Brookton Hill & Dale Star Posts

[amy-dawson]

Story

Today @scottpdawson and I planned to go to Brookton Hill and Dale to help him finish his 2nd round of the FLRC Challenge. I finished mine last week but was eager to join to closer to my 3rd. It was a gorgeous morning and because we started early there was plenty of shade on the course! I listened to an episode of Bad Blood: The Final Chapter as I ran and more of the Tim Ferriss podcast with primatologist Isabel Behncke as I ran.
I’ve not been liking the shoes I am in, so I switched to my Topos and gave them a go. I was pleasantly surprised that my calves and achilles did not hurt after the 10 miles. I switched out of them trying to solve that problem. I think it is a form problem and I’ve been working on form with my new yoga app that my sister introduced me to. So, while this was not a fast run or anything, it was a perfectly lovely way to spend a morning!

Shop Local

Afterwards, Scott and I enjoyed a bagel at Brookton’s Market under the tent before we headed home by way of a quick Wegmans trip before delivering cake and cupcakes for a wedding. It was a full day! Here’s the not so great picture of me after the run.

[amy-dawson]

Nice job!! Great to see you out there.

[Iris (Iris Packman)]

Story

Today I finally took on my 9th challenge course and longest run since the winter. It was a beautiful, if hot, day on the road and I was glad I chose to wear my hydration vest rather than carry a handheld bottle; I just wouldn’t have been able to bring enough water that way! Started out with my SIL @lynsayayer who had already run the course. Lots of friendly drivers — I took a note from @lizhartman and others and made sure to wave at each one (for safety as well as good will)! People were pretty consistent with getting over into the middle of the road when passing. The hills were a real challenge, and I walked parts of the uphills, while taking advantage of the extra speed on the descents.

Shop Local

I was so excited to check out Brookton Market and bought a delicious Aye Aye sandwich (scrambled eggs, cheese, salsa and guacamole) on gluten free bread, as well as an iced decaf latte. Sooooo good. I could have eaten two Fun fact: for a few years as a little kid, I lived on Middaugh Road and used to walk to the store that is now Brookton Market to buy 5 cent popsicles!! It was about 30 years ago, but I remember making the dusty trek in the summer with a nickel in my pocket, then the cool relief of entering the store and opening the freezer box to select my popsicle (the kind with two sticks). I always got the root beer flavor. Glad to see the market is going strong, albeit catering to a healthier crowd now!

[tonya-engst]

I generally wave to all drivers when running and cycling on rural roads. I started the habit because I’ve lived here most of my life, so I know a lot of people. Friends would say to me “I saw you out running and I waved to you, but you didn’t wave back.” Of course, it’s hard to see into most cars. So, I started waving to everyone, figuring that if I didn’t know them, I had probably met them, or met their kid or met their Dad, etc. I did notice that this has a good effect on my safety, too; cars tend to slow down more.

[tonya-engst]

Story

Being married to our Challenge Race Director, @adamengst, I hear about the Challenge most days—we have a ton of fun talking about it. One slogan of the Challenge I hear a lot is the “Cover the Ground” slogan on our shirts. This means you can walk, run, crawl, wade in the creek, or stop to eat a snack, whatever. You can double back if you get lost. The point is to cover the course. The other thing I hear often is “it is supposed to be a challenge.”

For me, running is mostly about being happy: Running through the woods on a sunny morning with friends, laughing and telling stories. Or effortlessly skimming across the landscape on a fall afternoon with my molecules merging with the scenery. Or feeling wildly alive while racing as fast as I can and outrunning expectations. But I can’t get to those feelings without work, and I’ve been working all year to come back from my herniated disc and subsequent surgery.

This run included some work and it called deeply on both those slogans for me. @caroline-brockner was my running buddy and she is a cheerful and steady runner—it was so much easier with a friend to keep me going. We walked the steeper uphills. Around 7 miles, Adam passed us on his eliptigo bicycle and he said that @Gretchen’s water stop was just a little way ahead. That “little way” was a tough mile—I was starting to flag with the distance and the heat.

The water stop was slice of heaven. Gretchen had her Challenge lawn sign up as well as a special FLRC sign. She had a cooler full of cold water bottles and ice packs—and beer—and a table with salty snacks. I drank one bottle of water and poured another one over my head. This felt amazing. One error was that I got my shorts wet on the inside of my thighs from pouring that water on myself, and that caused chafing later. Oops!

The 7.7-mile partial-Treman that I enjoyed running last weekend was my longest run so far this year, so the last few miles of this hilly 10.4-mile course were truly challenging for me. No single body part was hurting, but it got harder and harder to move myself forward. I could barely run down Vandemark road, and the last few yards back to the Brookton Market happened through willpower alone. That’s when I kept thinking “it’s supposed to be a challenge.”

I don’t need to do this run again anytime soon; I will leave that to @lizhartman who has been eating this run up like candy on Halloween night. However, I am now feeling like the Lick Brook Treman course might be possible for me. I’m planning to do it on the last weekend before the Challenge ends, so if I can just not get COVID and keep on running…

(In this photo, I want to put my arm around Caroline’s shoulder, but I am incredibly sweaty and it is hot in the sun, so I’m not quite touching her.)

Shop Local

I had an egg, cheese, and seitan breakfast sandwich at Brookton market. The seitan was an experiment. I already knew what it tastes like, and I was hoping it would be yummy in place of sausage. It was OK, but next time I will stick to the sausage. Adam and I stayed for a while to chat with Bill, a fellow Challenge runner, which was a lot of fun.

[Petorius (Pete Kresock)]

Story

B H&D was the final course of my Uktra Challenege effort. The rain stopped during the Loomis run an hour earlier and it started to warm up. I assumed I’d be heating up and walking a lot, what with 54-ish miles on my legs since 8:00 last night. Please excuse the typos and ramblings… I’m writing this on 36+ hrs of no sleep. Anyway, it was a real grind in my mind. I had to remind myself that running hurt kinkier than walking and even the slowest running pace is 5-7 mpm faster than average walking pace.

Scenery: 25-30 dump tricks roaring by on Middaugh and Coddington. (I think there’s a quarry nearby.); 1001 squash slugs and newts near the shoulder; Some stuff I know I hallucinated but I forget what it is;

That finish line QR couldn’t have come soon enough. I grabbed my wallet and stumbled around inside brooktons market like a drink deciding what to buy, since I took up a parking space while runnjng/shuffling and wanted to reciprocate.

Shop Local

Nuthjng looked appealing to Sat so I just grabbed a celebratory artisan or something Cola and sat for awhile to drink under the tent.a single Beer would’ve left me passed out cold be I left the premises, so soda it was.

Right now idk if this post is coherent at all but I’m too tired to proofread and I have hiccups now like crazy so I’ll just leave it. I’ll write a full write up sometime soon. Happy challenging!!

[SarahG (Sarah Giesy)]

Story

I have been dreading a second run on this course because it felt so tough the first time. I parked at the post office. For motivation, I was planning to try to listen to music on my phone, but all I have for headphones are wired EarPods. I thought I had a plan to secure my dangling pod, but it didn’t work. I ditched them in my car and continued on my way.

I was in a negative mindset.

Then I started to think about how my yoga teacher starts class with landing, where you are, right now. So, that’s what I did. I acknowledged where I was and set my intention for the run.

This run felt so much better than the last time, and I ran the entire course. I do not like all the dump trucks on Coddington Rd. I was disappointed that my time was similar to my previous run, but I covered the ground and had a much better experience!

I just wanted to go home when I finished, so that is what I did.

[caitlin-loehr]

Story

I accompanied my friend Mary @MDot to help her knock off one more for the challenge. There have been so many nice cool morning this summer and this was one of them. We started out early to beat the heat, the sun and the crazy fast drivers. It was a nice steady uneventful run with good company. My legs were a bit sore from Forest Frolic yesterday but we weren’t going for speed today so it was lovely. We forgot to take a photo of ourselves but I did snap this one of a family of wild turkeys. Much more interesting, truly.

Shop Local

Sadly (?), we finished too quickly to pick up some snacks to share together at Brookton’s Market. I even remembered to bring my coupon from the Ithaca Guide to Being Local coupon book. But we were done by 8:45am and the Market doesn’t open until 9:30; we decided not to hang around. Next time!

[adamengst]

Story

I’d been working up to being able to run higher mileage all year, but since I seem to have a bad case of One Damn Thing After Another (currently the right foot/ankle, and after Friday, my right knee), I was forced to do some significant hiking for the Lick Brook & Treman FLT course on July 23rd, where I ran 3.5 miles with @crosby.woods and then hiked the rest, and then again today, when I wanted to get the Brookton Hill & Dale course done before we leave for vacation for a week. There was time to do it after we got back, but not much, and I saw no reason I’d necessarily be able to run it then either.

So I got up early and started a little after 8 AM. I opted for the clockwise direction, which provided nice shade for the first 5 miles, though much of Coddington and Middaugh were in full sun. Going up Vandemark was particularly scenic, though the entire course was pretty. I didn’t see any other Challengers out there, but a few drivers waved enthusiastically enough that I thought they might have recognized the shirt.

Rather than run first and potentially have to hobble the rest, I started off walking, with the plan that I’d run the last 3 miles if I was feeling OK. I’d worn some old double-layer Wright Socks that had holes in one layer and the left one started to give me a blister on my heel within the first mile. It took a few stops and fiddling to figure out what was happening, but once I switched socks, it didn’t get worse. Still, I felt it on each left foot strike unless I scuffed slightly so my foot moved forward in the shoe. Once I hit 7.5 miles, I started to jog, which did nice things to my pace per mile (about 15:00 for walking, but 16:00-something due to the stops, but dropped to 13:40 by the end). The right foot/ankle held up OK for the running, but my right knee started to hurt toward the end, particularly with camber on Brooktondale Road at the end.

I enjoyed being out there, but I would have been much happier without the left heel blister and if my right knee hadn’t started to hurt during the run part. Luckily, I have some Hydro-Seal blister bandages, which are fabulous, and I’m hoping the knee chills out with a few days off such that I can do the group runs on the 13th and 14th to finish off the Challenge for the year.

And the socks went in the garbage as soon as I got home.

Shop Local

I approve highly of chocolate to celebrate finishing the Challenge but was more in need of chocolate milk than a chocolate bar.

[patrickmilano]

Story

This morning’s group run gave me the motivation to do this course one more time (thanks @heathercobb3!). My legs were tired from a workout yesterday but I managed to run what is currently the 9th-fastest time.

Shop Local

I got a great post-run breakfast from Brookton’s Market and enjoyed it while chatting about running with the rest of the group.

[jhodges117 (Jim Hodges)]

Story

With the Heat Advisory posted today I was hoping to start earlier but 9:00 was the best I could do. In the morning, a good bit of the route is in the shade. Annoyingly and amusingly, I had “looking for shade in all the wrong places” going through my head as I found myself in a sunny section of road, scanning for the next shady section ahead. A light breeze was super welcome this morning making the humidity bearable. Enjoyed the variety of terrain on this course after the dead flat and straight Jim Schug Trail on Saturday (although that is super pretty!). I can tell that I’m now reasonably trained up to the 10K mark, but going beyond that distance is still a bit of a push.

Shop Local

As with so many others, the logical choice was to step into Brookton’s. Took me 10 minutes of profuse sweating before I dared do so, however, and wow was that AC cold! Decided to sit under the tent to enjoy the recovery drink of champions–thick, creamy chocolate milk from Hillcrest Dairy! And wash that down with my second coffee of the day!

[kuwanna-dyerpietras]

Looks like I just missed you by an hour! I parked and started running around 10 am!

[kuwanna-dyerpietras]

Story

With three more courses to go (plus the Sweet 1600), and less than two weeks before my 100K, and considering the weather forecast for the area this week, AND the Challenge deadline looming, I decided Monday (yesterday) would be an ideal day to tackle the three courses in one go. That would equate to over 24 miles of running for the day and would be my last “long effort” of some kind before my race. And it would feel really good to get these done.

Of course, the “ideal” day was also one with another heat advisory. So it was going to be a hot one. I packed the cooler with over 100 ounces of water and Tailwind, sliced peaches, a banana, and a Macrobar.

After dropping the girls off at camp, I drove to Brooktondale and promptly started. I had originally thought about starting my day around 7:30 am but the weather seemed questionable until I woke up that morning. Instead, I started my run around 10:00 am, about when Jim Hodges was an hour into his run on the course!

This was a beautiful run.

I love long runs on rolling hills over country roads.

The scenery was absolutely stunning, with so many wildflowers along the road (if anyone knows the name of the one pictured, do let me know!), old structures, and so many birds. Passing clouds kept me shaded for most of the run which was appreciated.

Shop Local

I stopped in the market before the run, but by the time I finished my run, I needed a restroom. So unfortunately, I did not purchase any treats at the market (or take advantage of a free coffee ), but what I did do was stop by the Six Mile Creek winery on my way to the East Hill Dryden Rail Trail. They were open, have nice bathrooms, and importantly, wine. While there, I was able to ask about the wine barrels and aging process but was not quite satisfied about how gluten-free their wines would end up being for me, so I grabbed Jeff a beer. I did want to make a purchase of some kind. The girl who helped me was really helpful.

One could say that Jeff is doing a Beer Challenge. He has enjoyed tasting some of the new varieties I’ve brought home.

[jhodges117 (Jim Hodges)]

I saw that later, yes, we just missed each other. I bumped into a friend sitting in the tent out front and didn’t leave until almost noon. So, I bet I just missed you on the other end of your run. I am so impressed with your three runs yesterday. I felt accomplished with just one, a long for me at this point. Enjoy your Sweet 1600 to finish things off! I may do mine today and then have LB/Treman on the schedule for Thursday. Best wishes on your 100K.

[kuwanna-dyerpietras]

Thank you, Jim! I was so focused on scanning the sign and finding a bathroom you may very well have been sitting under that tent while I was back at that sign lol! Darn coffee! You should definitely feel accomplished with this run. It’s a great one too. And enjoy your time at Lick Brook and Treman, definitely a beautiful run.

[jhodges117 (Jim Hodges)]

Ha! I didn’t see your picture before making my own excellent choice of post-run recovery elixir yesterday!

[SarahG (Sarah Giesy)]

@buhillrunner

if anyone knows the name of the one pictured, do let me know!

It looks like a sweet pea.

[kuwanna-dyerpietras]

Thank you!

[adamengst]

@buhillrunner

The scenery was absolutely stunning, with so many wildflowers along the road (if anyone knows the name of the one pictured, do let me know!),

It is almost certainly a sweet pea, but the app to get if you’re curious about plants is Seek. You can just point your phone camera at the plant to identify it.

Seek by iNaturalist · iNaturalist

[kuwanna-dyerpietras]

My mother-in-law had mentioned an app and I believe this was it. Thanks @adamengst!