We had big fun at the Ithaca Festival Parade last night, and the FLRC Challenge was extremely well represented among the many great FLRC shirts in evidence. Last year’s purple shirts were a fan favorite, and I wore my green one from 2023.
Although we lucked out on the weather on Thursday, the trails remained wet and muddy, with lots of people delaying on Abbott Loop in particular. But not Ruth Sproul, who claimed her medal again this year at age 73! With her help, we got back over 500 miles for the week, pushing us to 700 runs and 3,400 miles total.
With roads being popular, my favorite photos of the week came from Caitlin Loehr and Gretchen Gilbert, who took similar shots on Hump #2 at Triple Hump, but in very different weather.
Speaking of Triple Hump, it’s important to read the course description: “We don’t recommend counting the humps.” Kilian Weinberger made that mistake on his speedy effort (second fastest of the year) out there this week (I heard rumors of a 5K PR going down Ringwood). Here’s his Strava post verbatim (and a ChatGPT explanation, hopefully, of aleph-zero for those of us not versed in set theory):
FLRC triple Hump (“my a$$”)
Not quite what I expected given the name.
Hill #1: “one down, two to go!”
Hill #2: “only one more!”
Hill #3: “Downhill from here!”
Hill #4: “What?! Can’t Adam Engst count?”
Hill #5: “Hey, this was a whopper!”
Hill #6: “Seriously how many more are there?!”
…
Hill #Aleph-zero: “At least they are still countable.”
…
Hill #2^Aleph-zero: “Oh Crap!”But I have to admit, the home stretch felt really good. All in all a great route.
We’re taking this weekend off from group runs because Lucifer’s Crossing is this weekend. Although it’s not an FLRC race, it is part of the FLRC Trail Circuit, and we wouldn’t want to compete with the possibility of Stonehead points.
Until next week, keep maneuvering through the mud!