Hennepin Hundred Race Recap

Race Report by OMR Athlete Mindy Lam

The night before the race me and Bao drove into the finish line to attend the mandatory race meeting and pick up my race bib and packet, and have my pre-race mugshot taken by the race photographer. In the weeks leading up to the race, I was getting more and more terrified, but the day and night before the race, I was calm and collected. Maybe because I knew there was literally nothing left that I could do to alter the outcome from a preparation point of view. We would drive from the finish back up to the start line after the meeting, get some dinner (something safe, we went with Subway), and check into the hotel and be in bed by 830pm. Luckily this is my typical bedtime so it was easy to fall asleep. I didn't stay awake worrying or even feel nervous. I fell asleep quickly and woke up rested at 5am. 

In the morning we made the 15 minute drive to the start line and it was pretty chilly so we sat in the car for a while while I stocked my vest with snacks and hydration. The minivan makes a good crew vehicle with all the room for the many bins and bags. I definitely overpacked in the food department. I had enough food for a running team of 8 people. I just had no idea what I would want when I was depleted, tired, cold, hot, and hurting, so I brought some of everything. 

I did bring some extra clothes since I knew that the race was starting at 7am at almost 40F, but would warm to about 65, and then drop again overnight to the mid 30's. I should have prepared for the cold a little better, and brought a hat, gloves and a jacket. Lucky for me Bao had a hat and gloves to give me, and my new friend (more on her later) had an extra everything, including a windbreaker. 

I started out in shorts and a light long sleeve, no hat or gloves, and was at a perfect temperature until midday. The first part of the course was beautiful. We crossed over the Rock River, saw a cool, very big bird of some kind sitting above the path in a tree, and watched the sun rise over the water. I was soaking it all in. I was also soaking in the pounding of pavement from the very get-go, for I think at least the first marathon of the course. Unfortunately by the 4th mile, my knees were already feeling it. I hadn't really ever had knee problems during the 1000+ miles of training I did for this race. I had gone through my share of IT band syndrome on both sides and hip soreness, but never had a problem with the knees the way I was feeling it on race day. I also never trained on pavement, aside from about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile on both ends of my normal runs as I got through the neighborhood over to the prairie path. The more I ran on the asphalt in the race, the more the pain crept in. First it was only the right knee, then sometime during the night the right knee felt fine and the left one started to hurt. I can't really remember when the switch was made. I felt relief power walking over running, but I knew that I couldn't just power walk the whole race or I would not make the 30-hour cutoff, so I implemented a run-walk interval which was about 25 min running and 5 min walking. Easy enough since I practiced this on my long runs every weekend anyway. I caught up to a man who was also doing an interval of 6 minutes running and 4 minutes walking, and he was interesting to talk to, so I adopted his strategy for a while. His name was CAN'T REMEMBER and he was telling me about how many years he had been running ultras, he was from Virginia, and now his son was running ultras, and his son even got into Western States on the very first try. My new friend had been trying for 7 years already, this would be his 8th attempt in the lottery. I hope he gets in this year, but it was fun to hear about him having the opportunity to pace his son out there. What a chance of a lifetime. He also told me about how he was in a race and had to call his wife on facetime to prove to her that there was a guinea pig on the trail. It was actually a pile of walnuts that had fallen from the trees, and he was hallucinating. I found that story quite entertaining. I parted ways with my new friend at the first aid station (AS3, there was no  crew access at AS 1 or 2) so that I was able to see my crew at mile 15. That's also where I changed my shirt into something for warmer weather. At AS 5 I saw Bao again and picked up my sunglasses, and the next stop, AS7, I was also ready for a hat, the sun was getting intense! 

I was back to running for 25 and walking for 5, but it would take about 7-10 minutes just to get used to the pain again in my knees every time I would start the run cycle. Then either I would get used to the paid or they’d go numb, I didn’t question it, but I would just want to keep running so I wouldn’t have to do the whole restarting process over again. I knew it was still early though and that wasn’t a good strategy to be skipping the walk breaks. 

Aid station 8. About 38 miles out. Wasn't supposed to be here but the wife needed chips and I forgot to give them to her at 7. - Bao's notes from his timeline that he amazingly created on Facebook of the race. He's right. I had said at the last AS that I was coming in for Pringles, but then between the bathroom, lube, water, and refilling other things, I forgot the pringles. He did have them there for me ready to take, I saw them in the bag, but forgot them. I messaged him many miles later when I remembered, and he just showed up at the next stop with them, unannounced and off-plan. It. Was. Awesome. I was so happy to see him. Also at AS 8 they had sunscreen for runners, I told Bao I didn't need any and he grabbed it and sprayed me down anyway. Good thing he did because I needed it and I would have been even more miserable cold and sunburned in the middle of the night had I not been sprayed down. 

Between the times that I saw Bao at AS7 (mile 32)and AS8 (38.7), around mile 37, my life was changing without me realizing it. I met Liz.I had left AS7 in chats with Kari Gibbons from MN, I was confused which way we were supposed to leave the AS, and she looked like she had all the answers. I started to jog but she had said she needed to let some food settle, so she would catch up to me. She certainly did, and then passed me, and then I caught back up to her on one of my run intervals.As soon as I caught her we began briefly chatting for a few minutes, and then in no time, another gal that I had been bunny-hopping with as we were both in run/walk cycles, caught up to Kara and I and started to walk with us. Liz was super friendly right away, we did introductions after awhile, I learned she was from Colorado but used to live in Villa Park and work in West Chicago. Her crew was all from Illinois and this was her first hundred too. We were now in this together to the end and we knew it. We entered AS8 together, all smiles as we saw our people, Liz saw some of her crew and I surprisingly saw Bao with Pringles in hand, and he caught a photo of us coming in together.That smile was pure excitement for him and chips. 

I saw Bao again at 47.5 - AS10. My knee had been killing. I found that I could do a “mall walk” power walk next to Liz’s “shuffle jog”, and we would go the same pace. Between my knees and her ankles and feet, we were a mess but we could make it work and still push forward.in our own less-miserable ways. We were allowed to pick up a pacer at AS10/50 miles, but we each had planned to hold off in our race plans and pick up our pacers at AS12 instead, which was actually the same AS (10/12) that served as 2 but 6.4 miles of out and back in between. We grabbed lights and long sleeves because we knew the sun was setting and nightfall would be there in no time. 

I can’t recall which AS (11?) was where we had to actually run past the AS to the 100 mile turnaround, which was just a sign that said “100 Mile Turnaround”, that me and Liz took a picture next to. We stopped at the bathroom (which was now really dark), and then hit the AS. I remember it was Mexican/Fiesta themed and it was our first “night” AS. Other runners on the out and back had teased us that there were tacos there. I saw the RD from the Worth Your Mile Road Warrior Relay (Jose?). He recognized me and remembered my name which I thought was super fun. We got out of there and went back to AS 10-now AS12, where it was our plan to do a full wardrobe change into night gear. My crew actually decided to move to AS13, so I did another bathroom break, had some snacks, and got some footage of Liz gearing up for the night with her crew. It was definitely getting cold now. We were also starting to get calorie deprived because the cold was probably bothering us more than it should have at that point. Liz stood in a sheet or blanket and did a full clothing change, then sat and had some ramen. I have a video of this pit stop. Her crew was amazing! They offered me food and bio freeze spray for my knees, which I gladly accepted. I promised to be just as fast at the next AS when it was my turn for a gear change. We picked up one of her pacers and hit the trail to AS13 to find my people. 

As soon as we got into the light of AS13 my crew was right there on the left with the van. I begged Liz not to leave without me and I hustled into warmer clothes and a shoe change, hoping the shoe change would help my knees somehow (spoiler alert, it didn’t). I got some ramen and more snacks, hugged my friends and Bao, and Diego was ready to hit the road (mile 62) with us. Liz’s request was for the Beatles to be played, and Diego happily obliged and the Beatles rang out for miles. I wasn’t running anymore by this point, maybe a few tries here and there, but by now I was “mall walking” to Liz’s shuffle jog, and we had a really good quick pace going (for being 50+ miles in). We had a new life with fresh people to talk to, and even if we didn’t do much talking, it was great to have friends for company. Just the feeling of having people with you can change your mindset. We were grateful to have the pacers. 

We swapped out Diego for Sy after 5 or 6 miles and Sy had an awesome playlist that again gave us new life. Again just having fresh people with us by our sides gave us something else to think about as the miles ticked off. I remember having some lows during these several legs with the pacers but I don’t remember them being completely terrible because I tried to focus on how grateful I was that we had friends that cared about us enough to be out there in the cold night staying by our sides. I remember wanting so badly to be able to break into a jog, but every time I tried the pain went shooting through my knees and legs and slowed me back to a power walk. Aside from my knees, all systems felt like they were a GO so it was really disheartening to have to be walking. I had been eating and drinking pretty consistently and so my stomach felt pretty good. I didn’t feel like I was crashing in any other way except for things just generally hurting, which was an expectation, and then the knees just being completely trashed. 

At some point it turned midnight and I took a caffeine pill. I also switched to Tailwind with Caffeine. 

Sy stayed with for 12 miles and then it was time to pick up Katy at mile 75. Liz said later that she has zero recollection of swapping pacers at this stage. Katy is a half marathon queen and I was stoked to have her with me for the “deep night” section. Katy started out her role with a cheer she made up with Annabelle - her 6 year old cheerleader. I don’t remember how it went but I remember that I absolutely loved it.I remember Liz asking for a cheer about her too, and saying we had plenty of time to come up with one. I don’t think we remembered to do that though.  I expected this 16 ish mile section of the night to be the worst, hurt the most, and suck the deepest. I was right, but at least it lived up to my expectations. I will need some help filling in the gaps in the night of my memory, but I remember losing the shame to actually get completely off of the trail to pee, resort to needing to be held in the squat position, and having Katy hold my arm so I wouldn’ walk into the canal. I remember Liz’s pacer holding her arm too. We wanted to walk on the very edge of the path where it was softer dirt, rather than crumpled asphalt. I remember Liz yelling “Who put this asphalt here!” and taking short breaks with her head down and her hands on her knees in the darkness. 

At AS16 I had some soup from the AS, and I changed back into my first pair of shoes. I felt a hot spot coming on my outer right heel, so I sat down, shivered in my seat, had on a blanket, and Tiffany bandaged up my hotspot (almost a blister) and got my socks and shoes back on. I was shaking so bad from being cold I could barely get the soup into my mouth. 

(Some of the timeline gets really fuzzy so there’s a lot of random memories in here)

I remember coming up to an AS in the night that had a fire pit, and a girl runner curled up sleeping in a chair next to it. I remember thinking oh god, that might be me if I didn't have friends with me. At that same AS, the volunteers were so lively. They tried to offer us Fireball and maybe some other shot, and a cigarette? Katy asked if it was a candy one, they said no. I’m not sure if that really happened or if I just thought it did, but it sounded weird. We declined all of those offers. I think Katy grabbed me some pieces of banana, but I don’t know if it was at this AS or a different one, and she was later pulling them out of secret hiding places in her clothes and feeding them to me. Bananas went down really well and they were in bite sized chunks. I couldn’t tell you what else I ate overnight. Oh I remember eating the Scratch sour gummies, but Katy fed them to me one at a time and for awhile one felt like a LOT to be eating. I think I also ate a baby food container of mashed potatoes that I had pre-made. I had 4 of them made and ate all of them during the night. 

I remember trying a veggie burger from Tiffany in the beginning of the night and that not going down well. It just didn’t want to go in, but my stomach wasn’t really upset by anything the whole time = THANKFUL FOR THAT.

I remember eating a tortilla with avocado and sea salt and it being so salty that I thought I would get mouth sores. I think this was at AS12 but before we did the out and back to the turnaround. 

I think I had 2-3 gels throughout the race, I feel like I should have brought several more of those. 

I remember during the night, early morning, still dark, the “flower” group of girls (they all had flowers pinned to their packs, I think it was a group of 4). I think it was 5 earlier in the day. Or maybe it was 4 and turned into 3. We would bunny hop them between group peeing, AS’s, and gear fixes. At one point they were ahead of us and we heard them screaming bloody murder. Katy grabbed a light and ran up to them to see if they were ok. They said something was growling at them from the woods behind them as they were all squatted to pee. The screaming woke everyone up! 

Not too long after that (I think) they screamed again but for a reason unknown, but it always sounded like they were being abducted. By the time we got up to where they were screaming, we were too tired to look around or care what might have been scaring them. 

I remember thinking that it was raining at one point, because I could see raindrops, long ones. I was thinking at the time that if it were actually raining we would hear the water on the pavement or on the canal, and I didn't hear anything, so I thought well things really got weird so I’ll just not explain my rain sightings.I determined it was not raining and that the rain drops I was seeing were just part of the fun. 

I’m sure more happened throughout the night but I just don't remember. I know when the sun was coming up so did our pace, and we were no longer death marching, we were once again mall-walking. At one point we were back to 14 ish minute miles. 

What isn't detailed a lot in here is really a clear image of how much trailside peeing was happening. There's a point in the night when you say F the woods and you just barely step off the trail and don't mind the passerbys, and neither do they. For whatever reason, there was way more peeing happening in the very darkest night hours than during the day. Or maybe we were just better at holding it during the day. Aside from the public and constant peeing, the laughter from our crews and pacers, Liz and I, is what truly got us through to the finish. Mocking your pain and calling the asphault names can entertain the most tired minds dark moments. When I think back to those long night hours, 100% of the time I will smile at the memory. It was terrible, but it was also awesome and fun. We laughed a LOT. We burned through way too many calories laughing at everything and nothing. We knew that we would look back on it and laugh at our silliness, or tiredness, and zombieness. I actually can't wait to get myself back in that space again and feel it all over again.

We were finally almost to AS19, the home of the pancakes. I had told Liz that the next stop had pancakes and we had something now so amazing to look forward to. I said the crew just needs to hear from our pacers so they can have the AS volunteers make them ahead of time for us. This stop was going to be amazing, and it was mile 88.1. I knew Katy was typing away on her phone working on the plan. Then she said to me, “they are out of pancakes' '. I can imagine that would be a terrifying thing to have to say to me, since I was thinking about those damn pancakes ALL night and now there were two of us that were super excited for them. How were they out of pancakes? I don't know why, but I wasn’t really even upset about it. I think I was hurting so bad and just so tired that I didn’t care about anything but moving forward. I remember thinking wow I thought I would be way more upset about this but I really didn’t care. It was disappointing, but I had zero energy or space to give to being mad about it. It was wasted calories to be mad or sad and I knew I didn’t have any to spare. Thank goodness for Katy dragging me through the lowest of lows when I didn’t even talk for who knows how long at a time. I must have just been the most boring company and could only get out words like “i have to pee again” and “can you hold this' '. My pacers deserve medals. The sun was up now when we got there. Katy retired and we picked Diego back up. Long live the Beatles again! We were into it. 

I think Liz had poles here? And I tried them out? They didn’t really help my pain but they helped with balance once I figured out how to use them. I was in so much pain everything hurt so bad from my ribs down. 

By the time we picked up Bao for the last 6 mile hike, it was all hands on deck one foot in front of the other, only forward motion and no wasting calorie mission to get to the finish. Me and Liz were in PAIN but we were determined as could be. No matter how much it hurt, we weren’t stopping. Bao was in rare form, which was like giving us CPR for those last 6 miles. He was taking photos, logging the timeline on Facebook, responding to messages, and keeping us at a good pace. He had been up all night too, organizing the AS stops, the pacers, the crew, the food, the hydration, moving the cars, god knows what else, and not sleeping just like me. I don’t know how he had so much energy and positivity, but he did, and I was so grateful for him. 

Those last 2 miles shouldn’t probably have been so awful but omg they were! Some of Liz’s crew actually walked in from the finish for 2 miles to find us, and to complete the last 2 miles with us. We now had an entourage! Forward progress was all we could think about. Don’t let the pain spiral. Keep moving. One step.. Then the other foot. Just keep doing that. The finish will eventually come. 

We came around a bend and saw a bridge with some people in orange shirts on it - my crew! The finish was just beyond them! Our pace picked up as we got closer (at least in my head it did). Me and Liz looked at each other - “we actually did it. We’re going to finish this thing”. We crossed the line at 28:54:05, arm in arm. We hugged for a long time, and I don't know about Liz but I was definitely crying. Liz later told me that she’s not a hugger, I kind of didn’t even believe her because I was already like 4 hugs in by that point and we had only just met not even 15 hours prior. In fact we have the hugs well documented by the race and by our teams. 

Did the race meet my expectations? 

Well, I expected it to hurt. Check. 

I expected to be more mentally drained than I have probably ever felt. Check. 

I expected to have high highs and low lows, that’s what everyone says will happen. Check and check. 

I expected that at some point the “hurt” would warp into another dimension that was beyond what I previously knew about pain and that I would just have to find a way to deal with it. Check. 

What I didn’t know is how I would handle the immense pain or lowest lows when they showed up. Would I get pissy and cranky and just quit? Who would I become? Would I cry and say that it was too much and that I didn’t earn that bib number? Would I say that I didn’t deserve to be there? Would I give up on myself? Would I not be able to handle it?

I found out that when shit gets really hard, and the night is really dark and cold, and my body is in so much pain that every step feels like it should be my last, I don’t give up. I learned that the mind is much stronger than the body and can move forward when everything else is screaming not to.

I found out that the power of having a good support system really can make or break an ultra race experience. Had I not had Bao, Katy, Tiffany, Diego and Sy, and Liz and her team, I would be writing a very different race report that would likely have ended with the letters DNF (did not finish). My pacers won’t know how much they meant to my success because when they had me on the course I was quieter than usual and a lot slower than I had planned on being, but just the presence of having them with me helped more than they will know. Bao had the hardest job of all with being in charge of literally everything. Of course I would not have even made it to the start line without Coach Katie. 

I found Coach Katie through the Ornery Mule website, the organization who puts on the Hennepin Hundred race. I figured, what better way to find a coach for the race than through the race itself, right? I had a meeting with Coach Loretta, the “coach connector” and she listened and ultimately matched me with Coach Katie in mid-May. I had a call with Katie and from the very first call she just always sounded so excited. I loved her energy and positivity, and I loved that she laid out the expectations from the beginning. I won’t forget her telling me that she can coach someone but you have to want it to be successful. I thought, GOOD, she will do her part and hold me accountable for doing mine. Coach Katie not only spent time getting to know me, my schedule, and my lifestyle, but also took the time to learn my history and asked for my last couple months of runs, so that her coaching could meet me where I was at. I appreciated the dedication to creating something that was individual to me, as training for a 100 doesn’t seem to be a one-size-fits-all plan. Coach Katie was available for a call if I wanted to chat about something, emails if I wanted to share documents or plans to review, and messaging when I needed it. She was so encouraging, yet kept me accountable. She had Zoom sessions with my ultra-virgin crew and pacers, and we actually felt like although we had never done this before, we were prepared and ready for the adventure. I knew this was something I didn’t want to tackle alone, especially being my first 100, and Coach Katie was the ultimate supportive partner. She didn’t sugar coat the race by telling me it would be easy, she was real about how it would feel, that it would hurt, and prepped my mind for what to expect and gave me tools for how to deal with being uncomfortable for a very long time and push through. Even when my confidence wavered, her belief never did. Her encouragement and belief literally took me through the 29 hours, and I could not have done it without her. Coach Katie is a great role model and an inspiration, and has taught me that “it’s the hard that makes it great” (Tom Hanks - A League of Their Own).

Fundraiser Update - Free to Run

As of 10/20 I reached 70% of my goal. My goal is to reach $1,000 by December to help women and girls in areas of conflict obtain leadership skills and independence through running and other outdoor sports. These women do not have the freedom to step outside and go for a run in their daily lives without the help of this organization Free to Run.