Week #6 Recap

First off, group runs are back, with an FLRC Challenge focus! Thanks to FLRC board member Heather Cobb for hosting this week’s run on the Waterfront Trail course on Saturday at 8:30 AM. You must either be registered for the FLRC Challenge or sign a separate waiver.

Winter returned briefly this week, reducing overall weekly mileage a bit. Before the mercury dropped, we saw some stellar efforts. Kudos to Bob Swizdor and Sam Lagasse, who both made good on my dare from last week and put together three courses in a single run. Sam combined the East Hill Rec Way, Cornell Botanic Gardens, and Waterfront Trail in a 20-mile run, whereas Bob put together an even more impressive triple on the Black Diamond Trail, Waterfront Trail, and Cornell Botanic Gardens. Now that we’ve broken the triple barrier, will anyone be able to complete a quad? I’m sure you can see where this is going—watch the FLRC Challenge forum for an announcement soon.

The week wasn’t just about distance. On the East Hill Rec Way this week, Liz Hartman raced to the top of the leaderboard with a 5:49 mile that bested Jullien Flynn’s Day #1 best of 5:58. On the South Hill Rec Way, Aaron King laid down a 45:06 on the South Hill Rec Way today to secure a top ranking there and jump into the Most Points lead. Plus, late last week, Adam Pacheck set the mark at 17:30 for the Waterfront Trail, with Adam Schoene bursting onto the leaderboard with a 17:55 for second. Did you realize we already have five guys named “Adam” signed up?

Saturday also marks the kick-off of the FLRC Kids Challenge, which we’re putting on in partnership with the Ithaca Youth Bureau. It’s designed to help adults notch FLRC Challenge efforts while running with their kids, who work toward mileage milestones of 25, 50, 75, and 100 miles. 35 kids are signed up already. Kids Challenge registration is free, so sign your kids up today for some family running time.

A big leaderboard welcome to those posting their first efforts in the last week: Aaron Proujansky, Adam Schoene, Jeff Scott, Mickie Sanders-Jauquet, Nathon Korson, Sandra Thananart, Sooyoung Vandemark, and Steve Vanek. Way to go! If you haven’t yet claimed your spot on the leaderboard, why not start this week?

Finally, a special shout-out to Scott and Amy Dawson, who cleverly used runs on the 13.1-mile Pseudo Skunk Cabbage course to complete the 2021 Virtual United Airlines NYC Half. Nice twofer! The moral of the story here is that the FLRC Challenge is compatible with lots of other virtual races and challenges, so feel free to make as much of your Challenge miles as you can.

Until next week, keep those miles (and pictures) rolling in.

I did the pseudo skunk course/UA virtual half, too! Good times.

Excellent! I must have missed your effort on Strava. Anyone else aiming for twofers?

Also, the botanic garden course was good for a virtual Seneca 7 leg. :slight_smile:

Have you noticed that there are some “names” that are always fast, such as the four Adam’s. Anyone with the name Eric is sure to be speedy. Actually, having a name starting with a vowel implies speed, in my opinion (Adam, Alan, Eric, Earl, Ian, Ofer).

Karen, you may have just stumbled on one of those hidden secrets to athletic prowess, sort of like how having a birthday at a certain time of year will help a kid do better in sports because they’re always a little older than their grade peers.

What if giving your kid a name that starts with a particular letter, or a vowel versus a consonant, also correlates with enhanced athletic ability? We’ll have some data from the Challenge, of course, but there are much larger data sets associated with race results. @mlam did some stats research with race results when he was at Cornell; maybe he or some other stats person like @BigRedRick could take a whack at it?

Amusingly, I’m quite aware of how many people named “Adam” there are around me and despite the supposed commonness of the name, my experience has been that I’ve known only a handful of people with the name over the years. However, in the past 5 years or so, there has been an ever-growing number of us in the local running community, quite a few of whom are fast and are signed up for the Challenge already, like @apacheck and @adam.schoene. @Adam_Berkowitz has said he plans to sign up for the Challenge soon, and I need to see if I can convince my old friend @Adam_Brumberg to do so as well. And there’s @adam.kellerson too.

In fact, it looks like this makes sense. I was born in the late 1960s, just as Adam became more popular, and most of the other guys named out there are younger than me.

I’d just like to note that @heathercobb3 notched the first FLRC Challenge quad yesterday! Check the activity log to see what she did on the Waterfront Trail, Black Diamond Trail, South Hill Rec Way, and East Hill Rec Way. 25 miles for the day—impressive!

You put a challenge out there I just couldn’t refuse, @adamengst! I look forward to seeing who can go for a fiver!

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I can’t wait until my son Adrian starts crushing the competition in another 25-30 years! And ironically, his twin brother Joel is the early walker.