finish the bottle (or bottles if it was time to fill up the Go Juice).  If it was a Go Juice AS, I would have the powder dumped into the bottle.
I was in and out of every AS in less than one minute.

I started experiencing some GI distress during these 25 miles.  While my stomach wasn't upset, and I didn't have the runs, I found myself having to poop pretty often.  I ended up pooping eight times during the race.  That was 20 minutes that I was not able to make up.

Miles 26 - 50

Some pictures from the beginning of these 25 miles, courtesy of Kurt:

Taken as I was pulling into an AS which had crew access.  I'm always a ham for a photo.

I reached the 26.2 mark in 4:25.  I knew that I pushed through that first 25 real hard, and that I would have to throttle it back if I wanted to avoid burning out.  The weather was great.  It was in the low 70s temperature wise, but totally cloudy.  I was still sweating quite a bit, but was staying hydrated and replenishing my electrolytes adequately through the Go Juice.  

Miles 30 - 40 were rough for me.  I was trying to find a sweet spot in my run/walk ratio.  I tried 2.5/0.5, and 2/0.5.  All of those required me pushing a bit harder than I wanted towards the end of the run period.  I ended up talking to my dad, who passed in March, quite a bit during these miles.
"C'mon dad.  It's just you and me.  We got this old man"
I still miss him.
I had never run a race where I was so focused.  Normally during a 100, I'll fall in with another runner(s), and talk to them until I or them fall behind.
That was not the case today.  I had my music on, and I was just focused on moving as fast as I could.

I don't recall where in this 25 miles I asked Pete for a shirt.  I had taken mine off soon after the start.  I was starting to chafe in my right armpit from the salt I was sweating off.  It wasn't horrible, but it was getting a bit uncomfortable.  I knew the exact shirt I wanted.  As I pulled into whichever AS it was, I said
"I need the short sleeved tech with the yellow stripe"
It was fairly snug to my body, which is what I wanted to alleviate the rubbing.

I was finally able to settle into a 1.5/0.5 ratio.  My walking pace was still around 13:30 min/mile.  I have only my training to thank for that.  (Training section at the end of the report).  My running pace was creeping up into the 11 min mark, but I was still doing great.  Every time I saw Pete and Kurt, they would update me as to how much time I had gained on my ETA listed on the spreadsheet.

A couple of times when I pulled up to an AS with crew access, Kurt would ask me how I was doing.  He told me later that evening (or maybe early Sunday morning) when we were running together, that my response sounded like this

He was very concerned that I was getting wonky due to a lack of electrolytes.  In reality, it was just stopping that was the issue.  I was pushing hard the entire way: running and walking.  Coming to a complete stop was stopping the extra cardiovascular pump, and all of a sudden my brain would be minus however much blood. 

He insisted I find something salty to eat, so I grabbed some bacon they had there in ziplock bags.  I grabbed a couple of bags to go, and carried on.

At some point in this 25, it started misting out.  It was quite welcome.  When the precipitation got harder, I told Pete at an AS that I needed my running hat.  I love running in the rain, but really dislike having it get in my eyes.

At the AS at mile 32.1 I saw Mike Pfefferkorn, the RD of the Indiana Trail 100 (IT).  Kurt and I have been involved with the IT since it's inaugural year in 2013.  It was good to see him.  I remember telling him

"I'm here to CRUSH this course!"

really loud.

Leaving that AS, I thought how good it would be to see it again at mile 67.3. 

I had informed Pete and Kurt that when I picked up Kurt at mile 47.1, I wanted to change my shoes and socks.  When I reached that point, I sat down for the only time during the race.  Man that hurt to sit.

They got some baby wipes, cleaned my feet off, reapplied silicone lubricant, put clean socks on me, and my Altra Olympus.  The thick soles on those bad boys were a welcome relief.

I hit 50 miles in ~9 hours and 30 minutes.  A new 50 mile PR for me.

Kurt and I ran the 2.6 miles to the 100 mile turnaround.  I talked his ear off for quite a while.  I was feeling pretty starved for conversation.  I recall that I told him that if I missed my goal by 20 minutes, I had only the time that I had spent pooping to blame.  

As I said, I used Pete's watch for the first 47.5.  Here are screen shots of my splits for those miles.

Miles 51 - 75

I remember Kurt telling me at mile 56 something about the pace that we would have to maintain to hit sub 22 hours.  That's Kurt.  He's an engineer, and always feels the need to do math.

To be fair, I was still able to do simple math, but whatever it was that he said sounded like an explanation of vector spaces.

He explained a bit later that as long as we were able to maintain a one hour pace for every four miles traveled, we could sub 22.  So every four miles I would give him a mark, and he would consult his wrist watch and tell me how much time we had gained on that finish.  We were doing pretty good.

It was pretty nice to hit that AS again at 67.3.  I couldn't let myself think about how many miles I had left, so I focused on two other numbers:

1. The number of AS left (20 total)
2. The number of miles left in our four mile cycle

Night came during these 25 miles.  Kurt and I just kept plugging away.  I maintained the 1.5/0.5 run/walk ratio as long as I could.  At some point, we switched it to a 1/0.5.  Both the run and walk pace were slowing down, but I was giving it everything I had.

I remember getting sleepy at some point.  I was still able to maintain our pace, but all I wanted was to lie down and take a nap.  I had brought some Zip Fizz along.  These things are awesome.  They have eight times the amount of B12 than 5-Hour Energy has.  I added one to my water bottle, and it pepped me right up.

Miles 76 - Finish (100.3)

I was still giving Kurt a mark every four miles.  At one point, we had built up a 14 minute cushion on the sub 22 hour finish.  We were still doing a 1/0.5 run/walk.  I think our cushion dropped to 11 or 12 minutes, but we were still pushing it.  

Pete knew that we were trying for a sub 22.  He kept telling me when I saw him that we were good.  That we'd make it no problem.  I remember thinking each time
"Dude, shut up."
I'm a firm believer that in sports, all jinxes are valid.  I didn't want him talking about it for two reasons:

1. I didn't want him to jinx it
2. This had gotten hard

At some point in the 70s or early in the 80s, I remember telling Kurt
"At this moment, at this point in the race, doing what we're doing is not a problem" referring to the run/walk that we were able to maintain.  

For at least 30 miles after I picked him up, we maintained right around one hour for every four miles run.  That was blowing my mind for this stage of the game.

I had Pete get me some BCAA with caffeine to put in my water bottle.  The caffeine was a huge help for keeping me alert and focused.

At the  mile 78 AS, Kurt and I were both ready for some coffee.  The volunteers told us they didn't have any, but that there was some at the next one, at mile 82.1.  There wasn't any there either.  One volunteer did have some chocolate covered espresso beans which she shared with us, but that didn't really help us too much.

We finally got our coffee at the AS at 86.7.  We each slammed a cup of tepid coffee, had Pete put some of the caffeine laden BCAA powder in our bottles, and continued on.

The last time we saw Pete on the course was at the AS at mile 93.1.  We both dropped off our hand-helds with Pete.  Our cushion at this point was maybe about 10 minutes.  Pete again was just overjoyed to tell me how I had a sub 22 in the bag.  

I asked a volunteer what the actual distance of the race was.  I knew it was a bit longer than 100, but I didn't know how much more.  Those extra tenths might mean the difference between sub 22 and sub 23.  He said
"It's actually closer to 101 than it is to 100"
That took whatever air that I had left in my balloon out.  Kurt and I started back on the course, and I told him what he had said.  Kurt said that if it was 101, we'd be really hard pressed to make the sub 22 goal.  We would have to make up some time.

I had pushed as hard as I could to that point.  I tried to keep up the 1/0.5 run/walk, but I was only able to make it .6 miles into the run portion before I told him that  I had to walk.  I decided that I would do a 0.5/0.5 run/walk until the finish.  Whatever my time was going to be, I knew that I had left everything I had out on the course.

Kurt and I spent quite a bit of the next 3.4 miles until the final AS bitching about this.  The turn around for the 100 miles was 1.3 miles from the AS.  Kurt informed me that someone had told him it was specifically 1.36 miles.  Why not make the course exactly 100 miles?  The turnaround was just in some arbitrary spot on the trail.
What the hell?!?!

We decided to just keep on doing our 0.5/0.5 run/walk until we reached the last AS, at which point we would find out exactly how long we had to go.

We reached it.  They had a laminated sheet that said
3.7 miles until Finish.

That would make the race 100.3 miles.  That meant we still had a chance.

We both asked the volunteers if that was correct.  They said yes.

I slammed a cup of water, and we moved out.

Kurt informed me that it was going to be tight.  We had about a three minute cushion at this point, and that was with us maintaining a 15 minute/mile pace.  I told him that I was only able to do what we had been doing, referring to our run/walk ratio.  Whatever I finished in, I would be happy with.

We came into the town of Colona, IL, where the finish was located.  

We were running the first half of each mile, walking the second half.  I knew that Kurt would want me to run the last mile into the finish.  All I could think was
"What if my watch is incorrect?  What if we think it should be one mile, but it's really 1.2?"

I did not think that I had it in me to run that extra point whatever it might be.

We reached one mile to go, and Kurt said
"Come on.  Let's run it in."

I stopped.  Put my hands on my knees.  Hunched over.  Took a deep breath to gather myself.  And started to run.

We saw the finish about .5 miles away, but I couldn't gauge how far it actually was.  When we finally saw the finish chute with the running time reading 21:5x:xx, I couldn't tell what those x's were.  (I don't run with my glasses, so it was all blurry).

I don't know how fast my pace was for that last quarter mile, but I gave it everything I had left.

The Finish

According to the results page, I finished in 21:53:22.  29th out of 126 finishers.  

I remember saying
"I'm going to sit down now"
I got tremendously light headed upon stopping.  Then Kurt decided to give me a huge bear hug from behind.  I thought
"Great.  I'm going to end this race by falling on my face."

I did have to bend over and put my hand on the ground, but I did not fall on my face.

I walked over to the picnic table by the finish line, and was handed my 

100 miles / One Day

buckle.

This.  It was all for this.

The three of us posed for a picture

Postlude

This was the most difficult thing that I have ever physically done.  I never have to do this again.  I remember saying
"I can't believe I did it."
A few times sitting there.  It still hasn't hit me yet.  Not really.

I would like to think that I could have done this without the help of Pete and Kurt, but I'm not sure.  They were such an integral part of this story.

Lessons Learned

• You have to train to walk
• I know this sounds ludicrous, but for almost one full year, during my long runs, I trained to walk fast.  Considering I was able to maintain a sub-14 minute walking pace for the first 50 miles, I believe it paid huge dividends.
• Pushing the entirety of 100 miles is really, really, really hard
• I've heard it said that you cannot bank time in an ultra. That is, if you go out too fast in the beginning, you'll just end up burning yourself out in the end. I believe I was able to bank some serious time in the first 25 miles. I can't know if I could've finished any faster with a more conservative approach in the beginning, but I feel I left everything I had on the course, while having just enough to finish 
• Having a dedicated crew for such an effort is a tremendous benefit
• Stay focused.  Eyes on the prize and all that.  If you do that, nothing can stand in your way
• Thank God I never have to do that again

Here ends the race report.  The next section is how I trained for this event.

Pictures from the event

Scott Laudick was there providing his excellent photography services.  You can find all of the shots he took during the event here.  Here are the ones specific to me.

Training

That's my training for Hennepin.  Normally I do 11 weeks of training, plus a four week taper.  Because I had already had a great base from the VM 150 training, I did only seven weeks of training, with a three week warm up to that.

Before I started training, both Kurt and my wife suggested that I not do what I normally do, which is a ridiculous amount of miles.  My theory is that if some is good, more is better.
I would easily turn in 300+ mile months when training for an event.
This time, I heeded their advice.  I kept my weekly mileage in the low- to mid- 70s.  I was able to get a supported training run of 50 miles in twice while pacing friends to their 100 mile finishes.

I also did my core strengthening exercises every Monday at the gym.  Upper and lower abs and lower back.

Another key part of the training was weight loss.  I invariably weigh between 180-185 pounds.  I knew that weighing 5-10 lbs less, 175, would be a great boon in realizing my goal.
I didn't do any kind of special diet.  I just logged everything that I ate, and kept the caloric count under 1770 per day.  Regardless of if I had run or not.
Each of my weekday runs were done on an empty stomach.
I lost 13 pounds in three months.  I started the race at 172.
The caloric restriction was not pleasant.  I was hungry all the time.
But now I get to eat
ALL
THE FOOD!!!!