With the nights drawing in and large amounts of trail being temporarily ceded to hunters, it’s time to reflect on a great year of trail running and announce the winners of the 2024 FLRC Trail Circuit!
Whilst the cancellation of Super Frosty Loomis meant that we were down to only 8 eligible races, this year saw 725 runners finish at least one race—an increase of 119 participants from last year’s Circuit! Thanks to everyone who took part in a trail race, and a special thank you to all our fabulous race directors and volunteers for making the races possible.
Before we announce the winners, a quick recap of the scoring: for each FLRC trail race, every runner gets a score determined by dividing the winning time by their time, then multiplying by 100. So the winner gets 100 points, and everyone else receives a score under 100. Ready?
Pebblehead Winners
These rankings are based on each runner’s top three races and are usually won by runners who’ve won or placed high in three races—the Pebblehead winners are our speedsters.
Donna Langerfeld scored 300 points to win the 2024 women’s Pebblehead. Sarah Woodyear was a very close second with 293.04 points, and Diana Hackett came in third with 271 points.
On the men’s side, we had a tie! Two competitors finished on 300 points: Ryan Allen-Parrot and Glenn Seeholzer, the latter improving on his third-place finish in last year’s competition. The tiebreaker is decided by whoever has the largest sum of lead times over second place in each race, taking into account all of their respective wins: this meant that Ryan Allen-Parrot claimed the men’s Pebblehead title, with a total 8:00 lead over the second place finishers in the races he won, compared to Glenn’s 5:47 lead in his winning races. Third place goes to Banyan Love, who was hot on their heels with 298.44 points—what a great contest!
Stonehead Winners
For the Stoneheads, all qualifying races count, and scores are tallied cumulatively. The more races in the Circuit you run, the more points you amass. Stoneheads are our quintessential trail runners, grinding out solid race after solid race.
Sarah Ridenour successfully defended her 2022 and 2023 titles, accumulating 619.69 points in 2024—a huge increase on the 499.74 points that gave her the win last year. Steph Bailey took second place with 518.88 points, and our 2024 women’s Pebblehead champion Donna Langerfeld came in third with 395.02 points.
Ryan Allen-Parrot claimed his second Circuit title of the year, scooping up the men’s Stonehead title with 659.13 points. The battle for second and third place was close, with Banyan Love’s 488.71 points giving him a slim margin over Joel Cisne, who came in third with 455.28 points.
Boulderhead Winner
The Boulderhead rankings use a simpler scoring system—1 mile equals 1 point, regardless of time or placement. The one runner who notches the most overall miles wins.
This year’s Boulderhead title goes to Stephen Jesch, who racked up 112.9 points over 5 FLRC trail races. Another close contest in the runners-up resulted in Ryan Allen-Parrot taking second place with 103.8 points, finishing just over a mile ahead of third place Diana Hackett, whose total was 102.4 points.
Congratulations to all our winners!
Winter Trail Fest Holiday Party!
And now, for a new thing—our Winter Trail Fest Holiday party! To celebrate our Trail Circuit 2024 winners, along with all of those who work so hard to make FLRC trail races a reality, we’re holding an FLRC winter get-together at Liquid State on Thursday, December 12. This is a chance to get together with running friends somewhere warm, dry, and mud-free, so even if you’ve never raced on trails before, why not come along and celebrate the festive season with us?
There’ll be food provided by Silo, and lots of holiday cheer! We’ll also be reviving a club tradition: pot-luck cookies! If you can, please bring a plate of cookies to share around for dessert (with a list of ingredients in case of dietary concerns). Home-made or store-bought—all cookies are good cookies.
Please RSVP via Webscorer by Tuesday, December 3. There’s a limit on the number of folx we can have in the space, so sign up sooner rather than later to be sure of a spot!
Place: Liquid State, 620 West Green Street, Ithaca
Date: Thursday, December 12
Time: 5:00–8:00 pm (food available from 6:00 pm)
Bring:
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Family and friends (just make sure you RSVP for the right number…)
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Cookies! (please make a note of ingredients for dietary purposes)
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Good cheer!
If you have any questions, please message me here on the FLRC forum—and I hope to see you on the 12th!