Friday is here again, @Challengers, and the FLRC Challenge continues to grow. We’re now at 145 participants, with 104 people having logged at least one run. Keep recruiting your friends, family, and running partners—the more, the merrier! Remember, the Personal Challenge ensures everyone can do just what makes sense—7-year-old Simon Woods is back again this year. Contact me to discuss the options. I sent in our first shirt order last week, but new registrants can still pre-order shirts until I decide on a second order cutoff.
Congratulations to Julie Barclay for becoming our fifth finisher this year, meeting the first part of her ambitious goal of completing all the courses in two age groups—she’s 49 now but turns 50 shortly. Remember, double-dipping with age-group awards is totally allowed by the rules! Patrick Milano, Bob Walters, and Tristan Lambert all have only one course left, so they may be claiming their medals this weekend.
Welcome to our teenage speedsters this week! 17-year-old Crosby Woods, who placed second overall the last two years to Adam Pacheck (now living in Boston), has kicked into this year’s Challenge by recording his 1600m races and workouts for Ithaca High School, culminating with an impressive 4:39. He’s joined on the Sweet 1600 leaderboard by teammates Zoli Nadasdy and Andor Nadasdy, both 15, who have run 4:46 and 4:51. I look forward to seeing what they and other local high schoolers can run on the remaining courses this summer.
Our community star posts hosted lots of great photos this week, and I couldn’t decide between these two: this Ellis Hollow Creek Crossings photo by Iris Packman and Lola.
and the start of the epic hike on Dryden Lake Lollipop by Matt Plank, Melissa Plank, Courtney Pure, and friend.
Finally, remember that you can submit any 5K race time for the Lakefront Loops 5K course, which means that even though we don’t have an official FLRC Challenge group run this weekend (but there’s this unofficial one at Lime Hollow), you could score Lakefront Loops points at the Belle Sherman 5K on Saturday or FLRC’s Women’s Distance Festival 5K or the Friends of the Interlaken Public Library 5K, both on Sunday.
Keep those photos coming, folks, and let’s log some miles this week!