Last Thursday evening, 97 runners met at Fillmore Glen State Park to participate in the 2024 Forge the Gorge Trail Races. Although it rained for an hour before the race, leading to wet and muddy conditions (some would say perfect trail running conditions), the rain subsided for the actual race, improving the experience for runners and volunteers alike.
Full race results and some candid photos are now available. If you have any race-day photos to share, please upload them to our community album.
Results
In the 3-mile short course, 13-year-old Leo Lang of Skaneateles was the overall winner with a time of 23:52, his second FLRC trail race win of the year on top of Forest Frolic. Not far behind were Dan Augustyn of Mansfield, Massachusetts, who crossed in 24:29, and Dave Kania of Ithaca, who finished in 24:36. On the women’s side, 11-year-old Ada McKinzey of Trumansburg ran the fourth fastest overall time to win the women’s race in an impressive 25:43. She was followed closely by Olivia Genson of Moravia, in 25:59, and Liza Ferro of Cortland, in 27:28. This race also saw finishers as young as 5 (Liam McKinzey from Trumansburg) and as old as 79 (the venerable Bob Congdon from Ithaca).
In the 8-mile race, the overall winner was Ithaca’s Banyan Love, who cruised to victory in 55:07, ahead of Dan Timmerman, who finished in 56:16, and Isaac Mazzeo, who crossed in 1:02:12. Banyan now leads both the Stonehead and Pebblehead categories on the FLRC Trail Circuit leaderboard, but will be transferring his competitive racing to the Paul Smith’s College cross-country team, leaving openings for other local trail runners. Sarah Woodyear of Ithaca handily won the women’s race in a time of 1:05:41. Emily Jones of Moravia crossed second in 1:16:19, followed by Groton’s Julie Barclay in 1:18:34.
Thank you to the volunteers!
Special thanks to all the volunteers who made Forge the Gorge a success! Adam Engst led the timing crew, supported by Bob Talda, Heather Cobb, and Jesse Koennecke. Course marshals Zsofia Franck, Pete Kresock, and Laura Helmerick ably directed runners along the route. Lorrie Tily and Pete Kresock expertly handled registration, and Inger Aaberg and Audun Dahl swept the course. Special thanks to the Jones family, Henry and kids Ella, Rosie, Lucy, Frank, and Magie for manning the water station for the 3rd year in a row.
Thanks to all the runners and volunteers for helping make this an enjoyable and successful event!