Hennepin Canal 100 Miler

Sometime last year I decided I wanted to continue to run this race, and to be in remembrance of Victoria Caldecourt. My niece who passed away in 2021 from cancer. During 2019 Victoria came and visited us for a week. During this time I was training for the Hennepin 100 miler, and decided to do this to raise money for Sarcoma UK who was helping Victoria. As I am an Ambassador for Bigger Than The Trail, I am always promoting and raising awareness for this organization where they provide free services for people suffering with mental health issues.

Now this event came up with a few challenges on the way, which started back on Christmas Day where I went for a morning run (10 miles), and came back and had pain on the bottom of my left foot. This felt very much like Plantar Fasciitis. Which I have had previously and normally clears up in two weeks with plenty of stretching, rolling, and sleeping with a brace. This felt like it was working, and then I would start to run again and it would come back.

This went on for a few months, so I went to see the podiatrist who gave me a cortisone shot in the foot (Yes, this is really painful). Which would last 6 weeks, and should give me time to be able to run, and continue to work on the PF. The issue is that I have very “High Arches” and need to mange PF, and will not be something I can easily cure. Hoka shoes are the best for me with Clifton 8’s, and ATR Challenger’s. Then I use CURREX High Profile RUNPRO inserts, and Injinji toe socks. For regular day shoes I use the Clifton 8’s.

Now it had been coming up for six weeks, and the foot still didn’t seem right but then a few days before my next appointment the pain had gone and to continue to help the podiatrist recommended using a bandage wrapped around the high arch to provide support to the PF (Worked like a charm). So the date is now the 15th July, and I can slot into my running plan to be ready for Hennepin on October 1st.

To test that the PF was behind me, I signed up for “Badger Trail Races”, and the 50k. I was supposed to be running 20 miles on Saturday, and 10 miles on Sunday so I just combined the two and did the 50k on the Sunday. This in its self was a fantastic event, where normally by this time I have usually done a few 100 mile events so to be out on the trails again was great, and finished with a PR and no sign of PF.

So I kept up with the running plan, and testing nutrition, shoes, and devices including backpack to make sure I was ready for the event. For nutrition I sticked with “Tailwind Nutrition” (Which I am an Ambassador for). This always works for me, and I never suffer with stomach issues. Shoes were good, and bought another pair which I would change into during the event. I did buy a new backpack made by Salomon called the “Salomon Advanced Skin 12”, this worked out really well and glad I picked this up. Held all the items I needed, and sat very well on the back with weight distributed very well.

So, I finally get to the week before and I am really excited for this, and my anxiety, and adrenaline are through the roof. I must of packed, and re packed my bags 5 times. The weather was going to be hot during the day, and then cool off overnight to around 40 degrees so made sure I had 2 drop bags with warmer clothes, and also a complete change of gear. Checked headlamps purchased new batteries, and brought spares with me. Including the “Kogalla”.

The night before the event I stayed in Corona, IL hotel was nice and had a diner next door and had Steak, Eggs, and Hash-browns for dinner. Work up at 3:30am to get ready have breakfast of “Oatmeal”, and a Banana oh and V8-Fusion. Was already to go, at 4am so headed over to the finish line, parking area. Where the buses will be at 5:10 to take us to the starting line where the event will start at 7am.

The week leading up to the event Apple released the “Apple Watch Ultra”. I wads always a fan of the watch when it first came out, but as my running mileage increased I moved to a Garmin Watch where now I have the Enduro. This watch is excellent, and has a great battery life for example after running this event it still had something like 35 days of power left. But I wanted to see how the Apple Watch would perform, so I ordered one which turned up a week before the event, so was able to test it out. Now with this version of the software it should be good enough for an Ironman Distance, so I was thinking around 16 hours (they will be releasing an update later in the year which is supposed to double the power which means this should be good for 100 milers, but we will see). During the run I used this watch and I think it lasted for around 18 hours. The issues I had were based on the settings I had in place when I stopped running at aid stations it would pause, and I did not lock the screen so the watch would pause, stop, and end runs which was frustrating. But I felt this was self inflicted and did not test it enough before hand. I will validate my assumptions, change settings and continue to evaluate.

Anyway back to the event, the bus arrived around 6.30 at the start and was great to meet up with “Strava Friends”. And others that I have met at other events and also some of the “Bigger Than The Trail” team.

Race started on time, and I was excited and enjoying being out there. My pace was fast at the beginning, and needed to slow it down, as I had a long way, and time to go. I had two drop bags which were at aid station 7/15 (Mile 32.1 & 69) & 10/12 (Mile 47.1 & 54). I was trying to average 10-12 Min/Miles which was consistent for around 50 miles. For aid stations I ran through the first few as I did not need to fill up, or eat anything. When I did I would have fruit, chips, and PB&J (To start with) and top up water in bladder, and bottle.

My first drop bag stop was at mile 54, where I did a complete change where I checked feet, cleaned them. Fresh socks, shorts, top, and eat some chicken noodle soup and was back out again. I was feeling good, had a PR at mile 50 which was good. Now tried to stay at a consistent pace of between 10-13 min/mile. I think where it was hot earlier in the day, and the sun was consistently in your face it took its toll on me. Then when the sun went down, you started to feel colder, and needed to keep moving to keep your body temps up. However to aid stations had hot food, and this worked really well from grilled cheese sandwiches, broth, noodle, vegetable soup, to breakfast sausages, pancakes and tacos. What I really like was the shots of pickle juice (no alcohol, however ti was there if you wanted it). This really helped keep the legs cramps away.

Now I did use my headlamp starting at mile 54 (Turned it on when it was needed). I decided to take the regular headlamp and not the Kogalla (more on this in a minute). Which was working well for a while, and then the batteries decided to lose power which really limited the visibility, so had to also use the phone torch which then starts to drain the phone. When I got to mile 69, I was able to put in new batteries, change clothes again, more warmer clothes and got some food in me with more soups as this was easier to go down, with the help of grilled cheese oh and pickles, and more pickle juice.

Overall I wasn’t feeling to bad, it’s when I get to around mile 75 this is where I tend to struggle and work through the pain cave of why I am doing this, and really have to overcome the lows, and make the most of the highs. Where this is a flat course it really impacts my thighs, and feet. But when you get to mile 80 you start to feel like you are in a better place, and then you just want to get it finished so you can lay down and get some sleep.

All of the aid stations were fantastic, and can’t say enough good things about them. As soon as you start coming into the aid stations someone is asking what you need, how can we help they really pull out all the stops to get you fed, watered and ready to go. There were a few people that were struggling with stiff back, or legs cramping and the volunteers jump straight into to helping you. I really feel you would never make it without their support, and really shows that running is a team sport. There was one aid station where the theme is “Pineapples”, and I remember speaking to someone dressed as a pineapple talking about grilled cheese sandwiches. You have to question was I hallucinating, or was this real? Yes, this was real.

It’s always a great feeling coming along the home stretch, knowing that you will soon be finished and hearing the cow bell(s), music and people cheering and clapping fro you really helps you get to the finish line and get that buckle, and of course the flannel!

Yes, of course the Buckle, and Flannel