It’s been a tough week for running between thunderstorms on Monday and Tuesday and poor air quality later in the week, but that didn’t stop three more @Challengers from claiming their medals. Congrats to Ballard Smith and Amalia Skilton, who finished their tenth courses over the weekend, and to Columbia Warren, who went out in style by running a fast 5:46 Sweet 1600 at Tuesday night’s rain-delayed track meet while wearing his new FLRC Challenge shirt.
That effort put Columbia in sixth place for the Sweet 1600 and moved him into second in Most Points for men. The other notable leaderboard change is Bob Walters climbing into third place for Most Miles, supplanting Jamie Loehr and setting his sights on Patrick Milano.
Photo of the week goes to Sarah Ridenour, who took advantage of a holiday cruise to Alaska to generate a spirograph Sweet 1600 by running around the track on the cruise ship while it was moving. It’s not the most distance Sweet 1600, given all the ones Jean-Luc Jannink ran in Europe, but Sarah also logged a stand-in 5K for the Lakefront Loops 5K at a parkrun in Vancouver before the cruise. Has anyone run a 5K for the Challenge that’s more than 2255 miles away as the crow flies?
Bonus photos come from Pete Kresock, whose twins spotted the Black Diamond Park to Park sign on a hike at Taughannock and insisted on a picture with it.
And from Ruth Sproul, who was feeling sluggish on one of her runs this week and then found this fine fellow at the end.
Happily, it’s looking like the air quality will improve this weekend, and tomorrow’s group run previewing the Forest Frolic course is still on for 8:30 AM.
We have four people with just one course left and a lot with only two remaining. So who’s going to finish the Challenge this weekend?