Our first week of the 2025 FLRC Challenge is nearly done, and we’re off to a great start. 101 people have signed up so far, and 60 people have recorded at least one run already. I’d love to see us break 200 runners this year.
If you haven’t registered yet, the courses are waiting for you. Sign up soon to get in on the shirt order (with tank tops this year!), which goes in on May 7 and will be delivered in June. For those already participating, recruit your friends—the more runners who join, the more community we can build (and the larger the running store gift certificate awards and club donation to the Cornell Botanic Gardens will be at the end). Shy people can hide their times, the Personal Challenge remains available for anyone who can’t or shouldn’t run all ten courses, and there’s a financial aid option for those who wouldn’t be able to afford to participate otherwise.
For those new to the Challenge, you need to download the Webscorer app and sign in with the account you created when you registered for the Challenge. Full instructions are here, and feel free to ask me or a friend who has done it before if you have questions. Don’t worry if the iPhone version of Webscorer quits when you submit an edited time. The time posts correctly, and you can restart the app afterward. Webscorer’s developers proactively contacted me about the bug and are working on a fix.
Although we have RunGo directions for every course, RunGo isn’t perfect (particularly when loops intersect), so it’s always a good idea to review the map and turn-by-turn directions beforehand. Each course page contains the necessary links.
In the first few years, we had some competition to see who would finish the Challenge first. Last year, Pete Kresock put it out of reach, instantly running all ten courses on the first day for an FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge completion. Pete was once again our first finisher, although it took him five days. Four more folks have five completions—not bad for a week of running.
Last year’s introduction of the Tough Trail Challenge and Tough Tarmac Challenge was popular, and we already have two Tough Trail completions from Dennis Stadelman and Pete Kresock.
Along with the leaderboard, check out the Star Posts for each course in the FLRC Challenge category . Your fellow Challengers are posting about their runs, complete with photos, and the posts are a great way to get to know people a bit before you meet them on a group run. My photo of the week is a family selfie of Michelle, Simon, and Ian Woods on Lakefront Loops.
And I couldn’t help giggling at Ruth Sproul’s caption on this Mulholland Waterfalls shot:
enjoying the dam view
Finally, don’t miss Sunday’s group run on the Lakefront Loops course.
