Use this topic for posts to collect community stars for the Black Diamond Park to Park course.
Here’s how it works.
I decided to kick off my 2023 FLRC Challenge with a run down BDT. I’m pretty sure I ran into @Jamie as he was starting his second run on the course for the day!! Impressive!!
I started on the North end and quickly realized that this warm weather fooled me into thinking there would be more shade on the trail than there was. Alas, the leaves have not fully emerged.
My legs have been tired and pace slow so far this year. Perhaps it is due to the extra fluff I am carrying. I thought about the races I have on my schedule and decided that my goal will be to complete them. I’m nervous about the Gorges Half and FL50s on back to back weekends. I plan to review the courses and see how to best utilize them in a training plan.
I also thought about the logistics of dealing with this point to point course. I hired my husband as my Uber driver for today. I couldn’t help but wonder how those attempting the ultra would deal with this course.
FYI the halfway point is just North of the Perry City Road crossing.
A chilly morning compared to yesterday for 2 efforts. Started in the middle, ran to Cass and back, then to Taughannock and back. Enjoyed seeing @caitlin-loehr twice. Ironically, we got community stars for running “together” even though we were at opposite ends of the trail (she was scanning at Taughannock while I was scanning at Cass).
It was certainly a nice cool morning for a long run. So fun to pass @heathercobb3 on the trail twice and that we were able to give each other stars! 
Thanks, Heather!
That’s cool how you can get the stars this way. I think it shouldn’t count unless you high five each other in the middle. 
She was moving far too fast for me to high-five her. I would’ve 
instead.
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.
