A side goal I have for the challenge this year is trying to give each course at least one “race effort” before the end of the season. I am running Gorges Ithaca this saturday and originally had the notion of noting my time when passing the sign in Ithaca, but I noticed that the start sign ended up about 600ft further up the trail than where the start line is for the race. Being that the race is chip timed, my thought was to actually start running at the sign and just time the start. Does this fall afoul of any challenge rules? Just trying to save an extra trip.
Ooo, clever, @DamianClemons. No, there’s no problem with starting at the Taughannock sign for Gorges and then recording your time when you hit the Cass Park sign.
If any other @Challengers are running Gorges this weekend, perhaps you can all gather together at the Challenge start. 
Great minds think alike; I was planning on doing exactly the same. I won’t bother with scanning the CR codes on the signs, just use the “Edit my time” feature to key in my time afterwards. (Just need to remember to note my finish time when I pass the sign at the course end sign.)
I checked this out on our ride back home tonight and gave it a test run. The GPS puts it at exactly 0.1 miles. It is all uphill with a roughly 25-30ft climb. At a 7:30 pace it took me about 47 seconds. Unfortunately the line of sight isn’t there as the trail isn’t a straight shot in this area, so you won’t be able to see what is going on. I’m not sure how long the start duration for the wave is either. Hopefully he leaves it on at least a full minute after giving everyone the go ahead. Last year he split up wave 2 into two separate waves and let half the runners go off about 10 minutes earlier than the original start time. Probably best to ask Ian prior to the start.
@Ian can you weigh in on the discussion of how to do the Black Diamond Park to Park course for the FLRC Challenge as part of Gorges? It involves a slightly different start and hitting the chip timing mats a minute late.
Ian said he thinks it is on perpetually and will just take your final time you cross the start line. He also said he wouldnt shut it down until after they go to do tear down.
Ended up working out well. I hung out near the start line until Ian blew the horn and then jogged back to the few of us back at the sign. Was pretty interesting trying to weave our way through all the congestion, but it was more fun passing people than getting passed.
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