After four successful years and over 62,500 miles covered, the FLRC Challenge is back for 2025 with new courses! Sign up today to join hundreds of other area runners in this huge community game. Will you claim your finisher medal by completing all ten courses between April 19 and September 1? Don’t miss the swag, which adds a deep red to our colorful shirt collection, available this year as T-shirts and tank tops in straight and racerback styles. And yes, if you have an FLRC Challenge lawn sign, it’s time to put it out.
Basics
If you’re new to the FLRC Challenge, here’s how it works. Everyone who runs or walks all ten courses at least once in the next four months will win a new FLRC Challenge medal. This is a true accomplishment—only 53% of last year’s participants claimed their medals. Don’t be intimidated, though. The Challenge is mostly about personal grit, and there is no shame in hiking a course that’s longer or hillier than you want to tackle at a run. Anything that gets you running more, making friends, and exploring the area is a win!
Inclusivity
The Challenge is for everyone. First, if you’re shy, you can hide your times on the leaderboard. (But no one judges, really!) Second, the FLRC Personal Challenge lets those for whom running all ten courses is infeasible work with us to define a custom version of the Challenge. It’s ideal for kids (Pete Kresock’s 4-year-old twins got into it last year, and 8-year-old Simon Woods completed his third Personal Challenge by running 8 courses), those whose mobility limitations preclude trails, or someone just starting to run who shouldn’t attempt a half marathon.
Courses
This year’s courses range from 1 mile to a half marathon on track, road, and trail. They’re spread out around our lovely environs, from the scenic Abbott Loop in the Danby State Forest and the rolling rural roads of Ellis Hollow to the new Cayuga Cliffs trails in Lansing (and a lot in between!). You can keep notching Challenge efforts even while you’re traveling, either by finding a track to record a Sweet 1600 effort or by running a 5K race or parkrun and logging it as a Lakefront Loops 5K effort.
Leaderboard
The FLRC Challenge leaderboard records your runs and lets you see what all your friends have done, with our traditional categories of fastest time, best average time, most miles, and age-group teams. We’ll see if the Fantastic 40s will maintain their team dominance against the perennial runner-up Fabulous 50s and the 2021 champion Thundering 30s! And heaven help us if our local high school and college runners ever manage to organize a strong Terrific 20s & Teens team.
FLRC Forum
We chat about courses and runs in the FLRC Challenge forum, where you’ll also find regular recaps that highlight everyone’s achievements. “Community stars” are back this year, too. Run with others or post a report or picture from your run, and you’ll earn community stars, with prizes for the top ten socialistas.
Prizes
Overall prize winners will receive gift certificates to the Finger Lakes Running Company, the amounts of which are proportional to the number of Challenge participants—47 people shared over $1,500 last year. Notch the most efforts on any one course, and you’ll also take that course’s 12-inch aluminum sign home at the end!
Ultra Challenges
Ultramarathoners have options! The traditional FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge is for the most dedicated ultrarunners. Run all ten courses in 24 hours, and you’ll win a personalized FLRC Challenge course sign to commemorate your impressive achievement. We’re also continuing last year’s Tough Trail and Tough Tarmac Challenges, which have you tackle half the courses in a 12-hour span. Last year, 3 people completed the 100K Ultra Challenge, 6 conquered the Tough Tarmac Challenge, and 11 claimed a small sign for the Tough Trail Challenge—will you be one of them this year?
Kickoff Group Run
Opening day is this Saturday, so register soon to be ready on April 19 for the kickoff group run at 8:30 AM on one of our new courses to be announced later this week. We’ll be hosting group runs on FLRC Challenge courses throughout the spring and summer, and the award ceremony will take place at the FLRC annual picnic on September 18 (so pencil it onto your calendar now).
Challenge yourself to run with us!