The Hennepin Hundred
50 Mile Solo · 50.1 miles
Ran · this year's race is done.
The 50 Mile sold out; a waitlist is open for it. The 100 Mile, 100 Mile Relay and 50K remain open.
Race dateOctober 3-4, 2026
Duration2 days
Start7:00am
When13 days ago
First held2015
Who's going to The Hennepin Hundred?
Free. You can start with nothing.
Free, and always will be. NavRun makes money from race-day planning for runners who want it, never from this.
Ultras change constantly, sometimes the morning of. Always confirm with the race director and the official website before you rely on anything here.
Distance
50.1 miles
Climb
not checked yet
Descent
not checked yet
High point
not checked yet
Time limit
15:45:00
Aid stations
12
Started
not checked yet
Finished
not checked yet
Finish rate
not checked yet
The course
Where it goes
point to point · 12 aid stations
The 50 Mile follows the same Hennepin Canal State Trail as the 100 Mile from Sinnissippi Park in Sterling, but finishes at Lock 17 near Wyanet rather than continuing to Colona. No pacing is allowed. Finishers earn a medal shaped like one of the canal's bridges.
The course is 'mostly rustic': dirt, chip-and-seal (a tar with pressed rock), crushed limestone, and a scattering of paved sections, plus a few blocks of road at the very start in Sterling.
The race
What this one is
The Hennepin Hundred is Illinois' only point-to-point, all-trail ultramarathon, running from Sterling, Illinois on the Rock River to Colona, Illinois near the Mississippi, along the historic Hennepin Canal. The 50- and 100-mile courses follow the Hennepin Canal State Trail across historic locks and lift bridges, past autumn corn, farms and small towns of northwest Illinois. It has been a Western States 100 qualifying race every year since 2019, and a course many runners choose for a PR or a first 100-mile finish.
The race states it has been a Western States 100 qualifying race every year since its 2019 running. UltraSignup's results index for this event goes back to 2015, with no results year listed for 2020.
Getting in
Getting in
Entry, lottery and what the race asks of you before race day.
- Lottery
-
No
ultrasignup.com
- Lottery opens
-
not checked yet
- Lottery draw
-
not checked yet
- Field cap
-
not checked yet
- Registration
-
UltraSignup
ultrasignup.com
- Qualifying
-
not checked yet
- Minimum age
-
not checked yet
- Transfers
-
No
hennepinhundred.com
- Deferrals
-
Yes
hennepinhundred.com
Running, crewing, pacing or still deciding
How NavRun helps with The Hennepin Hundred
Seven stations with a clock on each.
You are running it
You reach Aid Station 5, mile 23.1, before its 1:55pm cutoff, and you already knew that this morning.
An arrival time for all 10 stations, worked out from your own training.
Start free →
You are deciding
You find out The Hennepin Hundred is months of work away, not years, and you start.
Put in a race you have already run. NavRun shows you where this one sits from where you are.
No account needed →
Crew access, pacers and drop bags
The rules that shape your day
Anything marked "not checked yet" is a gap in what we hold, never a no from the race.
- Crew allowed
-
Yes
hennepinhundred.com
- Vehicles per runner
-
not checked yet
- Pacers
-
No
hennepinhundred.com
- Muling
-
not checked yet
- Drop bags
-
Yes
hennepinhundred.com
- Cupless
-
not checked yet
- Course marking
-
not checked yet
- Night running
-
Yes
hennepinhundred.com
- Dogs
-
Not allowed
hennepinhundred.com
- Headphones
-
not checked yet
- Crew rules
-
Crew is allowed only at aid stations marked for crew/relay access, for safety reasons; there is not safe parking at the other stations.
hennepinhundred.com
- Pacer rules
-
No pacing is allowed in the 50 Mile.
hennepinhundred.com
- Drop bag rules
-
Drop bags must be labeled with name, aid station, and race distance, no bigger than 24 x 14 inches (a normal gym bag). A volunteer returns bags to the finish line after the aid station closes; runners may pick them up earlier.
hennepinhundred.com
- Cutoff philosophy
-
Aid stations close on a schedule and a runner needs to be out before the close time; the race's own words are that it is not safe to continue past that point, and that determines the cutoffs.
docs.google.com
Aid stations
Every stop, and what you get there
● yes ○ no ? nobody has checked – does not apply to this race
| Mile |
Station |
Cutoff |
Crew access |
Bag |
Pacer |
Med |
To next |
| 0.00 |
Sinnissippi Park (Start)
|
? |
● |
? |
? |
? |
5.30 |
| 5.30 |
Aid Station 1
|
8:50am |
○ |
○ |
○ |
? |
5.50 |
| 10.80 |
Aid Station 2
|
10:35am |
○ |
○ |
○ |
? |
4.10 |
| 14.90 |
Aid Station 3
|
11:50am |
● |
○ |
○ |
? |
5.50 |
| 20.40 |
Aid Station 4
|
1:10pm |
○ |
● |
○ |
? |
2.70 |
| 23.10 |
Aid Station 5
|
1:55pm |
● |
○ |
○ |
? |
4.20 |
| 27.30 |
Aid Station 6
|
3:15pm |
○ |
○ |
○ |
? |
4.80 |
| 32.10 |
Aid Station 7
|
? |
● |
● |
○ |
? |
6.60 |
| 38.70 |
Aid Station 8
|
? |
● |
○ |
○ |
? |
5.60 |
| 44.30 |
Aid Station 9
|
? |
○ |
○ |
○ |
? |
3.20 |
| 47.50 |
Aid Station 10
|
8:45pm |
● |
● |
● |
? |
2.60 |
| 50.10 |
50 Mile Finish
|
10:45pm |
● |
● |
? |
? |
? |
Same race, other lines
Other distances and other years
What it looks like out there
Somebody has been out there with a camera
the tables say the climb is long. these say what long feels like.
4 people have been out there with a camera or a microphone.
These are other people's work and we link straight to them. Watching costs nothing and needs no account.
More of them: every race we hold, on film.
Add to this page
What you know
every one of these is read by a person before it changes anything
Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know.
Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.
See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit.
This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.
Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send it over.
Somebody watches it before it goes anywhere near this page. What we are after is footage of this course, on the ground. If it would be just as true of any other race, it is not this.
Have the GPX? Send us the link.
We want the address of the file the race publishes, not the file. We download it from there so the page can say where the line came from.
Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.
We read every one of these and we write back. Every fact here carries the source it came from, and the way a wrong one gets fixed is a person checking it against what you tell us.
Where this came from.
Every fact on this page records its source and when we last checked it: 202 sources for this race. Hover a source link to read the sentence it came from.
33% of what we track for a course is filled in. The rest says "not checked yet" rather than guessing.
Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.
Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.
No account, and nothing to cancel.
What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.
I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.
