Tunnel Hill 100
13th Tunnel Hill 100/50/26.2/100km
Marathon
Registration open
As of August 2026, UltraSignup showed 65 entry spots remaining across all distances; registration closes Fri Oct 30, 2026 11:59 PM CT. Marathon and 100km fields are described as "very limited" by the race director because total field size is capped and the race prioritizes the 100 Mile and 50 Mile (USATF Championship) distances.
Race dateNovember 14-15, 2026
Duration2 days
Start7:00am
Whenin 29 days
First held2014
Who's going to Tunnel Hill 100?
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
Marathon
Climb
100 ft
Descent
100 ft
High point
not checked yet
Time limit
12:00:00
Aid stations
7
Started
not checked yet
Finished
not checked yet
Finish rate
not checked yet
The course
Where it goes
out and back · 7 aid stations
Follows the same fast, flat Tunnel Hill State Trail south out of Vienna City Park to a 13.1-mile turnaround at the Wetland Center, then back to Vienna for a certified marathon finish. Runs on Saturday with all other distances, starting at 7:00 AM; no early start. The course does not reach the tunnel, which sits 9.3 miles north of the start, so it does not include the race's signature feature. Only one road crossing on course.
Should be an excellent Boston Qualifying course: flat, smooth crushed limestone with only one road crossing to be concerned about. Very limited number of entry slots (the race caps total participation and prioritizes the longer distances); drop-downs from longer distances are allowed and receive an official marathon finish and medal. Does not pass through the tunnel. USATF certification #IL25002MN; World Athletics certification USA2025-304.
The race
What this one is
A double out-and-back ultramarathon on the Tunnel Hill State Trail, a flat, crushed-limestone rail-trail through the Shawnee National Forest in Vienna, Illinois, built specifically for speed: fast times, qualifying standards, and 100-mile debuts, with a maximum grade of about 2% and no technical footing. Runners pass through the trail's signature 543-foot limestone tunnel, 9.3 miles north of the Vienna City Park start/finish. Offers 100 Mile, 100 km, 50 Mile (2026 USATF 50 Mile Road Championships) and Marathon distances, all starting and finishing together at 7:00 AM. Five world records and multiple American and off-road world's-best marks have been set on the course since 2014, and it is dual-certified as both a USATF/World Athletics Road course and an ITRA/American Trail Running Association Trail course.
Founded in 2014 by Steve Durbin, a six-time Barkley Marathons competitor who wanted a course built for pure speed rather than vertical gain, after he ran his first 100-miler in 2004 and grew fascinated with the Tunnel Hill State Trail's old rail tunnel near his home in Paducah, KY. Traci Falbo's 14:45 debut in the inaugural 2014 race set an American Record for a trail 100-mile; Camille Herron broke the women's 100-mile world record here in 2017 (12:42:40); Zach Bitter ran the fastest off-road 100 in 2018 (12:08:36); Charlie Lawrence set the men's 50-mile world record in 2023 (4:48:21); Courtney Olsen broke the women's 50-mile world record in 2024 (5:31:56); and in 2025 Anne Flower set a new 50-mile world record (5:18:57) and Caitriona Jennings set a new women's 100-mile world record (12:37:04) at the same event, the same year the race added a 100km distance and Courtney Olsen set a 100km American Record. Assistant Race Director Jason Claunch has partnered with Durbin since the first running.
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
ultrasignup.com
- Deferrals
-
not checked yet
Running, crewing, pacing or still deciding
How NavRun helps with Tunnel Hill 100
Twelve hours.
You are running it
You reach Wetland Center (Turn), mile 13.1, and you already knew this morning what time that would be.
An arrival time for all 5 stations, worked out from your own training.
Start free →
You are deciding
You find out Tunnel Hill 100 is months of work away, not years, and you enter.
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
tunnelhill100.com
- Vehicles per runner
-
not checked yet
- Pacers
-
No
tunnelhill100.com
- Muling
-
Not allowed
tunnelhill100.com
- Drop bags
-
Yes
tunnelhill100.com
- Cupless
-
Yes
tunnelhill100.com
- Course marking
-
not checked yet
- Night running
-
No
tunnelhill100.com
- Dogs
-
Not allowed
tunnelhill100.com
- Headphones
-
not checked yet
- Crew rules
-
All distances start and finish at the same line at Vienna City Park. Crews may access aid stations marked with crew access on the chart; stations marked "minor" have the same food, drinks and volunteers as any other station but are labeled minor because there is no parking lot, only roadside access, which can get congested early in the race. Heron Pond, the first aid station, is not accessible to crews until 9:30 AM to avoid dangerous crowding. Breeden Trestle is unmanned and has no vehicle access (IDNR restriction); gallon jugs of water are left for runners with no cups. Per USATF rules, no aid, including caching, may be provided by crew outside a designated aid station; crew members should not eat aid-station food, which is for runners only.
tunnelhill100.com
- Pacer rules
-
not checked yet
- Drop bag rules
-
Drop bags/boxes should be kept to a reasonable size: the runner instructions say roughly shoebox-sized, up to about 12" x 12" x 18", no large coolers; UltraSignup's race page gives a slightly different figure, "10" x 10" x 18" or smaller, or a little bigger". Bags are dropped off Saturday morning near the white State building/finish area and placed in the corral for the desired location: Karnak, Vienna, or Tunnel Hill. Karnak appears at miles ~10/15 (50mi/100km/marathon) and ~10/15/60/65 (100mi); Vienna at ~26/50 (50mi/100km) and ~26/50/76 (100mi, plus start/finish); Tunnel Hill at ~36/41 (50mi) and ~36/41/86/91 (100mi). Do not pack car keys in a drop bag. Label each bag with name and bib number. When done with a bag, leave it in that station's Return to Finish area; bags are shuttled back to Vienna Park roughly hourly. Take drop bags home after the race; forgotten bags cannot be shipped.
tunnelhill100.com
- Cutoff philosophy
-
Runners must arrive at checkpoints before posted cutoff times; finish cutoff is 7:00 PM Saturday, 12 hours after the 7:00 AM start.
tunnelhill100.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 |
Vienna Park (Start)
|
? |
● |
● |
? |
? |
5.20 |
| 5.20 |
Heron Pond Lake
|
? |
● |
○ |
? |
? |
5.30 |
| 10.50 |
Karnak
340 ft
|
? |
● |
● |
? |
? |
2.60 |
| 13.10 |
Wetland Center (Turn)
|
? |
● |
○ |
? |
? |
2.60 |
| 15.70 |
Karnak
340 ft
|
? |
● |
● |
? |
? |
5.30 |
| 21.00 |
Heron Pond Lake
|
? |
● |
○ |
? |
? |
5.20 |
| 26.20 |
Vienna Park (Finish)
|
7:00pm |
● |
● |
? |
? |
? |
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.
One person has 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: 147 sources for this race. Hover a source link to read the sentence it came from.
49% 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.
