This is it, @Challengers, the last weekly recap of the year. Thanks to Labor Day, we have three more days left in the Challenge, so schedule your remaining courses before 11:59 PM on Monday night, when Webscorer and the leaderboard will stop accepting entries. Check your athlete page on the leaderboard to make sure all your runs have posted—Abbott Ascent in particular has terrible cell service. Here’s how to repost if need be.
Last week, we were at 47 finishers, but combining a looming deadline with fabulous running weather has radically increased our completion rate, to the point where we’re now at 75 finishers! Congrats to : Matthew Clark, Sarah Von Schrader, Michelle Woods, Kimberly Jackson, Rachel Bezner Kerr, Molly Doruska, Dirk Swart, Verity Platt, Rebecca Lambert, Julie Cooper, Daniela Graffeo, Evelyn Goldwasser, Marie Donnelly, Christopher Petroff, Jamie Loehr, Caitlin Loehr, Bill Begeal, Elizabeth Rechtin, Kaitlyn McGarvey, Columbia Warren, Bob Talda, Iris Packman, Melissa Plank, Ryan Jacobsen, Yamil Molina, Diana Hackett, Matthew Plank, and Julie Barclay.
The week’s runs have made for some significant changes at the top of the leaderboard. Chris Petroff, who only signed up on August 17, has moved into second place in Most Points behind Patrick Milano, and he has the numerical possibility of taking it all. Ryan Jacobsen has also been kicking hard, and he’s now solidly in third place for Most Points. By finishing her final course, Caitlin Loehr claimed her spot at the top of the Age Grade podium for the fifth year in a row, and I can’t see anyone unseating her. Patrick Milano knew he couldn’t beat Caitlin for that, but he ran fast this week and improved his age grade from 63.90% to 65.79%, while Gill Haines-Sharp also improved hers from 63.56% to 64.92%—it’s hard to improve an age grade by that much. Sarah Woodyear is now in fourth for Age Grade, but her spot atop Most Points seems unassailable with a nearly 50-point lead on third place Nora McIver-Sheridan and second-place Bella Burda unable to respond from Princeton. Gill Haines-Sharp has been working hard all year on Most Miles and now has a 103-mile lead on second-place Pete Kresock, with Patrick Milano in third thanks to oodles of Sweet 1600s. I’m not betting against Pete, but 103 miles is still a lot for three days, even for him, and Gill wouldn’t be sitting still. Ruth Sproul remains ensconced at the top of Community Stars by running most things with Anne Shakespeare and posting many great photos, with Gill Haines-Sharp second and Sarah Giesy not too far back in third. And finally, it looks like the @Fabulous-50s are finally going to take the Team Points crown they’ve been denied in each previous year—I don’t think it’s possible for the @Fantastic-40s to turn things around in the last few days.
We also saw our seventh Tough Tarmac Challenge completion of the year, this one from Amalia Skilton during one of her whirlwind visits from Scotland. She ran all five road courses in 6:04:24, taking only 8:42:27 to complete them all. The Tough Trail Challenge and 100K Ultra Challenge weren’t nearly as popular this year, partly due the weather that went from cold, wet, and muddy to stiflingly hot, but now that things have cooled off, there’s plenty of time to lay down another Ultra Challenge completion!
We’ve really been racking up the miles, with both of the last two week over 1,000 miles. Last week’s 1,033.9 miles is the second highest mileage week ever in the Challenge, behind the 1,460-mile week in 2022. That pushed us over 11,000 miles for the year, which is great! Everything else is a bonus after hitting that nice round number. I also note that Black Diamond Cass to Gorge is at 2,050 miles by itself this year, which has been exceeded only by the Lick Brook & Treman FLT course in 2022, with 2,096 miles (not counting the much longer 2021 Challenge)—no other courses in the four-month Challenges have exceed 2,000 miles. If Gill Haines-Sharp runs Black Diamond one more time this weekend, she’ll have completed the Challenge an astonishing 8 times.
Some great photos came from the Sweet 1600 this week, with Marie Donnelly hiking Harry Greene’s Sweetgum 1600 course with her family for her last course.
And then there’s Amalia Skilton with her partner Julia after the Sweet 1600 part of her Tough Tarmac Challenge.
And finally, Iris Packman claimed her medal with a Cape Cod Sweet 1600 at an ornithologically confused school that calls itself the Home of the Falcons while actually being home to ospreys.
And finally, it was great to see Melissa Plank and Matthew Plank both inadvertently sporting last year’s Challenge shirts for Matthew’s final course completion push.
Our bonus FLRC Challenge group run is tomorrow, Saturday, August 30, at 8:30 AM on the Fall Creek Trails course. I know a lot of you have specific courses you need to finish, but if you’re already done, please join us for both the run and the post-run brunch hosted by Jamie Loehr and Caitlin Loehr (RSVP, please!). I’ll have the remaining FLRC Challenge shirts to give out as well, with the rest going down to the running store for pickup later in the weekend.
You’ve all done a great job of covering the ground this year—let’s see how many more can claim their medals by Monday night. Remember, we’ll be handing them out at the FLRC Annual Picnic, and please RSVP soon for that so we can feed you all.