Xander Dawson has completed the 2024 FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge!

[adamengst]

@Challengers We have a new face on the FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge leaderboard! Congratulations to Xander Dawson, who finished all ten courses in 12:55:43 running time and 18:12:01 elapsed time. At 20, he’s also our youngest Ultra Challenge finisher so far in the history of the FLRC Challenge.

Xander started just after midnight in Trumansburg, knocking off the Sweet 1600 and Run Rabbit Run before heading into Ithaca for Lakefront Loops 5K. Then he completed the Freeville Fly-In just as the sun was coming up, and finished Valley Views while the morning was still cool. FH Fox and Duck Trails were next, but that left the tough Hammond Hill Hoctathon, Treman Trailipop, and Lindsay-Parsons courses for the heat, humidity, and torrential downpours of the late morning and afternoon. I suspect a lot of hiking took place in those last few courses.

As much as Xander deserves all the credit he gets for completing the 100K Ultra Challenge on a day when the weather was far from conducive, he had family support throughout the day, with his father Scott Dawson accompanying him on the early road courses (en route to his own Tough Tarmac Challenge completion) and his mother Amy Dawson and sister Elizabeth Dawson keeping him company on the later trail courses (so they could complete the Tough Trail Challenge as well).

To give you an idea of the enormity of the family’s accomplishment, of the 33 runs logged today, 27 of them were run by a Dawson, with Caitlin Loehr and Jamie Loehr logging a few Sweet 1600s and Christian Lincoln running Lakefront Loops. Everyone else stayed cool.

[patrickmilano]

Xander’s 6:11 is the fastest Sweet 1600 ever run as part of a 100K Ultra Challenge (and also faster than any East Hill Rec Way miles during 2021 Ultra Challenges). Nice going!

[dennis-s (Dennis Stadelman)]

Congratulations, Xander, and all the Dawsons! I love checking the Activity Log while eating breakfast and seeing midnight to morning miles being logged! Initially looked like a Tarmac Challenge with Scott, but when I checked later and saw FH Fox pop up with more Dawsons, I started following throughout the day. For a long while you made a run at Pete’s (@Petorius) fastest running time. Awesome!

[Petorius (Pete Kresock)]

Great job, Xander! I hope you’ve dried out by now and are recovering well. Impressive times on some of these too!

[scottpdawson (Scott Dawson)]

When Xander said he wanted to do an ultra this year, we suggested the ultra challenge. None of us were up to the 100K distance (since Amy and I have done it before), but with the Tough Tarmac and Tough Trail options on the table, we came up with a creative plan. I offered to start in the middle of the night with Xander and bang out the Tough Tarmac challenge (I’d already done the trail version). Then I’d hand him off to Amy and Elizabeth, who were game for the Tough Trail challenge (they’d already done the road version). This way we’d all get to spend time supporting Xander through this challenge while fulfilling our own goals.

I got a few hours of sleep the prior night, waking around 11:40 to have a quick protein drink and head out to the track in Trumansburg. We started around 12:15 with Xander running a super-fast mile while I ran a moderately fast mile. Run Rabbit Run was just a short drive away, and I loved showing this to Xander in the middle of the night. As we approached our car after the first loop I saw a vehicle parked next to ours, lights on. Uh-oh! Turns out it was one of Xander’s friends who’s now a park ranger. She saw us parked there and when we rolled up from Black Diamond, she said “I figured that was you!” We weren’t in any trouble: she was checking in to make sure we were okay. It was a nice social connection during the run. As we turned from South Street onto Main, I made sure Xander knew the rest of the course and implored him to take off. I knew what lay ahead so I was happy with my pace, but his legs were fresh and he appreciated the downhill on Falls Road. Lakefront Loops felt mercifully short after Run Rabbit Run. These miles clicked by relatively quickly but I had to walk a short stretch since I had spots in my field of vision. It passed quickly and I got some Gatorade in me once we were back in the car.

I’d never seen the Freeville course before. We both knew it’d be difficult but I wasn’t prepared for what would happen to my calves. I carried 2L of water on my back for this and we ran the first half at a deliberate pace, both opting to listen to our own music, running through the darkness side-by-side with our waist headlamps showing the way. At the turnaround, confident that he could follow his Strava app back to the car, I told Xander to keep going. He had a few Honey Stinger chews and some water and took off like a shot. A few miles after the turnaround I no longer saw his bobbing red light in the distance and felt pretty despondent. My calves were starting to cramp and I’d settled into walking a few minutes for every mile I ran. At about the time I’d covered marathon distance, I ran out of water. I called Amy first to share how I was doing, and we hatched a plan to have her come to Brooktondale to get Xander after he ran the fifth course, as I felt I’d have no ability to run it. I called Xander next, and he offered to drive back along the course and bring me water, for which I was immensely grateful. I ran-walked the balance of the distance and changed my shirt and shorts for the third time (it was incredibly humid, but gratefully no precipitation).

Xander headed off into Valley Views with his RunGo companion and I started hiking, confident that he’d have a great run, get picked up on time by Amy and Elizabeth, and enjoy the rest of his day. My day was about over, and I knew I could hike 6.4 miles in about 2 hours. I called my brother to say hello and listened to a few podcasts. I bought a 1L of water with me and generally enjoyed seeing the views, yelling at the aggressive dogs, and seeing Brooktondale wake up. Amy and Elizabeth drove by me and offered encouragement, too! Light rainfall misted me as I made the final turn on the course, so I didn’t escape the day without a moderate amount of precipitation. I made it back to the car Amy’d left me (gotta love virtual keys) and drove myself home, enjoying a cookie and Gatorade as my reward (the Market opened a half hour after I finished, too long to linger).

[amy-dawson]

After trying to go to bed around 9, I ended up struggling to sleep so I stayed up until the boys headed out and then got some great sleep between midnight and 4 am. Scott texted that he was struggling on the Freeville course around 4:40 and we quickly chatted. Elizabeth and I had planned to meet the boys at FH Fox, but Scott’s calf seized and he would need to walk Brooktondale. It was logical for us to get Xander and get started on our 12 hour journey as soon as he finished.

FH Fox started off auspiciously with both of Xander’s quads seizing. We got about 100 yards into the course only to turn around. He stretched them out and switched out his shoes and we headed off, hoping for the best. We ran much of this course as a trio in the light mist. Toward the middle/end of this, we hit the middle road and it was closed to pedestrians, cars, and bikes. We walked by the sign, not really knowing what to do and saw a car with workers there. We asked about if we could walk for about 3 minutes on the road and explained what we were doing. They told us we shouldn’t be there but we explained again and they said they weren’t starting work for 20 minutes so it was fine.

Soon, we were off to go to Duck Trails where we discovered we had a second car key with us. That was a nice find, as it allowed Xander to run ahead solo, knowing he could come back and enjoy the car, especially if the rain hit! Elizabeth and I got a little lost in Duck Trails, but Xander zipped right through that one. Soon, we were off to Hammond!

It started to get really interesting here. As we went to turn onto the access road at Hammond we saw a road closed sign. There were lots of big trucks and they were clearly paving. Yikes. I walked up toward the trucks and then chickened out and walked back. Maybe we could start somewhere else on course. We looked at possible ways to do this but then remembered that for the challenges you had to scan the sign. Sure, we could explain the situation but it was going to be confusing to start mid-course and we had to figure out where we were driving to. I hopped back out and walked up to the workers to explain. They said as long as we walked on the side and left our car where it was we could walk to the lot. The half mile walk felt like a real slog! Soon we were at the top and we took a quick bathroom break before scanning. Xander’s quads were pretty trashed but we ran down the hill before walking up the rest of the initial ascent. After the turn onto trail I set a pace and we enjoyed the nice single track. The air was heavy and sticky, but the trail was lovely. We alternated between hiking and running for all of this course, and despite a few difficulties agreeing when to walk or run, we managed to finish pretty positively. I was pretty thrown by the additional walk not because of the walk itself for me or Elizabeth, but because of the extra time and for the extra mile for Xander.

As we left, the GPS gave us the two routes over to Treman and we took the most direct one. This was a left back onto the main road. This turned out to be a bad/good choice for us. Soon into our 30 minute drive we saw a sign letting us know it was a one lane road due to paving. A person was holding a stop sign and we were the 2nd car in line. “No biggie, I thought” but then 9 minutes passed with no indication of movement. The trucks were moving around ahead of us and no one was coming from the other side. I regretted not turning right and taking the other route. Scott texted that there was a storm over Treman but it should blow through before we got there. We debated turning around, but decided to stay and soon saw the cars coming from the other side. Surely we’d move soon! Then, it got interesting. A car pulled back through with a sign saying “lead car, follow me.” Naturally, the car in front of us pulled out to follow. Then, the lead car pulled to the side of the road but the car behind blew right past them. The workers started yelling so we all continued to wait. Finally, we went through very slowly, following the lead car all the way to 79. Soon the intense rain started and continued for the rest of our drive to Treman. I said, “you know that was annoying but I think it is going to save us from running in this downpour.”

We arrived at Treman well hydrated and well fed and took a peek at the radar. It showed it was going to stay rainy and we decided to just get going. We agreed we’d run the first .5, hike up Lickbrook, run the road, and then do a mix for Treman Lake. I expected we’d run downhill on the way back. I figured we’d run about 4 miles of this course. Xander and I agreed we’d enjoyed enough liquid to not carry water (bad choice) and we all got ready to go. We started with our .5 mile run, and switched over to hike mode for the ascent. Toward the top of the course, Xander said his arches were hurting him and he wasn’t sure about running. We assured him that even if we walked everything that was left, he would finish and we’d hit the 12 hour mark. He thought he could try running on the road. We did a little bit of this, but quickly switched back to walking. It was rather unspoken at this point that we were going to hike from here onward. Xander was so thirsty and tired and I was feeling so bad for not engaging my brain and carrying water. Elizabeth let him drink from the handheld and she helped keep everyone engaged by sharing a fun podcast story. This trail felt neverending in the way some of our long Oregon hikes have felt, but we managed nice conversation and did our best to keep in good spirits.

Our last course was Lindsay-Parsons. Scott had talked about possibly joining us and he decided he was going to come out. I was grateful because the course was loopy and our Run Go hadn’t been cooperating at Treman. We didn’t need it to work there, but we would need the map and Run Go at Lindsay-Parsons. It is hard to know what we would have done had Scott not been there. Xander wanted to run this, Elizabeth wanted to walk, I was game for what would make everyone happy, but Scott was in hiking clothes so that cinched it for us. We started (again without water) and began what felt like a really long slog. I should have learned from the last course to carry water, and I should have realized that at 20 minute miles, we’d be out for 80+ minutes and it would be nice to have water on a hot, humid day. Again, Elizabeth’s hand-held kept Xander solid. His eyes were glassy and tired and we turned to a discussion about “this is why people have pacers” and talked about all the things pacers do to support their runner. That conversation, along with lots of announcements for how much we had left and some silly chanting kept us moving along. Soon we were back at the car celebrating Xander’s 100K Ultra Challenge!

We wrapped up our evening with a treat of New York pizza after cleaning up. It was so great to finish at a reasonable hour so we could have dinner and not just have to go to bed. I’m so glad Scott had this idea for how we could support Xander through this, and so glad the Runners Club decided to offer the Tough Trail and Tough Tarmac so that we could have our own smaller goals for this. They were a solid challenge themselves and helped us all have an entry point that worked for us!