After one race of nice weather and two insanely hot races, we lined up for the fourth PGXC race in spitting rain and 40-degree temperatures. Nevertheless, the FLRC women (who ran first) and High Noon men posted some excellent results in the October 29th race against some strong teams from the Genesee Valley Harriers, Syracuse Track Club, Checkers AC, and Road Kill.
The fourth race in the five-race series was at Genessee Valley Park in Rochester. The course became increasingly muddy and slippery throughout the day, and we can only imagine how sloppy it was by the end of the men’s open race, which was a four-loop 8K. We didn’t have any open men running, which allowed us to huddle, shivering, in our tent for a bit before cutting out early.
The first highlight of the race was Kristina Kronauer’s 22:17 for third overall in the women’s 6K race, which also proved the fastest Ithaca-area time of the day. Jacqueline Huben’s 22:59 put her in seventh overall, and the FLRC women’s open team finished in third place. Our masters women also ran very well, taking second in the team competition.
The second highlight was that the High Noon masters men’s team eked out a two-second win over a full GVH team, thanks to our strategy of running our vets down to the master’s team. Adam Engst led High Noon with a 22:42 while taking sixth overall and fourth masters, but the win was made possible with the addition of ultramarathon whiz Scotie Jacobs, who took second for the team in his first cross-country race in years. Solid performances by Casey Carlstrom and Alex Colvin, a particularly strong finish from Scott Dawson to finish out the scoring, and Sean Nicholson’s sixth-man tiebreaker all rounded things out for High Noon. This is the first High Noon team win in quite a few years (back to at least 2012,) not counting our unopposed win at Watkins Glen in the last race. There was a mere 46-second spread between first and fifth!
Full results are available here. The fifth and final series race will be on November 12 at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua. Even if you haven’t run cross country in years, you can still join one of our teams!