First run of this year’s Challenge for me and also “leg check” after running the Brooklyn Marathon on April 24… happy to report that the legs are ok and that I did not fall (although I am quite impressed by the people who fell, stood up right away, and kept on running! Such perseverance!). Thanks so much to @kristina.harrisonsav for the ride, to @heathercobb3 for the snacks and to everyone else for the company and for helping me not to get lost!
Really fun group run today! The first few miles of uphill were brutal on my tired legs, but I enjoyed talking with Patrick Boyle along the way. We caught up with @aaron.proujansky1 and @lizhartman mid-course and hung together for the rest of the time, which was great fun. Got to take a finish photo, too!
@amy-dawson and I did an Emoticakes delivery to Seneca Lake after getting cleaned up. Enjoyed a delicious hazy beer at Lucky Hare before heading back home for lunch.
The woods were fantastic today! No bugs, no excessive heat, no excessive cold, minimal mud. Also good company. The hill at the beginning of this run is a big one, but thanks to the Wednesday night winter snowshoe outings, I knew what to expect – walking!
I met @adamengst at Bigsby’s after the run and we picked out gifts for our mothers. I also picked out Mothers Day flowers for myself. Tristan had been giving me the same Mothers Day gift/project since forever - buying annuals and planting them in the window boxes. He’s now in Vancouver getting a PhD and I am so proud of him for moving forward with his life, but this is my first Mother’s Day without him. So, I will carry on the tradition and plant them myself! Here is a photo of the flowers.
Group runs are the best! Thanks for thinking to take a photo!
The Run Go directions are excellent for this course! It makes me so excited for next winter for XC and makes me happy that I will most definitely be able to come here alone if I want to and not get lost. Eventually, I think I may even be able to run it without directions.
I enjoyed running this course mostly with @kristina.harrisonsav today. I’m really having a lot of fun meeting new people on the group runs! I only fell once and got a surface cut on my leg that bled like crazy but was really not that bad.
@scottpdawson and I drove home and cleaned up really quickly, grabbed cupcakes to deliver to Finger Lakes Distillery on Seneca Lake and hit Lucky Hare for a beer. We had planned on ordering food, but they didn’t open until 1 so we just had a hazy beer and looked at the lake.
What a perfect morning for a trail run. I didn’t sleep well last night, so got a much later start than desired, but it worked out because it was still chilly when I arrived…I even switched to my long sleeve, which was a good decision and welcome change from 97 on Saturday. Cool but bright on the trails, with the new leaves blocking most direct sunlight. Ground was mostly dry, with a couples exceptions from yesterday’s downpour.
I find this course much easier to navigate than Thom B, maybe because it’s all yellow blazes in ascending/descending order (I went counterclockwise), or maybe just not as many intersections to take wrong turns at. Hammond Hill is definitely one of my favorite places to run, so I might make my next go a double!
I needed to put down an 11 miler this week, so I figured I’d head back to Hammond Hill and score a pair of Loomis runs. My goal time was 2 hours, which broke down to 10 minute miles plus 5 minutes at the ol’ Yaris aid station.
I did my first lap counter-clockwise again, and promptly went down on a root pretty hard at about 1.1 miles, just past Carson, but I wasn’t going to let that set the tone for the rest of the morning. Saw Jilene blow by me in the opposite direction at about 2.8 miles, en route to a 47 minute finish, and one pair of elderly hikers, but other than that the trails were all mine.
I came in to the aid station pretty hot, given the 2 miles of downhill I was just coming off of, and I wanted to keep that momentum, so I dumped some water on my head, chugged as much Gatorade as I could, grabbed a banana for the road, and back out for round two. 72 seconds, which I soon regretted once I started heading back uphill again – should have given myself another minute or two to chill and rehydrate more. I also hate ripe bananas, but mid-run, can’t waste energy on chewing!
Second lap was fairly uneventful, until I hit the wall a little past 10 miles. Within a few minutes though, my pace had picked up again for the last mile, as the adrenaline from the very fresh bear evidence (definitely not there on the first lap) helped me get back to the car ASAP.
Upon changing back at the car, I noticed a pair of hitchhikers on my shoulder.
All in all, another nice morning on the trails. I ended up 1:55:20, which was 9:55 pace including the aid station, which is right where I want my 50K to be – I just need to do what I did this morning 2 more times back to back…not daunting in the least!
During last year’s Challenge, I lamented to someone (maybe Mickie?) about wanting a shorter trail course to really hammer on my trail running training. I always felt I had to hold myself back on the longer courses so I wouldn’t blow up at the beginning and then death march it in at the end. While Long Loomis isn’t as short as I would like (hint hint maybe a 3 miler next year??), it has just enough ups and downs to really challenge a person.
Coming off of an injury that’s been haunting me since last December, I haven’t been doing much more than power hiking and bombing downhills, so I went out today with the thought of pushing myself to see just how fast I could run it.
After the first mile I said to myself “If I can keep it under 17 minutes miles, thatd be great” which turned into “under 16 minute miles” which turned into “under 15 minute miles” which turned into “break 14 minute miles, c’mon legs, get with the program!” Unfortunately I missed that pace by 2 seconds, but I am still super pleased that my injury didn’t flare up and pleased with my time - I haven’t seen a pace like that on trails ever. I will try another day to see if I can break the elusive 14-minute-mile.
More pictures can be found on my Strava, but here’s one of my favorite parts of the trail. I can’t help but be awestruck every time I run though it and think about how lucky I am to live and run here.
@brian-lazzaro wanted to do Long Loomis instead of Jim Schug for the Wednesday night run, so @Dave_K and @DamianClemons and I joined in, with @tonya-engst and @gumbywhale doing it as well. The forecast was dire, but we convinced ourselves that the main storm was going slightly north. Which it did, but we still got caught in torrential downpour for about 10 minutes from mile 1 to mile 2–it was so dark and raining so hard, I had to keep wiping both sides of my glasses lenses to have a chance at seeing. Then it lightened up, and we had a blast running through the deep puddles the rest of the way around.
Luckily, it was fairly warm at the Dryden Hotel after for pizza, since I hadn’t thought to bring extra shoes and socks, and mine were soaked. Bacon-mushroom pizza for the win, although the chicken-feta had extra feta and no tomato sauce for a change.
In all of my 25 years of living in Ithaca I don’t remember a more wonderful Spring than the one we are having right now. I just love days like today. It was cool, breezy, sunny but not humid and the heavy forest canopy, not eaten by spongy moths, meant a glorious morning for trail running. There were some slippery muddy spots from the rain yesterday but we managed without falling and all things considered I love this course. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get a fast time this morning as this was my third fast run in a week having already significantly improved my time on the Lansing Trail and the East Hill Rec Way/Dryden course. But I was able to pull it off better than expected and hope I didn’t significantly worsen my right hamstring issue. I am looking forward to some nice slow running in the near future.
Here I am $75 happier after a stop at Bigsby Market on the way home. OMG the snap peas and strawberries are delicious! Now out to my garden for more planting.
Was feeling pretty beat from several hard/long runs last week, but still managed to get out the door by 7 for my planned double Loomis.
“Backwards” (CCW) first lap like always – I don’t want to start my 2 hours on the trail with that 1.5mi uphill! Spider webs and caterpillar silk throughout, wiping my face every other minute, but other than that, nice conditions.
Met up with @adamengst for round 2, clockwise this time. Good conversation at the intersection of tech and running kept me distracted from the general achiness. Ended up with both laps being slightly faster than my last double, and considerably easier, effort-wise.
Almost ran negative splits every mile of the 2nd loop, too – if it weren’t for that last hill!
Another lovely morning for a trail run, and a great opportunity for a Top Secret™ chat with @steve-desmond while we loped along Hammond Hill’s scenic trails. I kept RunGo on the entire way to test out a few small tweaks I’ve made in the instructions based on feedback, and I added another couple after getting home.
Went into the Dryden Agway for some organic Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew concentrate and a hose sprayer to see if that will help clear some of the %@!%#$*@ spongy moths out of the oak tree that they’re decimating next to our deck. Fingers crossed that it works better than all the tree wrap suggestions, which have been a complete failure so far.
We were taking a week off from a formal group run due to Father’s Day, but I still wanted to get out in the cool weather, so I made plans with @hubitron to run Long Loomis at Hammond Hill. He wanted a few more miles than that, so he went early to get those in first. When I pulled into the parking lot, there were three other cars besides his, including @kag22’s bright yellow-green SUV (Karen always has the brightest car around). She and Dave Jones and Jim Chely were just meeting for a run there too, so we caught up while waiting for Jay to come back. When he arrived, there was more catching up, since he hadn’t seen them in ages as well, and while that chatting was going on, @Katie_Gannon and @amalia showed up too, making it three independent groups the same time and trails. Clearly, we should have had the group run. 
Katie and Amalia were going to tag along with the others, who knew the trails well, if not the Long Loomis course itself given that they’re not Challenging this year. Hope that worked out!
Jay and I did a canonical Long Loomis, and while we were talking the entire time, so it wasn’t race effort, it was still pretty sprightly, so it was nice to get something faster on the leaderboard. And woo—adding those month buttons at the gets me in the top 3 for Most Points and Age Grade for June, however temporarily. 
@Katie_Gannon and I met for the first time last week at the Lansing Center group run and realized we were both missing Long Loomis. Not having my own car this week, I caught a ride with her to the Hammond Hill trailhead and who did we see but a group of 5 other FLRC runners! I ran most of the way with Dave but @kag22 also hung back to help me out when I fell not one, not two, but three times. Am I less coordinated this year or are the roots bigger, who can know? At any rate thanks for the sportsmanship Karen and Dave!
Whatta day for a trail run! Lots of mountain bikes out. Got a bit of extra mileage in from an “oops” turn early on. Sore ankles but worth it.
My favorite chicken wings anywhere, from Richford Pizza Plus. Yummo
Such a fun run on this course today! I was not expecting to feel so good. Yesterday I ended the day, grumpy, dehydrated, and tired after an afternoon working on my in-laws bathroom after a leak caused extensive damage to the subfloor. Fortunately, my son Colin is a carpenter and he is helping. Working with him is always a treat, but the more we uncover, the more problems we find, so it has been frustrating. In any case, running Long Loomis was the perfect antidote! It was a beautiful cool morning and I found myself feeling strong on the uphills and a little braver than usual on the downhills. Dior kept me company, sometimes racing ahead to chase a chipmunk, but mostly sitting right on my heels. She is small enough to be a coyote meal, so I’m glad she stays close by!
On the way home, I tried to shop at Agway to get a new blade for the grinder I’ll need to cut through bathroom tile today, but alas, it wasn’t open yet.
