It was a tough week for running, @Challengers, with poor air quality starting Monday, worsening on Tuesday, getting remarkably bad on Wednesday, improving a bit on Thursday, and seemingly breaking today. I was watching the Activity Log each day to see if someone would brave the air (hopefully in an N95 mask) and keep our three-year FLRC Challenge streak of at least one run every day alive. It lives! The streak isn’t nearly as important as staying healthy, so if things get bad again as the Quebec wildfires continue to burn, don’t risk it. Still, we managed over 460 miles for the week, pushing us over the 2500-mile mark for the year.
Before the worst of the smoke hit, we celebrated two more Challenge completions. Congrats to Kieran Loehr, who was our 12th finisher, making a quarter of our finishers members of the Loehr family. He sped through all ten courses in 13 days while on vacation visiting finishers #2 (Jamie Loehr) and #3 (Caitlin Loehr). If only grad school required “What I did on summer vacation” essays.
Kudos as well to Liz Hartman, our lucky 13th finisher, who executed on her plan to lay down a fast Sweet 1600 for her final course. She ended up running a 5:50 on Tuesday morning before the air quality plummeted, good for the fastest women’s time on that course, first place in Most Points for women, and second place for Age Grade. Kieran’s efforts also put him firmly in second place for Most Points for men.
Photo of the week goes to Community Stars leader Ruth Sproul for documenting the air quality problems with a screenshot and a picture from Lime Hollow showing the unearthly red tinge from the smoke-obscured sun.
Happily, it’s looking like we’ll have no air quality issues preventing our Sunday group on the Black Diamond Trail. See you at the Cass Park end at 8:30 AM unless the wind changes unexpectedly.
Also, don’t miss signing up for next week’s Twilight 5K at Treman Marina. It’s not quite the same course as the Lakefront Loops 5K, but it’s close, and you can submit your time for Lakefront Loops. The cost goes up on Monday, and if the race has to be canceled due to dangerous air quality, we’ll refund everyone.