Such a lot of running! We have completed another FLRC Challenge. Although it got off to a slow start due to a wet, muddy spring and a hot, humid summer, we ran record amounts in the last few weeks to bring it home. Congratulations to the 101 people who qualified for a medal this year! That’s an overall completion rate of 64% and a 75% completion rate for those who ran at least one course—both much higher than last year’s 53% and 66%. As Tonya Engst is fond of noting, completing the Challenge is 90% perspiration and 10% administration, though I’m thinking the balance may be even more biased to administration.
We’ll be handing out medals at the FLRC Annual Picnic on September 18, with post-picnic pickups at the running store or by arrangement. I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t have enough of this year’s medals for everyone. Because I had to order the medals back when our signups and mileage were really low, I thought I was over-ordering when I got 90 (minus one for the archive). If you’re not interested in a medal or would prefer a previous year’s medal, I’m seeking alternatives for 12 people. Let me know.
Before we get into the details, please join me in a round of virtual applause for everyone who participated, particularly those for whom just completing all ten courses required significant physical effort. We’re all impressed by those who complete one of the Ultra Challenges, but it’s perhaps more of an achievement when someone works their way up to covering 13.1 miles for the first time or when a child completes a Personal Challenge. Speaking of those, kudos to Simon Woods, Adrian Kresock, Joel Kresock, Aubrey Verderosa, and Rowan Verderosa in that last category! That’s a record number of kid completions.
Top Spots
Every year brings different types of excitement to the leaderboard, and in the past, we’ve seen last-minute competitions for Most Miles, Most Points for women, and Team Points. This year, the Most Points for men was the nail-biter, but all our categories feature impressive achievements.
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Most Points for Women: In her first FLRC Challenge, Sarah Woodyear came from behind to overtake Bella Burda and two-time Challenge winner Nora McIver-Sheridan for the top spot. Much like in 2021, when Margaret Frank took the win over Jullien Flynn, who finished her degree and moved away mid-summer, Bella couldn’t respond to Sarah’s fast times from her new postdoc position at Princeton.
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Most Points for Men: What a competition! Patrick Milano, our 2023 winner, led most of the year and ran incredibly smart, only to lose the lead in the afternoon of the last day to Chris Petroff, who put together an astonishing and equally smart collection of efforts in the last two weeks to win the crown. 18-year-old Ryan Jacobsen, our youngest full-Challenge finisher, ran really well to finish third—he’s going to be even more of a force to be reckoned with next year.
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Age Grade: Unsurprisingly, Caitlin Loehr remained undefeated in the Age Grade competition (which levels the playing field for age and gender), though she struggled with injury and “only” hit 67.50% this year, down from last year’s high of 75.15%. More evidence of Patrick Milano’s impressive efforts came from his second-place Age Grade finish, just sneaking past Gill Haines-Sharp as both boosted their numbers in the last few days.
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Most Miles: Many were expecting Pete Kresock to collect his fourth (of five) Most Miles title, but they weren’t counting on Gill Haines-Sharp, who ran an impressive 661.7 miles to win, the second most ever for a four-month Challenge (slightly behind Liz Hartman’s 677.3 miles in 2022). Pete could have logged more miles since he devoted some of his summer mileage to completing all the previous FLRC Challenge courses as well, but Gill still won by over 114 miles. In third? It was Patrick Milano, once again, with 392.9 miles. So many track laps and lakefront loops.
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Community Stars: I love the fact that our Community Stars category, which rewards running with friends and sharing on the forum, was won for the third (of four possibilities) by Ruth Sproul, our second-oldest finisher at 73. Ruth runs regularly with Anne Shakespeare and often shares a single evocative photo that captures the essence of her runs. Second and third places went to our mileage monsters, Gill Haines-Sharp and Pete Kresock, who had many more runs to document than the rest of us. Sarah Giesy, whose posts often gave voice to the personal struggles and uncertainties we all go through, was just nudged into fourth in the last few days.
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Team Points: You gotta believe! After four consecutive years in second place, the @Fabulous-50s finally put it all together to win, led by Caitlin Loehr, Ian Woods, and Stephen Jesch. Perhaps even more surprising was the last-minute capture of second place by the @Super-60s-70s, led by Gill Haines-Sharp, Brian Harrington, and John Hummel. I mean, sure, Gill rocked everything this year, but to send the three-time champion @Fantastic-40s to third place? That’s a major achievement.
Although these top spots come with bragging rights, the FLRC Challenge prizes go deep, with 40 runners garnering over $1500 in prizes, which you’ll receive as a credit at the Finger Lakes Running Company (soon—I have to put the list together for Ian). Check the Awards page to see how much you’ve won.
Ultra Challenges
The FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge remains one of the hardest goals to achieve, and just like the last two years, only three people managed to complete it. Pete Kresock didn’t go for a Day 1 completion this year but put his stake in the ground in the first week. And then the 100K Ultra Challenge page sat, forlorn, until mid-August when Norwegian wundermom Inger Aaberg signed up for the Challenge and ran it all the next day, recording the fastest time of the year in 11:23:40. I worried that was going to be it for the year, but ultraman Dennis Stadelman came through to finish his 100K Ultra Challenge on the final day. They’ll all win custom course signs to document their achievements.
Last year, the Tough Trail Challenge attracted 12 finishers and the Tough Tarmac only 6, but the popularity polarity reversed this year, with 7 people finishing the Tough Tarmac Challenge: Gillian Haines-Sharp, Pete Kresock, Dennis Stadelman, Evelyn Goldwasser, Daniela Graffeo, Chris Petroff, and Amalia Skilton. It was definitely a case of threading the weather needle, with the first three finishes in early to mid-June, and the last four in mid to late August. Chris Petroff deserves special mention because he not only completed it vastly more quickly than anyone else in running time, but also biked between all the courses (and broke his 12 hours across two days so he could sleep in the middle, finishing just 19 minutes before the deadline).
The Tough Trail Challenge was, well, really tough this year. Abbott Ascent and North Country Half were brutally hilly (sorry, not sorry), and Cayuga Cliffs was seriously overgrown much of the spring when it was too wet to mow. That didn’t stop four people from completing it: Dennis Stadelman, Gillian Haines-Sharp, Stephen Jesch, and Pete Kresock, and Gill even did it twice.
These shorter Ultra Challenge completions will be rewarded with a custom quarter-sized Challenge course sign.
If you got the sense that Gill Haines-Sharp spent her last four months on Challenge courses, you wouldn’t be wrong. She accomplished a feat that may stand forever—completing all ten Challenge courses not once, not twice, not three times, not… but NINE FREAKING TIMES! Holy worn soles, Batman, but that’s a lot. Pete Kresock ran through them all three times (and was one more Abbott Ascent away from four), and Tanya Burnett, Ruth Sproul, and Dennis Stadelman did them all twice. You’re all rock stars.
Statistics
It’s impossible not to be something of a stats junkie when it comes to the Challenge. Our Statistics page was a regular stop for me every week, and I was super pleased that we came within spitting distance of 12,000 miles, totalling 11,858.7 miles for the year, across 2,449 runs. That’s 4.84 miles per run, which, interestingly, is roughly what we do every year. Other years ranged from 4.76 to 4.99 miles per run.
I’m still working on a good algorithm for course popularity, which needs to consider the number of participants, runs, and miles (and likely location). However, it’s safe to say that our most popular course this year was Black Diamond Cass to Gorge, which had way more runs for its fairly long distance than anything else.
Sign Winners
One of the most fun bits of the Challenge is that those who run the most times on a particular course get to take home that course’s sign, which gives some people a chance to be competitive in a completely different metric. The people who owned specific courses this year are:
- Sweet 1600: Patrick Milano with 113 runs, his fourth Sweet 1600 sign
- Mulholland Waterfalls: Ian Woods with 32 runs
- Lakefront Loops 5K: Patrick Milano with 55 runs
- Cayuga Cliffs: Rebecca Lambert with 20 runs
- Fall Creek Trails: Stephen Jesch with 25 runs
- Town & Gown Up & Down: Pete Kresock with 16 runs
- Abbott Ascent: Gill Haines-Sharp with 11 runs
- Black Diamond Cass to Gorge (three signs): Amy Dawson with 24 runs, Scott Dawson with 18, and Caitlin Loehr with 13
- Triple Hump: Andrew Flyak with 10 runs
- North Country Half (two signs): Gill Haines-Sharp with 9 runs and Dennis Stadelman with 6
Highlights
Finally, as much as the Challenge lends itself to statistics, what makes it the most enjoyable for me is how everyone gets into it in different ways. Here are a few of my highlights of the year:
- I was captivated by Chris Petroff and Patrick Milano duking it out in the final days and thoroughly documenting their strategies and results. There can be only one winner, but in my book, they both get gold for competing hard, smart, and with grace. Competition isn’t everything, but it’s beautiful when done well.
- Gill Haines-Sharp turned the Challenge into a piece of athletic performance art, taking home the award for Most Miles, placing third in Age Grade, and running the entire thing nine times. I want to be like Gill when I’m 63. (And like Ruth Sproul when I’m 73.)
- Dennis Stadelman deserves special acknowledgement for his trips down to Ithaca from Syracuse to run our courses. Dennis isn’t fast, but he covers incredible amounts of ground, provides significant support to our local ice cream vendors, and regularly shares his joy in being able to get out there. Like Gill, Dennis is 63, which is apparently a great age.
- I loved seeing how many people took their families out on a Sweet 1600, with Marie Donnelly’s and Patrick Milano’s recent reports standing out. Not everyone can run the Challenge, but most people can walk (or be carried, like Theo Milano) for a mile, regardless of age. Special thanks to Harry Greene for the new Sweetgum 1600 course that provides more of a trail than a track, and to Pete Kresock for the new song, “Harry’s Farm.”
- Even the dog days of summer didn’t dissuade our three main dogs from accompanying their people. It was lovely to read about the adventures of Dior and Gill Haines-Sharp, Maggie and Matt Clark, and Charlie and Iris Packman.
- In general, it warms the cockles of my heart whenever Challengers meet one another for a run or during a run. The Challenge may have started during the pandemic as a way we could parallel play, but it’s so much better when we can really play together.
- I can’t tell you how much I enjoy seeing evidence of the Challenge in the real world. The lawn signs that have popped up all over Ithaca this year are a treat (you can take them in until next year!), and I never get tired of seeing everyone sporting their Challenge shirts from past years. We’ve done something impressive here together, and I hope we can make it even better, more inclusive, and more fun in future years. (Yes, I have plans!)
Remember, you can pick up your medal and any signs you’ve won at the FLRC Annual Picnic on September 18 (please RSVP, sign up to help, and bring stuff for the swap table!).
Until next year, cover the ground!