Lick Brook & Treman FLT Star Posts

Story

I ran the course again this AM and, after falling FIVE times the last time I ran it, focused on safety this time around. I walked down the entire Lickbrook set of switchbacks and also walked several other downhills to be safe. So I was much slower this time around but did not fall once. Phew.

At the top of Lickbrook there are two new glamping tents. I decided to turn left just before the first tent and went out into the field and ran on the edge of the woods for about 200 yards. There is a good marker for where to go back into the woods. The first time I ran it I stayed in the woods the whole way so I suspect someone re-routed the red trail.

Shop Local

I stopped at Home Depot on the way home for an aerator for our faucet. Very efficient use of my time as I was just driving past.

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Story

I loved this run. It was great to revisit parts of the CT50 and see how different they looked with all the extra foliage, as well as discover some new-to-me sections of the FLT. So many sections were totally runnable, and it was great to open up and just fly. But I completed a 50K training run on Monday, and so I was happy to power hike the steepest sections and switchbacks. According to Strava, I managed to PR a couple of segments since I last ran here, so I guess I was still moving well enough for the most part!

I passed two other runners on both the Treman and Lick Brook sides who were hiking the course. One of the women greeted me with “Are you covering the ground?” That’s when I realized we were all doing the same thing! Twice we passed and greeted each other, but twice I forgot to ask their names. :woman_facepalming:

Shop Local

I stopped by Ithaca Brewing Company and picked up a 4-pack of limited release hazy IPA for my husband (I’ll just call him Jeff from now on). I bought myself a logo pint glass and a sticker. Enjoyed fresh squeezed lime, a shot of Tito’s vodka, and seltzer in that new glass when I arrived home.




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Story

Finally tackled the course that I have been anxious about. The Treman side was wonderful. Lick Brook not so much. But it’s done and I rewarded myself with a stream cool down!

Shop Local

We stopped at Subway to refuel and pick up subs for the kids since we were longer than expected!

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Story

This is a beautiful and pretty darn tough course! I’m psyched to have accomplished it and am now done with the Challenge! I did the course as directed, the Treman side first. I think that was wise as I am quite familiar with the Lick Brook side and although that saves the steepest for later in the run, I was really glad to be feeling a bit fresher for the demands of the Treman side, the latter portions of which I found quite challenging and were new to me. I really enjoyed the return from the turnaround, especially realizing that there was a good bit more downhill than I’d anticipated. Lick Brook switchbacks were super slow for me. I love the Thayer section and started to liven up by that point.

I biked to and from the course, making seven of the 10 courses for which I did that. It only required 10 miles round trip but I had to climb West Hill on the return and with all the evening traffic I opted for my favorite ascent up Coy Glen to Westhaven. Quite a climb and I was super slow, almost like slow motion! A smarter person would have stopped at Ithaca Beer and had their partner pick them up!

Shop Local

With my water bottles empty, I hightailed it directly to Eddydale Farms and bought the best thing I could find in their cooler, a strawberry-kiwi Snapple. Ice cold and tasted great! The folks let me fill my water bottles in their kitchen area, which was super nice, and I drank the better part of a bottle immediately. Wished that I could have carried some corn home!

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Story

I suspect this is the first of many such posts today had a beautiful run on the trail perfect morning for it. Managed to accomplish all my goals:

  1. didn’t fall (though I came close twice - branches catching my shoes)
  2. didn’t get lost (was listening to Run-Go but it was usually behind me so it was more for company than directions)
  3. ran or power-walked whole way, which given thus was the longest effort in almost a year and less than 48 hours from my previous longest effort in almost a year, made me happy
    4 and i did it in the window i had to do it in

Saw 5 others on their way out (hi, Banyon!) on the Treman side as i was coming in - including one who was also using Run-Go so our meeting at the turn on/off Butterfall Creek Rd was noisy … our Run-Gos weren’t quite in sync. Was impressed at number of hikers out in LickBrook side only two of which were challengers (@tonya-engst and @gumbywhale)

All in all a nice way to cap a challenge!

Shop Local

on the way home, stopped by Ithaca Pet Supply to load up on food and treats for my favorite training partner …

Story

Until a week or so ago, I had little confidence that this course would be possible for me, and I felt some trepidation when I met @gumbywhale shortly before 8am this morning for this epic effort. Happily it was cool - high 50s. I wore a long sleeve light wool top over my tank top and @gumbywhale had on long sleeves and mittens!

We walked the Lick Brook side, relying on RunGo and my memory from one of the group runs. We saw quite a few Challenge runners! We stopped to chat with some of them, but others were running intently and we just said “hi” and encouraged them.

Back at the cars, I changed shoes and socks for more serious trail running gear, drank some yogurt/fruit smoothie, and drank some water. We also chatted with @caitlin-loehr who had finished running and was hanging out waiting for @Jamie to finish. So far, it was a pleasant morning walk in the woods - scenic if a little dry, but not epic.

We ran most of the way up the Treman side. We stopped to say hi to @Jamie_Love. Once we crossed Woodard Road, we were on new territory for me. I thought the woods up there was especially lovely.

@adamengst had promised me that the turnaround sign would be easy to find, but if I got to a building, I had gone too far. We ran and ran, and — all the sudden — there was the sign. We took a few pics and turned around.

This is where it got tough. I thought it would be easier on the way back since it is more downhill, but my quads started to run out of “go.” By the time we were 2 miles from the finish, I was basically only walking. I reminded myself that it was supposed to be a challenge and realistically the only way to get back to my car was to finish. So, I plugged away at it, and very much enjoyed the long conversation with @gumbywhale - 5 hours and 20 minutes of running is long enough to cover a lot of conversational ground.

We made it back to the car about a quarter mile past the point where I felt that it was really, really time to stop walking. I had to sing to myself on the drive home to stay awake. When I got in the house, I just went to the closest carpeted floor and lay down for about 15 minutes. @adamengst fed me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and then I took a hot shower where I cried because it was so hard and I cried because I was so happy that I was able to do all the courses. Then it was time for the Shop Local part of the day…

Shop Local

@adamengst and I went to the group run in Lansing, but instead of running, we were Team Ice Cream. We walked the very short distance to Scoops and got single scoops of tasty ice cream. I got coffee topped with peanuts.

We then met up with our fellow runners at Salt Point Brewery and hung out for quite a while drinking and eating pizza.

It was then time for Team Ice Cream again. A bunch of us went to Scoops and this time I got a sundae. We hung out for a while and there was a lovely sunset.

It may be a day or two before I can walk normally, but I think I will recover OK. I am so pleased that I was able to finish all ten Challenge courses this summer!

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Amazing, congratulations @tonya-engst !!!

Story

I was really worried about this run. After training for weeks I got Covid right before I had planned to do the course with the group on July 23rd. It took me a few weeks to recover and even short runs made me feel bad so it’s only been about two weeks that I’ve been able to run again (and short three milers mostly). However, I couldn’t stand to be just one course short of completing the challenge so figured I’d give it a try and just take my time. Luckily, my fabulous sister in law @Iris gave me a good pep talk and lent me her hydration vest before I headed out this afternoon. Then I ran into @Lloyd who had just finished the course as I was starting. He gave me a heads up about a detour on the Treman course that I really appreciated.

The lick brook side I was familiar with so that wasn’t a huge surprise - and yet I still somehow managed to go off course onto sand bank road at one point :woman_facepalming:t2: Lots of tourists hiking and I got stopped a few times by people asking where the big falls were (I told them sorry, there’s been a bit of a drought this summer!).

Took a break to refill my water at the car and text my husband that I was still breathing and no need to send out the search party just yet. And then I was off…

The Treman side was new to me, and what a beast! Didn’t see many people on that part and also managed to get off course a few times (I tend to be navigationally challenged). Run go says I covered 14.3 miles in total- yikes. But I walked or hiked when I needed to and reminded myself that I am lucky to be able to do this at all- even if a tad slower and a lot more painfully than I had planned :slight_smile:

All in all, I feel pretty darn good about having completed all 10 courses! It was really fun to meet new people, push myself and get to try so many beautiful courses right here where we live. Again, so lucky!


Afterwards I enjoyed a few minutes dipping my toes in the creek to cool off


Shop Local

My husband and kids met me afterwards and we headed over to Ithaca Beer for pizza and an everyday Haze. I’m a vegetarian but I ate most of a pepperoni pizza!

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Jodi needed a running buddy this morning for her final challenge course, and I was the best she could do. We didn’t get as early as a start as we wanted to (I just didn’t want to get up this morning), so we were not on the ground until after 9am. Last week this time, I admittedly didn’t think she had even the slightest chance of getting the challenge done She still had so many left to finish and so little time to do it. Couple that with it requiring far more miles than she had ever covered in a single week and it just seemed impossible. Then, as of Friday afternoon, she only had this one. “Only”!
We elected to start the Treman side first, and it stayed cool inside the trees for most of this run.

I used the time to experiment with trekking poles, different footing techniques, and some new stretching strategies. I have a very long race coming up next weekend and the loss of fitness over the past two months as a result of injury has me in a heavy heap of worry. I found that If I stop for one minute every hour and stretch out my groin, calves, hamstrings, and shins, that I seem to be able to stop the debilitating cramps I keep getting. We’ll see if that continues to work over longer distances.

At the first turnaround, the smiles were still pretty genuine. We were both feeling fine and ready to put it into reverse. Jodi was amused to discover that a few of the miles she covered on this side were some she had already run on a trail race a couple months back.

After a brief stop at the vehicular aid station, we made our way up Lickbrook. We got to the train bridge and Jodi said “I’m not running over that”. Then she promptly ran across it.

I chose to run up the stair portion as fast as I could to get a decent hill climb in. 153 Steps in total on the blue section of this climb. Counted them up and then re-counted on the way back down for good measure. Here Jodi is approaching the last set of steps on her way up. At this point, much of her sense of humor had withered and she questioned why anyone would willingly subject themselves to this.

As we neared the turn around sign going through the last stretch of forest, we ran into these right smack dab on top of the trail. These were not there the last time I had run this. Why would anyone put a camp site literally right on the trail. It was awkward.

Regardless, we pushed ahead and made it to the final turn around sign. She squeezed out a smile on this one, but the sincerity might not have been there this time. At any rate, it was all down hill from here and simply making it back to the car meant a challenge completion. So on we pushed.

The downhill went smooth. We saw a few challengers along the way. This time I think the smile was in fact genuine and fueled by relief and a sense of accomplishment.

Afterwards, we skipped up the road just a bit to visit the Ithaca brewery for some burgers, flights, and bacon nibs.

As often happens when I am drinking beer and loading up on food, I came up with the idea that we should head over to east hill and run that course so that I could seal the deal on my second challenge completion. Jodi, as usual, accommodated my ill advised plans and off we went in search of more punishment in hotter temps.

I can’t say enough about her dedication in getting this done. She ended up with 48 miles this week, and is easily more than double her previous mileage record. She went a total of 18 miles today (running half of east hill as well), also easily eclipsing her longest of 13.1 in the few Half-Marathon’s she has been in. She did the vast majority of these alone and completely killed it after being injured herself and having to start almost from scratch to regain her fitness. I had hoped we would get to run all of the courses together, but I will have to settle for running with her on her first, second, and last. Our spontaneous run on Taughannock after Forest Frolic a couple weeks ago seemed to re-light the fire and give her the confidence that it would be possible to complete the final eight.

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Congrats @Jmclemons !! I think I did see you out there on Lick Brook after all. I can’t believe you guys went and ran more after that. Nice work!

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That pic of @Jmclemons on the railroad bridge is great! Congrats to her, she crushed this last week!

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Great job!!! I’m glad you were able to finish. Maybe next year we’ll run together. :blush: Congratulations!!

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Thank you! I thought maybe that was you. Congratulations on your challenge completion.

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Thank you!! And thank you for being such a great cheerleader.

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Congratulations, @Jmclemons! Well done!

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