The Hawkins Family

My 12th attempt at the 100 mile distance.

It was definitely one of the most miserable races from start to finish I have experienced. Not because of the race itself.. because I have definitely had that happen before.
This was more problematic from the beginning due to my own ailments and woes.

Let's start from the beginning. I've been attempting to get into Western States 100 since 2019. For those who don't know what that means... Western States is the most iconic 100 mile race in the USA. It has become so sought after, it takes years to get into. You must run a qualifying race every year to get your "name in the hat" to be drawn for entry. If you aren't lucky enough to have your name picked, your tickets double for the next year. That's assuming you run another qualifying ultra. If you calculate correctly, I will have 64 tickets in the bucket this year (covid year didn't count). So this year, my best friend Annie picked our race. She hasn't done a 100 mile race since 2022 when she finished Yeti 100- post cancer. That story, in itself, is worth a whole blog post. She wanted to do Hennepin 100. She wanted the flannel shirt to be quite honest. So I agreed.

Hennepin 100 is a super flat 100 mile foot race that follows the Hennepin canal in Moline, Illinois. Just how flat? Well we quickly found VERY. FLAT. Like... hurt your hips, destroy your knees, screw up your feet flat. We are trail girls... rocks, roots, climbing. Not flat girls. We knew the course didn't have any climbs though.. that part was on purpose.
Post cancer, we have learned that Annie's lung is covered in scar tissue from radiation and she just CAN NOT breath while she climbs. At least not climb quickly. She needs breaks to climb, and she can definitely do it! We climbed FOUR 14'ers in 2 days a few weeks ago. But she has to take it slow to do it. This is a challenge when it comes to a race. We learned this at No Business a couple of years ago. Time cut offs get a bit tricky when you can't breath. Hennepin seemed like the perfect option for both us! A Western States qualifier and no climbing.

We flew to Chicago pretty early Friday morning. We got an air-bnb in East Moline and it had the world's most amazing shower 😂 perfect motivation to get through a 100 mile run and back to the perfect shower! I won't mention the TWO FLIGHTS OF STAIRS. Packet pickup was at 5 pm Friday night and the pre-race meeting at 530. We had to prepare our drop bags for the race before packet pickup up. This was super important to sort out , because for the first time ever.. we went without crew and pacers. I have never been without crew- I have always had either Kevin or Denise with me. I did run Rim to River last year with no pacers and it went well. So we carefully looked at the drop bag locations and what our estimated time would be to each of them. We decided on 3 drop bags (you could have 4, but we didn't really need anything at mile 20). Two of the bags you pass by twice. We did our best guessing on where to stash headlamps, warm clothes, energy drinks, etc. We loaded up and headed to packet pickup. The pickup and pre-race meeting were at the finish line. So we got a little glimpse of the course. After we dropped our bags and got our bibs, we headed towards the pre-race meeting. We were both super tired from working too many shifts leading up to the race and decided we were "experienced" enough to skip the meeting and head for pasta instead. Maria's did not disappoint!

Annie refused to announce her participation in the race until

she had flannel shirt and buckle IN HAND

Our nightmare scramble to get our drop bags together!

We turned in pretty early. We had a 4 am alarm set for the morning. The buses left around 5 am for the start line. I appreciate when a race offers a bus to the starting line, allowing your car to stay at the finish. I have had a scary encounter driving half asleep after a 100. We braided our hair and I took a nap on the ride over. It was about 1.5 hours and we got there pretty early for the 7 am start. It was chilly by the water- only 42°. We chatted with Alex a bit and before we knew, it was go time!

The trail follows the Hennepin Canal for the duration of the race. We learned later it was built to connect the Mississippi River and the Illinois River for easier boat travel. The canal itself is 75 miles, plus the feeder canal. There is a lot of cool history associated with Hennepin Canal that chat GPT can school you on.

Over 300 runners started the race this year

From the start of the race, my stomach was a disaster. I had horrible gas pain that wouldn't pass or move at all. Every bite I ate caused more pain. This went on for 3/4 of the race. It finally let up with about 30 miles to go. I also had to fight through 2 hours of hives. I didn't want to take a Benadryl and get sleepy, so i fought it off as best I could. I didn't scratch or touch the whelps at all. My wrists were red and swollen, my throat was scratchy... it just didn't want to stop. Finally, after a couple of hours, the hives stopped. But it was a miserable 2 hours paired with severe stomach pain.

I have to eat every couple of hours, especially early on. Eat early, eat often. It's the race strategy that works best for me! The problem was that it all caused gas pain. So eating became a chore. But one that had to happen. I got through this race on strawberry shortbread cookies and sour patch kids (my usual).

We enjoyed the early miles and went with a 3:2 from the start. 3 minute run followed by 2 minute walk. By the 50k mark, we were sore from the flat surface and decided to flip it over to a 2:3. 2 minutes of running followed by 3 min of walking. We did this until mile 60. At that point we just ran when we could, at least some of every mile.

50K down!

It got pretty warm in the sun during the middle of the day. Much of the trail was exposed and we had no idea we were going to need sun protection! It helps to do your research BEFORE you run a 100.

The course was beautiful, completely on the canal and full of the most beautiful plant life and birds. We saw lots of interesting flowers, blooms and fruits. Corn fields as far as you could see, long dirt roads that disappeared into the horizon... which would later on become a problem. At night, you could see aid stations 2 to 3 miles away! It was really a mental challenge to have it look so close but be so far away. We eventually began calling them "mirages" instead of aid stations.

The course was a mix of dirt, sand, gravel, chip and seal. It was very repetitive and straight.

One of the strange plants we saw on the trail!

The day went on and my stomach never got any better. I finally realized I was just going to have to suck it up and suffer through it. As long as I just kept putting food in my mouth. I got super frustrated around the half way point with my BRAND NEW GARMIN WATCH! It randomly would stop recording and lose the GPS signal. It did it at least 10 times. I finally stopped the run and started a new one, which fixed the problem- but left me with two runs and not one on Strava. I had just bought a new Instinct 3 to replace my Instinct 2 because it would no longer hold a charge running GPS for more than about 6 hours. This watch never needed a re-charge, which was awesome- but royally pissed me off cutting off and missing about 6 miles of my run and ultimately making me create a second activity. I'm not sure what went wrong, but it is definitely being returned.

12.5 hours in, mile 50.5

We were on pretty steady cruise control with our pace through the 50.5 mile turn around. We had hit every aid station ahead of 28 hour pace- which banked us a couple of extra hours at the end if we needed it. We had the most AMAZING chicken tacos at the surprise aid station manned by Ten Junk Miles at the turn around. The tacos for sure got us through the start of the night. We hit up our drop bags and got our warm clothes and more hand warmers. I made the poor decision to leave my jacket in the drop bag. I had on 2 shirts and shoved my leggings in my vest for later. I had my sock hat, gloves and hand warmers as well. I wasn't that cold the morning before, so I assumed with the addition of the leggings I would be fine. And I was okay- as long as I was moving. But as the night went on, the longer we stood at an aid station- the colder I got. It would take me close to a mile of movement to get warm again. By 1 am, Annie was sleep-running. She could hardly stand up straight. I know she has to sleep at a 100 mile race- nothing new to me. And I had planned to ride it out with her while she napped. We had initially planned for to take a 20 min nap around our drop bags at mile 68.9 (which would be around 2 am) But by the time we got to the 62 mile station- she HAD to close her eyes for a minute. This was the official Ten Junk Miles aid station (we passed it two times) and it was INCREDBILE. The food was insane, the support and help were top notch! I can't say enough amazing things about Scott Kumar and all those with him at this station. While Annie slept I went browsing through an entire MENU of food to choose from. The first time through I had managed to force a mini BBQ sandwich down. But this time- I was STARVING and my stomach had finally decided to return to normalcy! So I ate the HELL out of a corn dog covered in mustard. It brought LIFE back to my soul! Annie slept maybe 7 or 8 mins. It wasn't much, but it was what she needed. Or so she thought. We had 6.6 miles to the next aid station which was almost mile 70 and we had another drop bag there. Unfortunately I got extremely cold waiting and it took me a while to warm up.

Mile 75- 20.5 hours

I should of slid my sweat pants on at the mile 68.9 aid where our drop bags were, but against my better judgment I did not. I forced some broth and mashed potatoes down- and drank some ginger-ale and we headed back out. Neither one of us were really eating well by mile 75. Annie continued to get sleepy and knew she needed to rest her eyes again to keep going. The next aid station was about 4.4 miles away at the 80 mile mark. She sat by the fire pit and said she would have to nap to stand a chance at finishing. I told her I love her and I knew she needed the sleep- but I could not stand there in the cold and wait. Even if I stood by the fire- I would be cold when I re-started. I also had this fear in the back of my mind that if I wasted too much time... I might not finish. I needed this race for my Western States tickets. I wouldn't have many other options to get my tickets if I didn't finish this. So we spilt from each other at mile 80. I carried on and she stayed for a quick nap. It was a miserable 10 miles ahead. It was so cold and dark, and I thought the sun was NEVER gonna come. I was super sleepy myself and caught myself drifting off mid run, multiple times. You don't wanna fall asleep on this course- or you will end up in the canal! The night sky was incredible though. There is nothing I love more than the dark sky, the sounds of crickets and cicadas, owls.. just so relaxing and refreshing to my soul. I survived most of the last 20 miles with sour patch kids. That's usually all I can tolerate late in a race when nausea takes over. Overall, I was able to eat the whole race. I did have stabbing hunger pains late in the race from lack of calories- but nothing I couldn't manage. I took Zofran a few times and several Advil, along with a couple of caffeine pills. The first caffeine pill I took around 2 am did absolutely nothing. The one I took a few hours later hit so hard- I ran the entire 6 mile section towards the finish!

It got super warm the last few miles!

Annie caught up with me at the next to last aid station- mile 88.1. This was the last drop bag location as well. The only thing I grabbed from my bag was Sour Patch kids. I had some broth at the aid station and headed out. That's when I heard Annie yell my name. Her nap had rejuvenated her so well, she had caught up with me! She said she was gonna take her time at this aid and take one more nap. She had plenty of time- at this point we both knew we were gonna finish- we only had 11.9 miles to go and 3 hours to do it in. But I was just ready to put myself OUT OF MY MISERY. So I carried on to the finish. Not only did I carry on- I RAN, like busted my ass to get to that finish line. I was so ready to be done- after the stomach problems, the hives, the super sleepy delirium, my watch screwing me over... I just wanted it to all be over. At 11:11 am I crossed the finish line of Hennepin 100.

28 hours 11 mins and 42 seconds after I started.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching runners finish- especially people I ran the race with. I patiently waited for my Annie to come through so we could celebrate!

We soaked up allll the finish line feels! We got our buckles and flannel shirts, had several photo shoots and enjoyed some finish line food and beer. And in true Annie and Jenn fashion- we also had to jump over to a runner who locked up, passed out and hit the concrete floor beside us and appeared to be having a seizure. We pulled our RN degrees out and rolled him over on his side and waited for him to come to. After we handed him off to EMT's and politely ask they send him to the ER to scan his head he just cracked on the floor- we made our way back towards the car.

It was an amazing weekend with ALLLL the feels and all the fun! I am so proud of us for finishing this 100 with no crew, no pacers and basically no training.

We finished up the day with the BEST. SHOWER. EVER. in our Air-BNB... after we climbed up 2 flight of stairs.. which Annie blames on me because I said book the cheapest thing you can find 😂😂

We ate our left over pasta and garlic bread from Maria's, ordered door dash slushies and ice cream from Sonic (because there was no way in hell we were leaving that air-bnb) had a couple cold Mich Ultra's and passed out for the night.

Annie.. my friend... we are bad asses. 💖

Thinking WINNING thoughts for Western States lottery this year... maybe this will be my year!