My recap suggesting there would be a Saturday showdown for the first 2023 FLRC Challenge completion came too early!
Congratulations to Rebecca Lambert for defending her title from last year as our first finisher, which she completed in 7 days, down from 10 last year. Jamie Loehr was hoping to regain his title from 2021, but Rebecca’s strategy of doubling on two days and finishing with an easy hike on the short Ellis Hollow Creek Crossings course prevailed. Next year, someone’s going to have to go for an FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge right away if they want to beat Rebecca.
Kudos to Rebecca for showing us how it’s done once again, and I’ll continue acknowledging completion achievements here for the rest of the Challenge. When will you claim your FLRC Challenge medal?
And as predicted, Jamie Loehr has become the second finisher of the 2023 FLRC Challenge, knocking off the Dryden Lake Lollipop for his tenth course. It took him just 9 days, ahead of Rebecca’s 10-day completion from last year, but behind her 7-day completion this year. The Challenge accomplishments just keep getting more impressive every year. Congrats, Jamie!
@Challengers Congratulations to Caitlin Loehr, our third Challenge finisher for the year, for completing her collection of courses with three efforts on Ellis Hollow Creek Crossings this morning!
Thanks to multiple efforts on multiple courses, Caitlin has also captured numerous spots at the top of the leaderboard, including Most Points, Age Grade, and Most Miles.
I’ll be keeping an eye on Pete and Jamie to see how many total completions they rack up this year, and we’ll see if he’s in shape next year to attempt a Day 1 FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge completion.
Number five is on the leaderboard today, @Challengers—congrats to FLRC Challenge newcomer Julie Barclay for claiming her medal with a slodgy run on Blueberry Patch. Word on the street (trail?) is that Julie wants to complete all the courses while she’s still 49 (for a few more weeks) and then do it again at age 50. Now there’s a goal!
We have our sixth finisher, @Challengers—congrats to Bob Walters for completing his third Challenge in a row. After a brief addiction to Ellis Hollow Creek Crossings, he ventured out to Lime Hollow for a pair of runs that completed his collection.
As predicted, @Challengers, last weekend brought two more finishers. Saturday morning saw 65-year-old John Hummel take over as our oldest finisher so far with a Blueberry Patch effort that apparently wasn’t even all that muddy.
Then, on Sunday, speedster Patrick Milano hammered the Ludlowville Loop course to take over the fastest spot on that course. That pushes Mik Kern, who was busy getting married last weekend, into second place, but he might come back energized from his honeymoon to try to retake that top spot. Meanwhile, Patrick has cemented his overall lead in Most Points for men, third place in Most Miles, and second place for Age Grade.
@Challengers, channeling The Beatles, I’d like to congratulate our ninth finisher, Jilene Demont! Her early morning run on Six Mile Creek today completed her ten courses. Thanks to some speedy times, she has also moved commandingly into the top spot in Most Points for women and second place in Age Grade.
And now, @Challengers, as long we’re continuing our pop culture references, congrats to Tristan Lambert and Damian Clemons, for taking the Challenge to 11. With these efforts, they move into second and third place for Most Points for men.
Tristan completed his Challenge with the course closest to his house—Ludlowville Loop—whereas Damian claimed his medal by running at least eight of the courses yesterday in an Ultra Challenge attempt. Missing from his activity log are in fact Ludlowville Loop and a Sweet 1600 (the Lansing track is right there), but we haven’t heard yet if he actually ran them and just had posting problems or if something caused him to end early. Regardless, he’s now run all ten courses!
Congrats to Kieran Loehr, who has charged through all ten courses in 13 days while visiting his parents Jamie and Caitlin (finishers #2 and #3). Now that’s how to do summer vacation!
Congratulations to Liz Hartman, our 13th finisher, @Challengers! Despite the lousy air quality, Liz stuck with her scheduled plan for a fast Sweet 1600 today to finish her tenth course, and she hammered a 5:50 to take the top spot for women in the Sweet 1600 and for Most Points for women in the Challenge overall. That effort also catapults her into second place in Age Grade.
Three more finishers this weekend, @Challengers—congratulations all around. First, of course, is Dennis Stadelman, who completed all ten courses in just over 20 hours for the FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge.
Then Amy Dawson and Scott Dawson, who have run nearly all the courses together so far, closed by knocking off the Sweet 1600 and Ellis Hollow Creek Crossings on their way over here for dinner last night before getting up early this morning to drive from Trumansburg all the way to Dryden to finish off with a Dryden Lake Lollipop. Hope there was ice cream at Toad’s afterwards to celebrate!
Wow, congratulations, @dennis-s! Amazing effort. We didn’t get Toad’s afterward because we finished before they opened, but we did hit up Two Goats in the afternoon for a well-deserved lunch. Thanks!
@Challengers Congrats to Miram Zubal, our 17th finisher! Miriam took a one-and-done approach, methodically working her way through the courses with a general shortest-to-longest strategy, ending with what must have been a nice day for Dryden Lake Lollipop this morning.
Thank you for the challenge! My goal was to run a half marathon before turning 61 this week and I feel very accomplished! It was a beautiful morning for the longest run I’ve ever done. Finished before the much needed rain. Hope to meet challengers at some upcoming events.
@Challengers, Congratulations to FLRC Executive VP Heather Cobb for completing the FLRC Challenge on Sunday at the Blueberry Patch group run and becoming our 18th finisher! Along with claiming her medal, she’s solidly in third place in the Community Stars competition thanks to numerous posts and regularly running with others.
@Challengers Congrats to Ballard Smith, who completed his 10th course today by working his way up to Dryden Lake Lollipop. It was Ballard’s first FLRC Challenge, which made me go back to see who else among our finishers is a first-timer: Julie Barclay, Kieran Loehr, and Miriam Zubal also fall into that category so far. Nice to see new names so high up on the Completions list!
@Challengers Our 20th completion comes courtesy of Amalia Skilton, who cleared her Lime Hollow and Blueberry Patch courses this weekend to finish up before heading out for a summer research trip. Congratulations, Amalia!
A quick tip—the leaderboard didn’t know that Amalia had finished on Sunday because neither her Lime Hollow nor Blueberry Patch times posted from the trailheads due to spotty cell service. It’s always worth checking the leaderboard to make sure those courses post; in the Webscorer app, start from the main screen, tap Race Archive, tap My Results, tap the desired result, and tap Post My Results.
@Challengers Congratulations go to Columbia Warren, who finished off the FLRC Challenge in high style by running his Sweet 1600 at our track meet last night, laying down a speedy 5:46 that was good for the win in his heat. And he did it wearing his new FLRC Challenge shirt! (Hopefully, we’ll have photos from the meet up soon.) His time puts him into fifth place for men in the Sweet 1600 and makes him one of only six men who’ve broken six minutes.
