It’s been a hot week for running, @Challengers, but we’ve still logged about 550 miles, cracking the 7,100-mile mark overall. Equally impressive is the number of people who have completed their Challenges. Molly Doruska ran the Dryden Lake Lollipop just days before leaving for a new job at Clarkson (congrats, but we’ll miss you), Steve Desmond was our first Personal Challenge finisher with 25 courses done, Caitlin Loehr finished her Classic Challenge with a Treman Trailipop (but I’ll bet she keeps logging courses—she’s up to 17 already), and Steve Nathans-Kelly stormed onto the leaderboard with a one-and-done strategy.
Those completions shook up some of the top spots on the leaderboard, with Caitlin Loehr moving past Sarah Woodyear into first for Most Points for women, and Steve Nathans-Kelly pushing Geoff Van Fleet out of the top three in Most Points for men, while 2025 champion Chris Petroff has taken the overall lead. Caitlin and Steve also took over the first and third spots in Age Grade, and 75-year-old Steve Ryan is now in third for Most Courses with 27, just one away from his Personal Challenge goal. And lastly, the @Fantastic-40s weren’t going to let the @Fabulous-50s run away with Team Points, sneaking back into the lead by 1 point.
Notes for the week:
-
Shirts are here! This year’s yellow Challenge shirts are in, and they’re great! We’ve started distributing them, so you’ll see them cropping up more and more frequently, like on Caitlin here. If you ordered one, come to a Tuesday night workout or weekend group run to pick it up; you’re also welcome to contact me and come to my house to get it. When I get some time next week, I’ll load them into the FLRC online store soon for future orders.
-
Good running at Tortoise: Congrats to the 12 people who recorded Tortoise & Hare course times during the race—if you haven’t yet recorded your time, please submit it! The same goes for those sitting on other past efforts—it’s easy to enter times, so get them in.
-
No official group run this weekend: With all our attention focused on Finger Lakes 50s this weekend (some volunteer slots are still open!), we won’t be organizing a group run. However, if you’re looking for company, either join Rachel Neugarten on her Ludlowville Loop on Saturday or post your own group run, like Steve Vanek did for a Monster run-through.
-
Farthest Sweet 1600: With summer travel kicking in, we’ve seen more efforts on the farthest-flung Sweet 1600. Previously, Dennis Stadelman held the record with his run in Auburn, CA, just beating out Steve Ryan’s in Green Lake Park in Seattle. This week, Dennis’s run in Incline Village, NV, was between those two previous efforts in distance, but it looked like Sarah Giesy had taken the lead with a four-lapper in Waldport, OR, because she posted first, but in fact, Keith Eggleston had already run one in Fairbanks, AK, to vault into the lead with a run over 3,000 miles from Ithaca. (These numbers are a little rough; if we get into a close competition, I’ll zero in on the actual tracks rather than asking Claude.)
-
Photos of the Week: Sarah Giesy also gets a nod for her WWDD (“What would Dennis do?” post-run shot eating Oregon Trail ice cream in Oregon. And I love this shot of Laura Taylor after her early Sweet 1600 at Sunset Circuits (before volunteering to help with the throws) under one of our tents with Theo Milano playing behind her and the main registration and timing tent in the background.
Until next week, keep covering the ground!