With the holiday season upon us, I’m excited to be able to round up another fantastic year of FLRC trail running and announce the winners of the 2025 FLRC Trail Circuit!
I was delighted that we had a full slate of races for this year’s circuit, as the weather gods finally blessed us with enough snow on Hammond Hill for Super Frosty Loomis to kick off the year’s racing in February. There were a total of 813 participants across our races in 2025, up from last year’s 725—this was a net increase, even after taking into account there being an extra race compared to last year. I’m so delighted that more people are getting out there and giving the trails a try! Thanks to everyone who took part in a trail race, and an extra special thank you to all our fabulous race directors and volunteers for making the races possible.
Before we announce the winners, a quick recap of the Pebblehead/Stonehead scoring: for each FLRC trail race, every runner gets a score determined by dividing the winning time by their time, then multiplying by 100. The winner gets 100 points, and everyone else receives a score under 100. Ready?
Pebblehead Winners
These rankings are based on each runner’s top three races and are usually won by runners who’ve won or placed high in three races—the Pebblehead winners are our speedsters.
The women’s Pebblehead threw me for a loop this year: we have a three-way tie!
Inger Aaberg, Bella Burda, and Sarah Woodyear all scored the maximum of 300 points—way to go speedsters! Due to the races each entered, it was impossible to work out any sort of sensible tie-breaker, so after much deliberation, we decided to award all three the title of Pebblehead 2025. Congratulations all!
On the men’s side, things were more straightforward. Our winner is Christopher Petroff (more of him to come), who scored the maximum 300 points to take home the title. 18-year-old Ryan Jacobsen finished second with 293.64 points, beating third-place Glenn Seeholzer (293.10 points) by the slimmest of margins.
Stonehead Winners
For the Stoneheads, all qualifying races count, and scores are tallied cumulatively. The more races in the Circuit you run, the more points you amass. Stoneheads are our quintessential trail runners, grinding out solid race after solid race.
Familiar names rule the top 3 of the women’s Stonehead: Pebblehead winner Inger Aaberg took 3rd place with 491.00 points, whilst three-time former champion Sarah Ridenour finished second with 584.63 points. That means we have a new title holder: Sarah Woodyear, whose 688.86 points give her a double-title year. I’m already looking forward to next year’s battle for this title.
Christopher Petroff (and we’re still not done with him) claimed his second title of the year by scoring a massive 789.63 points in the men’s Stonehead. Last year’s champion, Ryan Allen-Parrot, had to settle for second place, despite beating his 2024 points total of 659.13 with a 2025 total of 727.01 points. Chris Mellor came in third place with 528.94 points.
Boulderhead Winner
The Boulderhead rankings use a simpler scoring system—1 mile equals 1 point, regardless of time or placement. The runner who notches the most overall miles wins.
And this year, that one runner was Christopher Petroff (remember him?), with a total of 132.7 points, meaning he carried off the first ever clean sweep of our Trail Circuit titles in 2025! This is perhaps even more remarkable when you consider that he cycled to most (if not all) of the race starts. Ryan Allen-Parrot came in second (for the second year in a row!) with 119.4 points, and last year’s champion, Steve Jesch, came in third place with 113.3 points.
Congratulations to all our winners!
Trail Circuit shirts
An extra thank-you this year must also go to Kuwanna Dyer-Pietras for creating our latest Trail Circuit shirt! These Patagonia shirts have been very popular this year, and we are all but sold out of the straight-cut style—there are still some fitted-cut sizes available to purchase here at the club online store. We will be restocking in time for Thom B in May, so don’t despair if we’re all out of your size.
Winter Trail Fest Holiday Party!
To celebrate our Trail Circuit 2025 winners, along with all of those who work so hard to make FLRC trail races a reality, we’re holding an FLRC winter get-together at Liquid State on Thursday, January 15. This is a chance to get together with running friends somewhere warm, dry, and mud-free, so even if you’ve never raced on trails before, why not come along and chase away the post-holiday blues with us?
There’ll be food a-plenty, and a favorite club tradition: potluck cookies! If you can, please bring a plate of cookies to share around for dessert (with a list of ingredients in case of dietary concerns). Home-made or store-bought—all cookies are good cookies.
Please RSVP via Webscorer by Sunday, January 11. There’s a limit on the number of folx we can have in the space, so sign up sooner rather than later to be sure of a spot!
Place: Liquid State, 620 West Green Street, Ithaca
Date: Thursday, January 15
Time: 5:00–8:00 pm
Bring:
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Family and friends (just make sure you RSVP for the right number)
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Cookies! (please make a note of ingredients for dietary purposes)
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Good cheer!
If you have any questions, please message me here on the FLRC forum—and I hope to see you on the 15th!