With Danby Down & Dirty in the books, FLRC’s 2017 Trail Circuit has come to a close. Many thanks to all of you who ran one or more of our off-road extravaganzas this year, and to all those who gave up some of their leisure time to make our races possible—thank you, thank you, thank you!
With that, we are happy to announce the 2017 Stonehead, Pebblehead, and Boulderhead winners. Each of these categories has its own points system, and includes anyone who’s run at least one of our trail races during the calendar year. The Stonehead rankings include all qualifying races that each runner ran in the year. Pebblehead rankings are based only on a runner’s top three races. In each case, a runner’s “score” for a race is determined by dividing the winning time by his/her time, then multiplying by 100. The sum over several races is then the runner’s score for the season. Boulderhead points are based on the total number of race miles completed during the calendar year, regardless of finishing time or place.
The ten races in the 2017 series include the Super Frosty Loomis Snowshoe Race, Thom B, Tortoise & Hare, Tanglefoot, Finger Lakes 50s, Forest Frolic, Forge the Gorgeous, Monster Marathon & Half, Lucifer’s Crossing, and the Danby Down & Dirty. (Note: The Highland Forest 1-2-3 is part of the series, but the race was not held this year.) The maximum possible Stonehead score is 1,000, in which someone runs and wins all ten races, thus earning 100 points at each race. The highest possible Pebblehead score is 300—someone wins three races, earning 100 points at each. For scoring purposes, the maximum Boulderhead trail mileage one could accumulate this year was 169.54 miles. Altogether, we had 918 “barkeaters” run at least one Trail Circuit race this year (400 women and 518 men,) with 88 runners completing three or more races.
Serial trail racer Kerra Quinn was our top female Stonehead, completing seven of the ten series races for a total of 534.48 points. Megan Powers was second Stonehead with 490.18 points, and annual contender Audrey Balander third with a score of 483.14. Remember, Stoneheads run fast and frequently!
On the men’s side, Bill King ran eight series races to once again prove his rock solidness with an impressive 609.19 points. Mark Morrison ranked second with 520.31, and David Jones third with 498.24.
Now on to the Pebbleheads. This was a close contest for the ladies, with perennial favorites Nora McIver-Sheridan and Yvette deBoer each winning three races and earning a perfect score of 300. Because of her larger margin of victory, the tie-breaker goes to McIver-Sheridan, giving her the Pebblehead title for the second straight year. Lori Johnson finished third with 286.39 points.
Competition was close atop the men’s Pebblehead standings as well. Rich Heffron’s three victories on the year gave him a perfect 300 and top Pebblehead honors. Eric Sambolec had two wins and two very close second place finishes to earn 299.91 points. Sambolec narrowly edged Jed Sheckler (299.34 points) for second place. Ved Gund and Scotie Jacobs also topped 290 points to finish fourth and fifth.
All that mileage again paid off for Kerra Quinn, who doubled up this year to also win the Boulderhead title. She completed the longest distance offered at seven of the ten series races, for a total of 127.24 miles—winning the Boulderhead title by a wide margin. Kerra can often be seen running with Ron Cunningham, who completed all seven of the same races to defend his Boulderhead title, also with 127.24 miles. Lori Johnson (88.44 miles) and Paige Anderson (81.94 miles) finished second and third, respectively. Bill King (90.52 miles) and Mark Morrison (90.12 miles) rounded out the men’s top three Boulderheads.
Did you run any of our trail races this year? See where you stack up. Full standings are available here. Thank you to Karen Ingall for continuing to compile these statistics year after year.
We look forward to seeing you in May at the 2018 Thom B Trail Runs!
