Happy Friday, @Challengers! We’re now up to 166 people participating in the Challenge, with 103 having recorded a run on the leaderboard and over 2,200 miles completed so far. The FH Fox course is leading in miles run, but Duck Trails is like candy—people can’t stop at one—so it has the most runs.
A lot of this week’s 655 miles came from Rebecca Lambert and Dirk Swart, our fourth and fifth finishers. Bbonus points to Dirk for documenting why Run Rabbit Run is so named—Scott Dawson gets credit for that brainstorm. Patrick Milano, Tatyana Brown, and Tristan Lambert may finish by next week since they need only one or two courses each.
The top of the leaderboard is starting to settle down, and it will be interesting to see how it changes over time. The Most Points categories currently reflect who has finished the most courses, though Patrick Milano never relinquished his early lead last year. My favorite for Most Points for women is currently Nora McIver-Sheridan, since neither Liz Hartman nor Jilene Demont, her competition from last year, has yet signed up, and Nora has the fastest times on the four courses she’s run so far. Melissa Plank is making a run for the Community Stars competition by sharing lots of run reports, whereas Ruth Sproul, Caitlin Loehr, and Jamie Loehr, last year’s top three, have been less prolific posters this year.
In administrative news, I have placed the order for this year’s purple FLRC Challenge shirts (and yes, I ordered some extras for those who change their mind about wanting one). Also, FLRC’s merchandise manager, Jamie Slater, will be bagging up the orders of last year’s green FLRC Challenge shirts for pickup at the running store and alerting those who ordered them soon.
Smiling face photos of the week go to Gerald McKinley in front of the lovely wetlands of Lindsay-Parsons and two sets of Valley Views runners: Hope Towle and Jessica Daily resplendent in Skunk shirts, and Jenna Rice, Kim Jackson, and Julie Barclay.
There’s no group run this weekend or next, but women can still sign up for the Women’s Distance Festival 5K this Sunday (it qualifies for a Lakefront Loops 5K submission), and everyone is welcome at the Thom B Trail Runs on May 19. See you at the finish lines.
Until next week, keep challenging yourself!
