What a week! Thanks to temperatures in the 50s and 60s, it was glorious to run in shorts and a T-shirt for the first time all year, and you stepped up with some stellar performances for the FLRC Challenge leaderboard. I’m also pleased to note that we hit 100 participants this week! With the Cornell Botanic Gardens and Waterfront Trail courses now open, it’s a great time to recruit your friends.
Pete Kresock continues to pull away in the Most Miles competition, buoyed by running a Double Pseudo Skunk last Sunday and doing it once again on Wednesday. Heather Cobb notched a pair of Pseudo Skunks too, with the first one on Monday morning during single-digit temperatures—brr! Rich Heffron threw down a smoking 4:40 on the East Hill Rec Way to drop that course’s fastest time by 19 seconds. Rich also ran the second-fastest Pseudo Skunk time so far to take the lead in overall points and top age-grade average. Bill Watson may have lost the fastest spot on the East Hill Rec Way, but he dropped his PR by 2 seconds to 4:57 and now sits firmly atop the Best Average standings with a stunning 4:59 average. Jullien Flynn took over the top point spot for the women after running Pseudo Skunk—her longest run in two years—but just missed Gabrielle Woo’s fastest time by 41 seconds.
In other notable efforts, Deb Bliss put herself and the @Splendid-70s team on the leaderboard with an 8:54 East Hill Rec Way mile, good for a solid 70.60% age grade and a fourth-place team standing. Caitlin Loehr has helped the @Fabulous-50s into a solid third with strong efforts on both courses good for a 71.14% age grade. The large @Thundering-30s team snuck into first place ahead of the small but talented @Terrific-20s-Teens in the team competition this week, with the @Super-60s-70s staying one point ahead of the @Fantastic-40s.
New to the leaderboard this week are Anita Sanchez, Bob Walters, Jason Archbold, Bob Talda, Wei-Kai Lin, CJ Lucas, and Daniel Kalinowski. It’s also great to see so many couples showing up on the leaderboard together, including Amanda & Aaron King, Caitlin & Jamie Loehr, Amanda & Zach Murray, Erika & Matthew Yarrow, and Tonya & Adam Engst.
Apologies if I’ve missed anyone’s first run or notable effort, and please post here if you have a particularly good or amusing run.
That’s it for this week, but with four courses open, you now have twice as many opportunities to challenge yourself!