@Challengers, there has been interest in a roughly 50K trail challenge that’s less intimidating than the FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge, and a few people have spoken up about a road version as well. I’m game for adding those to provide another goal for those working their way up ultra distances, but only if enough people will really do them. So let’s see how many people are interested. In each case, the rule would be that you would have to complete all the specified courses within 12 hours of starting, which includes driving time between courses.
- I would attempt a trail challenge
- I would attempt a road challenge
- I would attempt both, separately
Now, as for names. Although they would probably orbit around the 50K distance, I’m leaning away from putting 50K in the name because I can’t guarantee that the distances will be sufficiently close to that in future years. It’s hard enough to come up with courses that meet the overall distance requirements, progression, geographic diversity, and surface diversity. Other naming considerations include making them easy to abbreviate in everyday speech (much like “FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge” shortens to “Ultra Challenge”), making sure they don’t sound harder than the Ultra Challenge, and if we have both, making these sound related. Keeping the suggestions already made in mind, I’m strongly thinking about:
- The FLRC Tough Trail Challenge
- The FLRC Tough Tarmac Challenge
If we do these additional challenges, I’ll work with Steve Desmond to build them (and the Ultra Challenge) into the leaderboard so it tracks everything automatically. And I’ll keep pondering appropriate keepsake awards.
Vote in the survey above if you’re interested in attempting one of these challenges! (You do have to log in to the FLRC forum to vote.)