And now we’re at 18 finishers, @Challengers! Kudos to Steve Desmond (@steve-desmond), our leaderboard code wizard, for completing his final FLRC Challenge course for 2022 and claiming his medal. Like many others, he left Lick Brook & Treman FLT for last, and from the sounds of it, had a thoroughly enjoyable run, capped off with a chocolate bar. (Which may need to become Challenge tradition—finish your last course and scarf some good chocolate.)
We have seven people queued up with just one more course to run, so a nice weekend day could bring a lot of them home to their medals.
And when I check the Completions page today, @Challengers, I see that Brian Lazzaro (@brian-lazzaro) knocked off his final course this morning by running a sprightly Sweet 1600 in 5:42—congrats!
I fully expect that time to drop significantly when Brian runs it again in a track meet. His other times may drop as well, as he records more efforts with his kids, Heather (19) and Aidan (13—our youngest participant this year).
We have two more finishers, @Challengers. First, Josef Hauser (@jhauder7) finished on Saturday with a Sweet 1600 after taking a disciplined one-and-done strategy. And today, Teressa Naylor (@teressa.naylor) hammered a triple effort—Jim Schug Trail, Long Loomis, and Sweet 1600—to fill in the remaining gaps in her portfolio, which is bolstered by a whopping 18 efforts on Taughannock Rim & Falls.
@Challengers, our latest finishers are dedicated running partners Anne Shakespeare (@anne-shakespeare) and Ruth Sproul (@ruth-sproul), who finished off their last course with a solid hike on the Lick Brook & Treman FLT course and a celebratory picnic afterward. Anne and Ruth have the distinction of being our oldest finishers so far, at 67 and 70—we should all aspire to such fitness at that age. Congratulations, you two!
@Challengers Check out 71-year-old Steve Ryan (@sryan004), who completed the Challenge on Saturday and took over the mantle of oldest finisher from @ruth-sproul! Plus, celebrating Father’s Day with a Challenge completion today was Tristan Lambert (@Tristan_Lambert). Both Steve and Tristan saved Lick Brook & Treman FLT for last and were rewarded with cool temperatures for their long run. Way to go, guys—hope you found some chocolate at the end!
@Challengers, storming into some top spots on the leaderboard with her tenth course is Yvette de Boer (@ydeboer)—congrats, Yvette! This wasn’t unexpected, given that Yvette holds the age-graded course record for the Monster Marathon, and she has now moved into second place in the Age Grade competition behind Caitlin Loehr and into third place in Most Points for women behind Liz Hartman and Caitlin. And at age 58, Yvette is doing great things for the @Fabulous-50s team, where she’s the second-highest scorer. Now that Yvette has completed all the courses, the question is if she’ll go back to add more miles or go for a few faster times.
We’re up to 27 completions, @Challengers, with Jilene Demont cruising to a quick Brookton Hill & Dale this morning for her tenth course and Challenge medal—congrats, Jilene! That fine effort also catapulted her into second place in Most Points for women, where Liz Hartman retains her lead and Caitlin Loehr is now in third.
@Challengers Kudos today to Matt Clark (@mclark), who took advantage of the group run this morning to finish off Lick Brook & Treman FLT and claim his FLRC Challenge medal!
Plus, Jamie Loehr (@Jamie) and Caitlin Loehr (@caitlin-loehr) finished off all the courses for the SECOND time. No extra medals, but Caitlin’s 2:21:10 for today put her in 7th place overall for Lick Brook & Treman FLT, 16 minutes ahead of the second-place woman, and 1st overall for that course when sorted by Age Grade.
Oh dear, minor (major?) correction: turns out I only ran the Jim Schug trail once! I better get on that! Jamie, however, has run each course at least twice. Sorry for the confusion!
Lots of action in the last few days, @Challengers:
On Saturday, Ryan Vooris (@ryan-vooris) tackled the Lick Brook & Treman FLT course in the afternoon for his tenth course—a hot day for a tough course!
Yesterday, Susan Nye-Bleiler (@SusanB) overcame her trepidation at running the Long Loomis trails on her own to log her tenth course and say in email, “This has been the best running experience I’ve had this year.”
At last night’s track meet, in the first heat of the 1600m, both Verity Platt (@veritymo) and Katie Gannon (@Katie_Gannon) ran great races to add the Sweet 1600 as their final course. (And Katie, you can edit your time in Webscorer from 7:31 to the official time of 7:29.)
Congrats to one and all! We’re now up to 32 finishers, with 157 people entered.
@Challengers, we have our 33rd finisher: Elizabeth Rechtin (@trailelizard), who methodically worked her way through six courses through May 20th and then ticked off the last four in quick succession at the end of June. Way to finish it off and claim your medal, Elizabeth!
Two more finishers, @Challengers. Congrats to Gill Haines-Sharp (@gillian-haines-sharp), who ran a strong age-grade effort on the Jim Schug Trail this morning to complete her tenth course and move into third in the overall Age Grade competition, nudging out Liz Hartman.
Kudos as well to Aaron Proujansky (@aaron.proujansky1), who choose a cool, cloudy morning to tackle the Lick Brook & Treman FLT course for his last one. Not only did he claim his FLRC Challenge medal, he also pushed the @Fantastic-40s back ahead of the @Fabulous-50s after the weekend saw the two teams in a dead heat.
Rachel Neugarten (@raenb0) cleverly organized companionship for Brookton Hill & Dale, her longest full run to date.
Gretchen Gilbert (@Gretchen) finally took advantage of living on the course to notch her Brookton Hill & Dale effort.
Bill Hartnett (@junglerock) started the group run with the rest of us, but took advantage of company from @Wesleyh96 and @melissa-weiner to finish the entire Lick Brook & Treman FLT course for his tenth course,
Amalia Skilton (@amalia) also started the group run with the group but she and @Katie_Gannon continued across Rt 13 to finish the course and Amalia’s full Challenge.
