It has been an exciting week, as not one, not two, but three people completed the FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge. On Saturday, Karen Ingall and her pacer Bob Talda started with Pseudo Skunk Cabbage in the morning, then did all the trail courses (some in the rain!) before completing the in-town paved courses at the end. They finished in 17:42:35 of running time, with 22:36:49 of elapsed time, well under the 24-hour limit.
Then, in glorious weather on Wednesday, Dennis Stadelman opted to start at 12:30 AM, knocking off the flatter and easier courses first and then hitting Pseudo Skunk Cabbage as the sun came up. Then he buckled down and ran the trail courses while there was light and ended with the Black Diamond Trail. His running time was 18:16:04, and his total elapsed time was 23:10:43. Congratulations to Karen, Bob, and Dennis, and they’ll all be receiving custom FLRC Challenge course marker signs commemorating their achievements.
Obviously, Dennis also completed the overall FLRC Challenge in one day (Karen and Bob had done all the course earlier), but Amanda King (in the red, below) used the Forest Frolic group run to finish off her tenth course. Tristan Lambert ran Forest Frolic the next day to complete his FLRC Challenge, and Mark Perry registered a Pseudo Skunk Cabbage for his final course. Kudos all around!
There are still 19 people with only one or two courses left to go, but for those of you who have more than that, I’d encourage you to start thinking about when you’ll run your final courses. Heather Cobb is planning group runs on the Thom B course on October 30th and the Pseudo Skunk Cabbage course on November 13th, so pencil those in on your calendar if you need those courses.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, 55-year-old Caitlin Loehr, who has mostly been logging a lot of miles in the Cornell Botanic Gardens, ran South Hill Rec Way in an astonishing time of 49:24, the third-fastest time for women on that course and only 3 seconds behind 29-year-old Gabrielle Woo in second. Caitlin’s time was good for a 79.49% age grade, which catapulted her back into the lead for overall Age Grade ahead of Adam Pacheck.
Finally, I plan to place the FLRC Challenge quarter-zip shirt order on October 25th, now that the weather is heading in the direction where long sleeves would be welcome. If you didn’t order one when you signed up, you can still purchase one from the FLRC online store before the 25th. Or, if you want to change your size preference, let me know soon!
Until next week…