Yes! This drives me crazy. People who front in ensure that the lot can hold only a handful of cars, whereas parking parallel to the road makes it possible to park a lot more cars in here. I always park parallel to the road if I’m the first person there or won’t block anyone else in. I figure modeling the correct behavior is all we can do, short of petitioning the Town of Dryden for a parking sign to explain.
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This ‘attempted’ run is brought to you by A Series of Unfortunate Decisions!
This morning I had time to run my FINAL course and the weather looked favorable (and it was!!)
I need to rework the algorithm used to make the decision to run this morning. Time and weather did not balance out:
- Significantly increased work time for a major deadline (yesterday)
- Several nights of reduced sleep time
- Deciding last minute to squeeze in fasted bloodwork this morning (I ate a little immediately after)
- Not being well hydrated prior to the run
Another unfortunate decision was not carrying water.
I pulled into the parking lot and backed into a spot parallel to the road. I see how that makes sense.
Honestly, I was not feeling it this morning. I do not like Lower Creek Road, too much traffic, not enough shoulder (and it was new squishy gravel). I decided to take the course a quarter at a time. At one point, I had to remind myself how to eat an elephant, one bite at a time because to finish the course, I needed to take it one step at a time.
Adam’s (or was it Rachel’s?) favorite part of the course was not mine. There was a minivan stopped on the road, not really pulled off to the shoulder. For some reason, I thought it could be a bad guy. I ran way out into the road so they couldn’t grab me. They didn’t.
Not too far from the turnaround, I was really starting to fade. Calves were tight (which is not good for plantar fasciitis that I dealt with for months). At mile 7, I slowed to a walk and noticed my foot was very slightly irritated. The remaining miles were a lot walking and a little stretching and slogging.
But …
I covered the ground and completed the Challenge!!
I really wanted to dip my feet in the water after finishing, but I couldn’t find a good place to access the water, I saw a large, flat rock that looked inviting but wasn’t sure I could get up off of it, and then I saw a snake.
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Nice work!! That is a tough course but you did it!!!
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I don’t love long road runs but thank you @adamengst and @tonya-engst for making this as painless as it could be - relatively flat, scenic, and with shade along a lot of it (as long as you start early!) I picked a cooler morning and had great support from @medardia for the second half.
My personal highlight was the sheep grazing under the solar panels, I had heard about this sustainability project but hadn’t seen it in action!
We found a pair of shoes on the parking area at Campbell Meadows, wondering if they belong to an FLRC runner?
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Congrats! All done! And those sneakers were still there this afternoon. 
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Nothing like saving the longest course for last but as Rachel N. had noted, this was nice and flat, as well as rural - not a lot of traffic on those roads today while I was out doing my jog/walk relay to cover the ground.
It was a cooler day with the weather fluctuating while I was out there. I started off in sun.Then gradually the clouds rolled in.
Then, just when I hit the turn around point at Warren Rd., it began raining fairly hard - but just for a few minutes. The coolness of it was welcome.
On my return, I got to watch a jet taxi-ing from one part of the airport to the gate. I’ve never been on the back road on the far side of the airport before and it might be fun to drive over there and watch when a jet is scheduled to take off.
While I was on my last three miles of the course, the sun returned again. All in all a good day and I am happy to have this course completed.
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On September 20th of last year, I was told I had multiple tears in the tendon of my hamstring. When I asked if I would be able to recover fully, I was answered with a shrug.
On April 7th of this year, I attempted to jog the Skunk Cabbage 10k. I was reduced to walking by mile 5.
Today, on August 21st, I completed the Freeville Fly-in half marathon. Such a mixture of emotions - happiness, pride, and most of all, thankfulness! Thankful to be able to run and thankful for this Challenge competition which pushes me to accomplish goals that I didn’t think were possible! Thanks FLRC!!!
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I had been waking up early all week for work-related reasons, so I arrived at today’s Freeville Fly-In group run alert and ready to run. It felt good to be part of our friendly and lively group.
My mission was to complete the course without flaring up an injury in my left foot that I’ve been noticing all summer and that seems to get worse with longer distances or speedier paces. I hadn’t run a half-marathon distance since last summer’s Challenge, and I hadn’t really been able to train properly due to my foot issue. If I could complete the course, I would also complete the Challenge, because I had done all the other runs at least once.
I set out with a nice group of runners and grabbed this photo while the whole gang was heading out from the parking lot.
I ran along, looking at flowers and greenery, enjoying the cool, sunny morning, and chatting with various fellow runners. It was lovely. We saw a dozen or so airplanes flying in and out of the airport, so that was novel for me. I took this photo of another group that was returning while I was still running toward the halfway turnaround point.
I felt strong and fluid for most of the run, but around mile 12, it got tough. My foot was doing okay, but my legs were ready to quit. I reminded myself that the distance was only a few Barton Hall laps. Certainly I could do that. To keep my mind off my legs, I asked @gumbywhale to tell me about the muscles that you use while breathing. She is a PT, so she can talk about that for longer than most of us. Eventually, after what felt like 27 laps around Barton Hall, we reached the Challenge sign and I was done.
I ate a sweet slice of watermelon and then waded into the deliciously cold creek. The water swirled around me gently. All was well. Another summer, another Challenge completed. I’m still running, and I’m deeply grateful for it.
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This was the last course I needed to complete the challenge and it was such a treat to run with the group! I celebrated my challenge completion with a big ice cream at Scoops
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This was my last challenge course for 2024, and I finished! After not completing in either 2022 or 2023, it feels good to have found the time to fit runs into my summer activities!
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Matt is done! 
This morning we set out to complete the last course and the longest. Started dry, got rained on, got dry
, then some sprinkles at the end.
Had to get pictures of the horse vs panther statue 
And who can forget the “Drippy Chicken” sign
Why do I feel that should be a name of a tavern? 
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