@Challengers We’re officially down to four weeks left in the 2025 FLRC Challenge, which is plenty of time to run your courses and claim your medal, but you’d better get going. So far, we have 26 finishers, with Rachel Neugarten, Sten Anderson, and Steve Ryan—our oldest finisher at 74—completing their final courses yesterday. With nine people needing just one more course, and another six needing only two more courses, I expect to see the completion list filling up soon.
This week saw some significant changes on the leaderboard, with Bella Burda rocketing into first place for Most Points despite having one more course to run. Luckily, it’s a Sweet 1600, which she can run from Princeton. Nora McIver-Sheridan moved into second, with only North Country Half left to complete, and Caitlin Loehr, now in third, has just Mulholland Waterfalls to run. That could be our final order unless Sarah Woodyear lays down some fast times on her remaining five courses. On the men’s side, Sten Anderson took over third place for Most Points from Brian Harrington. And in the team competition, the @Fabulous-50s continue to pull away, dropping to just 28 points, although the third-place @Fantastic-40s moved closer to the second-place @Super-60s-70s, narrowing last week’s 5-point gap to just 1 point this week.
Stats-wise, it was another slow week due to the heat. We still exceeded 1,500 runs and should close in on 7,500 miles this weekend with the predicted nice weather. Perhaps the cooler temperatures will encourage someone to tackle an Ultra Challenge—so far, only Pete Kresock has completed the 100K Ultra Challenge, and only three people have completed the Tough Trail and Tough Tarmac challenges.
Photo of the week goes to Caitlin Loehr for reminding us that the new facility at the Taughannock end of the Black Diamond Trail is now open, providing a welcome stop for water or a bathroom break.
This weekend is your chance to complete the 9.2-mile Triple Hump course with company as part of Saturday’s group run. Plus, you can swim in our pond and enjoy brunch with bagels, watermelon, chocolate milk, and orange juice afterward. Join us to cover some ground on Saturday, and don’t forget about next Thursday evening’s Forge the Gorge trail race in Moravia.