Completions keep rolling in, @Challengers, including a 10-course Personal Challenge from Anne Shakespeare, one of our role model 70-year-olds, and Classic Challenge finishes from Sarah Caddy and Gretchen Gilbert. I am inordinately amused that three of our five Sarahs finished in quick succession this month. 43 finishers and counting!
Only one change appears at the top of the leaderboard this week, but it might be an important one. Patrick Milano has moved into third place in Most Points for men, bumping Chris Petroff into fourth for now. In the team competition, the @Super-60s-70s continue to just crush all the other age groups with an unbeatable combination of Age Grade points and Most Runs points.
Last year, Patrick and Chris dueled it out until the very last day, and both still have one more course to do, plus some soft times to address on existing courses. The dark horse is once again 19-year-old Ryan Jacobsen, currently in sixth place with 765 points, also with one more course to run and several courses where he can run much faster. Ryan was third last year, and he might be looking to improve on that.
It has been a slightly slow week in terms of miles so far, but we still cracked the 16,000-mile mark. If we keep up this pace, we should be able to break 20,000 miles by November 15.
Other notes:
- South Hill Rec Way group run Saturday: Although we also have a PGXE race on Sunday, Heather Cobb is organizing a group run on the South Hill Rec Way on Saturday morning. It is nominally a 30-minute out-and-back, but I imagine you could also use it as an excuse to run either the South Hill Rec Way or Six Mile Creek courses. The latter one might be pretty overgrown.
- Treman Trailipop course change: It has been a tough week for the trails. The Treman Trailipop course has some trails closed for hunting season—thanks to Heather Cobb and Pete Kresock for explaining. For now, I think we have to use the road reroute. I can’t tell whether Pete’s suggestion is a good idea. Perhaps someone could run that section and tell me if it’s possible. I seem to remember it being problematic in the past. This also affects the Lick Brook and Treman FLT course.
- Treman Marina trail closed: Erosion on the trail around Treman Marina affects the Lakefront Loops 5K and Inlet Shores courses. Just extend those courses at the end to get the right distance.
- Photos of the week: Lots of happy runners! Gretchen Gilbert celebrated finishing her challenge at Ludlowville Loop, and Tonya Engst celebrated her 59th birthday with Rebecca Lambert at Taughannock Rim and Falls in a numerically perfect 59:59.
Until next week, keep covering the ground!
