104 runners flocked to Virgil to frolic along the singletrack trails in Kennedy State Forest, with 46 running the 7K and 56 completing the 15K. This summer’s drought left the trails bone dry, and the heat and humidity were noticeably more runner-friendly than normal for the late-July race day. This led to the Frolic’s best race-day weather in years.
Photographer Jamie Love was on site and her photos are available to download for free. Full results are posted on our Web site and on Webscorer.
7K
Eliza O’Donnell was the first woman across the line, clocking 38:50 for the 4.1-mile loop. She outpaced Margo Lee, last year’s winner, by 1 minute. For the men, experience overcame youth, with 43-year-old Peter Frazier winning by just over a minute in 32:35 and second place going to 16-year-old FLRC regular Banyan Love. Our youngest finisher was the intrepid 8-year-old Logan Timmerman, who was paced the entire way by Steph Bailey. Tom Joyce and former long-time Forest Frolic race director Steve Ryan were the oldest finishers at age 71.
15K
The 15K course is a figure-8 where runners can choose which direction to run the opening loop before continuing along the 7K course for the back half. Recent trail convert Chelsea Benson took home another FLRC Trail Circuit win in 1:16:00, well ahead of the next woman. This catapulted her into the lead in the Trail Circuit’s women’s Pebblehead rankings. On the men’s side, experience once again overcame youth, with 42-year-old Dan Timmerman running 1:04:25 to top 16-year-old Crosby Woods by 3 minutes. This was Timmerman’s second Trail Circuit win in as many races, setting him up for a perfect 300 Pebblehead score if he can notch one more win this year. The clockwise direction was preferable among the speedsters—Benson, Timmerman, Woods, and the rest of the top seven finishers all took the first loop in the same direction.
FLRC has two more trail races this month, with Forge the Gorgeous at Fillmore Glen State Park on August 11th and the Monster Marathon and Half Marathon at Robert Treman State Park on August 27th. We hope to see you in the woods again soon!
