I had the day off today, so I decided to knock off the Black Diamond course. Cool temperatures, trillium in bloom, and plenty of waterfalls made for a nice run.
Afterwards, I hopped over to GreenStar for a backpacker bar, which in my opinion is one of Ithaca’s best baked goods. Also had a Slate chocolate, which is a great post-run drink for protein (and the mocha version has plenty of caffeine).
We were so excited that the rain tapered off just before we started our run of the Black Diamond! Though we were both well prepared for a damp run!
Today’s weather, to the average soul might have seemed cold, misty and gloomy, but it was Fantastic for a long run! The miles just flew by, so many smiles and “Good Morning” s from fellow trail users. I am curious how many of them were also participating in the challenge 
if you saw us let us know 
And I am So Happy I got to be with you for your longest run yet Courtney! Congratulations! 
Congrats Courtney! It was a beautiful day for a long run!
I met @breana.p, @twalsky, and @jennarice at the Ithaca Children’s Garden this morning to run the BDT course in a point-to-point downhill effort. Bre’s partner was VERY kind and drove us all to the start at Taughannock - having never been to this part of the trail, I didn’t realize how tucked away it was.
I was pretty sore from racing the CHES 5k yesterday, but reminded myself that this time the hills and gravity would be working with me, and after a few miles I started feeling a little less tight.
We encountered several snakes 
(not that kind though) and saw a huge crow on just below one of the bridges near the beginning. As we got further toward Ithaca, the wildlife was out less & other runners were out more - we ran opposite three different people I knew, but apparently none of them are FLRC members for me to tag!
I’ve been taking my long runs very easy recently to get enough recovery while doing 2 other workouts/week, and we went quite a bit faster - so between that, the downhill, and racing the day before, my legs are now completely trashed. Time to put them up and have a couple slices of cake pre our first Stewart Park speed workout and then Dryden!!
Happy mother’s day on the BDT
While everyone is running the mother’s day 5k or (hopefully!) sleeping in and going for brunch, I decided to take a leisurely run up and back on the BDT, starting and ending at the children’s garden. The weather was perfect, the trees are leafed out so there’s shade once you reach the woods, and I was very grateful for the turnaround sign because my Fitbit isn’t reliable for tracking distance (seriously, Pam, you have ONE JOB!)
I refueled with the most delicious breakfast sandwich EVER at Ithaca Bakery. I really only run because I love to eat so much.
P.S. no offense intended to any actual Pams out there, Pam is what I call the woman in my watch
Mild temps with a light breeze make it a good day for a long gentle jog up the hill from Cass Park to the turn around past Perry City Rd. and back again. After my turn around I bumped into a young woman practicing for the Gorges Half. We were both taking a water/GU break at the same time. She hadn’t heard about the FLRC Virtual Challenge so I acted as a freelance marketing agent for the club today. 
My wife was kind enough to drop me off at Taughannock so I could run this downhill. I ended up settling into about 6:20 pace for the first five miles. I slowed a bit for mile 6 (6:28), and during mile 7 my watch told me that I was running 7:40 pace. I definitely felt like I was slowing down, but surely not that much! I didn’t completely trust my watch after that and just tried to run a hard effort until the end. The wonky splits turned out to be GPS error (check out the goofy map on Strava), and since I glanced at my watch at the halfway sign I can be sure that I actually negative split the course (26:35/26:19). Good enough for 2nd place on the course leaderboard (just 16 seconds behind Mik!)
The three of us headed out to the Black Diamond this morning to join in the fun as Kieran finished the challenge. Hooray! He still has five days left in Ithaca to improve his time on a few courses, should he so wish. He says he really misses the Ithaca terrain when running at school as it is very flat and sunny in Urbana, IL. He sure made the best of Ithaca trails and hills while he was here. Thanks again for all the behind the scenes work that went into creating the challenge! You all are the best.
Erin’s school has a program called the 100-Mile Club, and over the course of a year students have the option to run laps during recess to reach milestones (25, 50, 75, and 100 miles). Well, we’re in the home stretch with the deadline on 6/14, and she’s been hustling to get those extra miles in the reach 100, though air quality issues and rain haven’t been helping.
Her P.E. teacher also accepts races and courses from the FLRC Challenge (I talked to her about this), so I did some number crunching and had a serious talk with Erin about some serious miles yesterday. So today she and I covered two courses, Black Diamond and Six Mile Creek, for a total of 15.11 miles. Looks like Monday will be all rain for us, meaning another no-run day, which is why I built in two extra miles today for contingency! 
And why we plan to run the Twilight 5K on Wednesday evening.
The Black Diamond run/hike was lovely, with the temperature being comfortable and the air being clean for a change, and we started off from the falls. So many birds were out, as well as butterflies, and it was a wonderful time spent there before pausing for lunch.
As my second effort for this course, my husband Matt, friend Bill and I decided we would hike the course today.
This morning we were a little delayed getting out the door to meet up for the group run.
Happily we made it on time and got to say hi to the group and be in the group photo
(it is a great picture by the way kudos to the person who suggested we move so the sun wasn’t in our eyes 
)
By happy coincidence I was told my friend Courtney was running (ha, pun 
) late, and was going to catch up with the group, so we decided to wait for her, so she and I could re-run the course together and Matt & Bill could hike it.
So grateful for how this turned out as I really needed the run and talked poor Courtney’s ear off as I vented about my very stressful previous day 
Thanks for listening lol even if it took Half the course to fully tell the story 
And Wow, running Up Black Diamond took its toll on my hamstrings, but I didn’t start noticing that till we nearly got back. 
For a moment I was really confused as to why lol
Well worth it though.
After our run, I took a moment for a quick photo as I waited, chilling in the grass for Matt and Bill to get back.
I woke up early on this beautiful summer solstice morning a little nostalgia for the time a ran the Ultra Challenge on the solstice two years ago. I snuck out early and knocked off a Black Diamond run, starting and sending at Cass. There were at least a dozen other runners, cyclists, and dog walkers out bright and early. I’ve yet to run this as a true park-to-park but hope to do it at least once this summer.
I’ve been slowly working my way through the challenge courses from shortest to longest, and it was time for the Black Diamond. @lynsayayer and I were planning to carpool and run together weeks ago, but poor air quality set us back repeatedly. Finally, today, we had clear skies and clearer schedules (fourth of July holiday!) so we dropped one car the Children’s Garden and drove up to the top of the BDT together.
We ran the first couple miles side by side, stopping once to enjoy some black raspberries that were abundant at the northern end of the trail.
We parted ways about mile 2.5 and I proceeded to get very hot and very sweaty in what felt like 100% humidity (it was 80%, I checked) in the beating sun. While I love the idea of a straight shot point-to-point trail that’s downhill to boot, I have terrible luck with the tiny bits of gravel getting into my socks and causing discomfort (solutions welcomed!) I found the last 2ish miles under the power lines to require a lot of willpower to finish.
I think my fueling/hydration strategy was really successful given the heat. I wore my hydration vest with 1.5 L of water mixed with 2 liquid IV packets. I also took in real food gels at miles 3 and 6 (Spring & Huma — the mango flavor is so good, thanks @Ian!) I had another 20 oz of water and snacks waiting in my car at ICG, and a second full bottle waiting in Lynsay’s car back up at Taughannock. I needed every last drop!
All this fueling and rehydrating meant I had energy to enjoy the rest of my day off! My husband and I continued our tradition of a day date on the Fourth while the kids are at camp. Today we went to Sheldrake (for a tasting), then FLX Cider for lunch & ginger bear (the greatest ginger beer I’ve ever tasted!) We stopped back at Taughannock and saw the waterfall at its most picturesque given all the rain of late. (Note: my hubby loving his new Goodrs from @finger-lakes-running).
It was a great day and I’m glad to say I’ve checked off that course!
Many people use gaiters to avoid the small rocks getting into their socks. Something like this.
Thank you!
He looks fantastic in Glacier, and are you sure that yours are fully in line w/ your color palette? Nice to the berries and work on the day.
Ian
@mdoruska3 and I took advantage of the cooler weather yesterday and carpooled for a park to park run on the course.
The extra driving time was worth it for sure. The race elevation calculator I used told me it was equivalent to a 10 second per mile boost!
I ran the full BDT out-and-back from Cass. A little past halfway a group of kids, ages about 10-15, was operating a trailside lemonade stand. They said they were in town for a family reunion and decided to try to make some money. I passed on their offer on the way out since I didn’t have cash, but on the way back down they made sure I knew they take Venmo. Since I had my phone in my pack I bought two cups and filled my handheld so I could guzzle lemonade over the last 5 miles. Unfortunately they sold out of brownies before I got there.
I found a tick on my shorts when I got home, thankfully none on my skin. Don’t forget to check thoroughly, especially this time of year.
I had already run the Black Diamond course with an out-and-back from Cass Park, but I thought if I ran it downhill I could knock a few minutes off my time. Thanks to a little help from @KimJ who lives on West Hill, I was able to leave my car at the Turtle parking lot but start from the top. I invited Kim to run with me, but she had run Ludlowville yesterday, so she declined.
One thing you should know about the Black Diamond Trail course is if you run it from the top is that the first 200 feet or so feature… an uphill! Who put that there? After motoring past that, with Van Halen in one ear to keep me lively, I set out to see what I could do. My goal was for each mile split time to be less than 10 minutes. Probably it wouldn’t work out well for me if my times were less than 9 minutes. My body settled in at about a 9:30 pace.
On the plus side, the top of the trail is lovely this time of year. No cars, no brambles, no rocks or roots, no mud. Just lovely August woods and fields, smooth surface, happy times. On the minus side, I kind of needed to pee. On the plus side, the FLRC-sponsored porta-potty wasn’t too far down the trail. On the minus side, if you are running for time, you don’t want to stop. I picked up my pace once the porta-potty was in site. Luckily nobody else was in it. The mile with that stop in it had a time of 10:01.
As they say, it was all downhill from there. Although, to be honest, I was working hard and it seemed mostly flat or maybe even uphill.
I concentrated on the flowing feeling of a faster pace than usual, opening up my stride while maintaining good posture. I merged with the green around me. My Garmin kept ticking down the miles. I started to wonder why I was doing this. I was working too hard for it to be full-on fun. It was offset from fun. It was very… what? A passage came to mind from an article about riding an Icelandic horse in the latest Outside magazine: (The horse’s name is Salka)
We fly. I lose track of the ground—that icy surface I have spent all week worrying about suddenly feels like it is no longer below us. … Here I am again, against all odds. … In two kilometers there will be a hard-right turn, and I will have to collect Salka in advance of it. In two kilometers, or two years, or 20, I will die as we all will do one day. But not right now. Right now we have temporarily entered the sky, and the blues and silvers and golds of it. There is the sun over the the North Atlantic, smoldering, shimmering. Dare us to see how close we can get.
My hard-right turn was actually a left at the end of the trail, and then I was standing in front of the Challenge sign, with a line of sweat running down my cheek. My time was more than 4 minutes faster than before, with an average mile split of about 9:25.
I didn’t stop to take photos during the run, and I was too hot after the run to think about photos. I did hydrate with three of my favorite beverages: water, smoothie, and coffee, and I took a photo of all those bottles on my picnic table at home.
