A post was split to a new topic: Ways of identifying fellow Challengers?
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I signed Ben (my partner) up for the Twilight 5k race and now he needs to train 
so today I dragged him to Taughannock to run the (much harder) challenge course. For someone who does not run frequently he did a great job! Today was another perfect day for a run and those stunning views of the falls and the lake totally make it up for the tough uphill parts.
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Lots of shopping today! We stopped at Purity for burgers and fries, and at the Finger Lakes Running store for some new running gear. Both Ben and I got new shoes. I’ve been running the trails with my Nike Zoom Vaporfly which is a bit ridiculous. I do more road running but I wanted a better pair of shoes that could work for some light trail running as well so I got a new pair of Brooks Ghost. I also got some gels because tomorrow I want to tackle the dreaded Lick Brook & Treman FLT course so I figured I needed some nutrition. We’ll see how it goes! 
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And … the base/gorge trail is open again! It took them part of today to finish cleaning it up, but now it’s all ready for a weekend of fun. @amy-dawson and I hit this after work today, a fine way to kick off the weekend. Kind of nice to have the trails mostly empty after the busy-ness of Cornell grad and Memorial Day crowds!
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We shopped local, but not what you think. After a quick clean-up, we headed to Groton for a cake delivery. Why not stop somewhere on the way home? It was the wrong time of day when we did the group run at Lansing, but today it was the RIGHT time of day for Salt Point Brewing. We had a delicious duo of Lansing Fog NEIPAs, paired with a simple margherita pizza and caesar salad.
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After 3 days of the trail being closed, and me being too busy to actually run during those 3 days, my legs weren’t too exhausted. Despite telling Scott I was going to run this slow because I was tired (which I was), from the first step my goal was a PR. I have been motivating my students via athletic stories lately and the story I spun for myself while running was that I had the best run ever and it was blazing fast. I refused to look at my watch and just ran by feel. 3/4 of the way through, I encountered police wandering the area and kind of freaked out a bit. I said, “that doesn’t look good” as I ran by them. I attempted to run fast on the downhills (I’m petrified of downhills) and I tried to run most of the time (I succeeded in this - just walked all stairs). It was good. I got the PR but didn’t beat @teressa.naylor. We have been motivating each other to try harder lately - it’s a fun little push to have some friendly competition in my life and it’s making us both stronger. A super fun run to end the week.
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After the run, I had to deliver a wedding cake to Groton. @scottpdawson drove while I babysat the cake in the backseat. Our reward for running and delivering the cake safely was to check out Salt Point Brewing. We joked that if the Lansing Center Trail wasn’t so muddy we’d log a stroll on it for some miles, but instead we just enjoyed a beer and some pizza and salad before heading home by way of scenic lake road choices.
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Took Dior in the trailer (she actually ran most of the way out and back, riding only when there were other dogs or bikers!) and biked out to Taughannock via the BDT. We parked at the overlook and ran the challenge course. It was a beautiful day to be outside, glorious, sunny, breezy. The park was quiet as it was fairly early. Boy that last uphill is a butt kicker!
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And when I saw your photo before reading, I was thinking, “She biked the Taughannock course? Holy cow!” But biking to the course and then running, all with your dog, who could apparently hitch rides whenever she wanted—now that’s a great story.
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Taughannock was a giant puddle this morning after all the rain last night. I parked at the lower lot, figured I’d do the Gorge Trail first as a flat/easy warmup, then up and around clockwise. I was still pretty sore from Tuesday, so I decided after 1/4 mile to call this a recovery run. Pretty uneventful on the South Rim Trail. I saw a pair of Challengers around mile 4 at the upper lot getting ready to start, but I was in the middle of throwing down a 6:58 final mile, so I couldn’t stop to chat. So much for recovery run!
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Fresh ingredients for a turkey BLT (or 2)
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I headed out to this course on Friday afternoon to start the weekend. Though I’ve been in Ithaca for a year now, I had never been to the upper/rim part of the park and only been to the lower trail during the PGXC Taughannock race.
Despite the beautiful clear weather, surprisingly few people were there! I saw one couple on the way in who had just come from Buffalo for Gorges (good luck!!) and then maybe only 5 other groups, even on the flatter trail at the bottom of the gorge. Instead the chipmunks, which let me get amazingly close, kept me company.
My original plan was to mostly hike because I’m still coming back from having a very nasty disease. But once I ran up the first hill, I was hooked and ran almost the entire way except the stairs and the steepest part of the final mile.
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I headed to the U-Pick garden at Stick & Stone Farm in Trumansburg and picked these herbs including lemon balm, mint, chives and more! I forgot my bag and had to carry them in my shirt:
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Beautiful morning for a gorge run! SO MUCH SPONGY MOTH CATERPILLAR POOP. Glad I wore my visor, but I wish I had a face mask. Be careful out there, kids.
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Followed up my run with a bronx bagel and cold brew coffee from CTB on the commons - the only reason I run is for the post-run breakfast sandwich.
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we ran the Taughannock course again, but first we took a little walk along the lake to scope it out. I snapped a couple pics while Anne talked to a fisherman and extracted all his fishing secrets -he’s fishing for lake trout and salmon, using sawbellies (a landlocked form of an alewife) for bait. He casts far out, where the water is deep. So his bait is 60-80 ft down, where the big fish like to hang out.
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after the run we went into T’burg to the Main Street Market and sat at one of their outdoor tables and ate the most delicious tacos !! and watched the world go by
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You can catch salmon in Cayuga Lake? I had no idea…
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Even though I’ve not been feeling my strongest (tight hamstrings, vacation, illness in the house…), I decided I needed to give Taughannock an attempt at a faster run. It was definitely a challenge to pick this run over blueberry picking which opens today at Hall’s Hill but I figured I would take tomorrow off to get an early start in the blueberry patch. Since I am leading (go figure?) the trail runners for the Finger Lakes Trail Club County Hike #4 on Saturday, 11.4 miles, I figured it was best to run Taughannock today and rest tomorrow by picking blueberries. On Sunday I will head out of town for another week and who knows what the start of August will bring.
Being a master at delayed gratification, my strategy was to start at the opening to the waterfall trail and head up the North Rim stairs first. This way I got the stairs/big hill over with and I got to finish fast on the slight down of the Fall’s trail. Conditions were not ideal as it was very humid but luckily not too hot and I even got sprinkled on a few times. The trail is in excellent condition and I probably didn’t need the bug spray I had applied.
I treated myself to a cool down walk out the Falls, since I didn’t allow myself time to few it on the actual run. Not much water. I wonder if we are in an official drought yet?
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Next I headed to Greenstar where I treated myself again, this time to a Green Goddess smoothly before doing a big shop.
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For some reason I’d been dreading this course it’s the farthest from home and also the hills!
Arrived in parking lot around 730 nice cool morning. Sten pulled in the parking area right behind me we took one quick glance at each other and said “finger lakes challenge”. Yes! Sten took off and we wished each other well. I had never been to the upper falls overlook so that was a nice item to add to my Ithaca sights! The run felt pretty good, I hiked the stairs and a few power hike breaks on the up hill back to the finish.
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Stopped at Ithaca Bakery for a Cappuccino and a San Diego Bagel which I had never had it it’s cream cheese with raspberry jalapeno jam …yummy!
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Today marks my first course of the Challenge, starting just about as late in the game this year as last! What fun it just was to read all the inspiring posts in this topic. Awesome folks producing great activity! I biked to and from the trail today in order to get some miles in the saddle and add some bonus points since I’m likely to do just a one-and-done of the courses. Might do that for the closer courses, not so sure about biking to and from Long Loomis and Jim Schug. Taughannock’s trails were great today although not much water. I locked my bike at the junction of the BDT and the Rim Trail, swapped out my shoes and carried one of my water bottles, which I sorely needed in today’s heat. I took the stairs (up) super slowly and needed to refill my water bottle at the Overlook (fountain/spigot to the right of the Overlook viewing area). I’d like to say I charged to the finish but it was more of a slog. Kept a low gear/high cadence on the ride home with a welcome breeze even if it was a headwind! Pictures next time?
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We ran Taughannock again, parked at the bottom and first walked over to the lake shore to admire it. Of course the lake looks clean and beautiful as always, though there is signage everywhere warning of HABS and no swimming. Sigh. We ran the flattish part into the falls first, then around the rim trail.
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The Inn At Taughannock has this very cute food truck that I really wanted to check out, but alas it is only open on weekends. So I went back into Ithaca to Greenstar and bought more kale to make myself a nice healthy kale salad.
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BEE CAREFUL!!!
As I was marching/stomping up the South Rim stairs, I got stung on the leg (~ 2 miles into my run), right where the end of my compression shorts sit on my thigh. I don’t know if it was bad luck or the stinging beast was angry that I was stomping on/around his home on a Sunday morning.
I crossed paths with @amy-dawson on the North Rim Trail. I guess we should have coordinated our runs a little better?
I tried to get an early start, but it already felt humid. I was thankful for the shade.
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I decided to brave the Grassroots crowd (hoping it would be relatively at that time of day and it was) to stop at Shur Save for a chocolate milk and a corn ice pack. FYI the owner (?) of Shur Save is an amazing supporter of our community.
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When you’re married to another runner for 24 years, it’s only natural to run and hike 24 miles to mark the occasion, right? @amy-dawson and I both have blog posts coming your way … this was a super fun way to celebrate the day! Celebrating 24 Years with 24 Miles | Scott Dawson
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We wasted no time shopping local. After a quick shower, we headed straight for Two Goats Brewing to enjoy a pair of X-IPAs and some beef-on-weck sandwiches. The beer, food, and views can’t be beat!
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Scott and I ran/hiked 24 miles on Taughannock Rim and Falls trail today for our 24th wedding anniversary. Here’s my story.
The quick highlights in case you aren’t up for reading!! We ran into @melissa-weiner and Walter who are also celebrating their anniversary and Arthur (he and and Emilie are also celebrating their anniversary) and nabbed a picture of our whole crew!! We ran 3 solo and hiked 2 together and finished in about 7 hours (Scott’s prediction). It was GREAT fun!!
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We enjoyed a stop at Two Goats Brewing after our crazy 24 mile day!!
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We totally should have @SarahG! It was great to see you out there. I’m sorry about your sting though!!