Greetings, runners! Our racing season is over for the year, but we have results to share about how our runners fared in the overall PGXC series competition and photos from the Turkey Trot. Sadly, we’ve been forced to cancel the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile and the indoor track meets seem unlikely.
CLUB NEWS
Be careful when running trails during deer hunting season!
It’s that time of year, so if you’re planning on running trails where hunting is allowed, including the Danby Down & Dirty, Thom B., and Forest Frolic courses on the FLRC Challenge, be sure to wear blaze orange so you’re plainly visible to hunters. Stay safe out there!
Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile canceled, winter indoor track meets unlikely
It should come as no surprise that reserving the indoor track in Barton Hall isn’t something that Cornell is enthused about letting FLRC do this year, so we have been forced to cancel the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile, which would have taken place in January 2022. We haven’t officially canceled our January, February, and March indoor track meets (which require much less advance preparation) because it’s possible something will change, but don’t get your hopes up.
Board election and runner survey coming soon!
Keep an eye out for FLRC’s upcoming board and officer election, which we’re combining with a survey to learn more about who you are, what you think about running and FLRC, and how we can improve. The election and survey will run from December 1st through the 15th, and we’ll pick three lucky respondents at random to win free entry to all of FLRC’s 2022 races (except Finger Lakes 50s).
Saturday group runs keep touring FLRC Challenge courses
Heather Cobb continues to lead all-comers group runs on FLRC Challenge courses, with just a couple more to go before the FLRC Challenge ends for the year. Check the Group Runs & Workouts forum for details on those and other group runs.
FAQ #3: What’s a good way to browse the FLRC Forum?
Make sure you’re logged in so the system knows what you’ve read in the past. Then start at the home page at http://forum.fingerlakesrunners.org/. It shows all the topics in all the different forums, with the topics that have the most recent activity at the top. Click or tap the title of any topic to read it, with the system automatically scrolling to show new posts if you’ve already read some of the older ones. You can also click the colored forum name (General, Group Runs & Workouts, FLRC Challenge, etc.) to see just the topics in that forum. Return to the home page at any time by clicking the FLRC logo in the upper-left corner of the page.
UPCOMING RACES
Winter Chill 5K Series scheduled for January 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th
We’re still waiting on a few administrative details before opening registration, but mark your calendars for the last four Sundays in January, when the Winter Chill 5K Series is scheduled to return, thanks to the efforts of race director Sarah Drumheller. These low-key 5Ks in Cass Park are free, but you have to be an FLRC member to run, so make sure to join or renew online before the races. There won’t be any day-of-race joining, but membership is just $20 for an individual or $35 for a family for a year, with multi-year discounts if you don’t want to fuss with it annually.
RACE RESULTS
Turkey Trot brings hundreds of runners back to Ithaca High School
After being forced to go virtual last year, it was great that race director Bruce Roebal was able to bring the Turkey Trot prediction run back to an in-person event at Ithaca High School on Thanksgiving morning. Hundreds of runners and walkers participated, wearing silly hats and raising money for Loaves & Fishes. Thanks to all who came, and be sure to check out the fabulous photos in FLRC’s photo library.
FLRC and High Noon teams and individuals bring home PGXC awards
Although our teams didn’t fare as well as we would have liked at the championship race, we still had some strong performances for the overall awards in the PGXC cross country series. The FLRC Women’s Open team took first place for the series, our top team spot. The FLRC Women’s Masters team was fourth, and the FLRC Women’s Vets team fell to second after losing the final race tiebreaker. On the men’s side, the High Noon Men’s Open team took third, the High Noon Men’s Masters team was third, and the High Noon Men’s Super Vets team was fourth. Two other teams—the FLRC Mixed U19 team and the High Noon Men’s Vets team—failed to place due to lacking a full team at the final race. Showing up is half the battle.
Individually, awards go to the top ten finishers in each age group. In the Women’s Open category, Kathleen Kanaley took third overall in the series, Jenny Berkowitz was sixth, and Sarah Codd was eighth. In the Women’s Vets category, Caitlin Loehr placed second overall, Brenda Osovski was sixth, and Sandy Gregorich was seventh. In the U19 category, four FLRC runners finished the final race and swept the overall awards in first through fourth: Banyan Love, Benjamin Lambert, Oliver Lambert, and Trent Thibault. For the Men’s Open category, Adam Pacheck was sixth overall, and Alex Drazic took tenth. In the Men’s Vets Category, Adam Engst placed fourth, and Jean-Luc Jannink took sixth. And finally, in Men’s Super Vets, Casey Carlstrom ran to eighth overall with just two races. Congratulations to all, and we hope more of you will join our teams next year!
Four more runners complete the FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge in November!
The FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge continues to draw, with four more runners completing all ten FLRC Challenge courses in a 24-hour day, something that’s gotten harder with colder temperatures and less daylight. Congratulations to Aaron King, whose completion set the fastest running time (10:54:59) and total elapsed time (15:07:01) on November 7th. On November 19th, Paul Maza and Jami Landry completed the Ultra Challenge together, with a running time of 17:13:53 and an elapsed time that just squeaked in under the 24-hour cutoff in 23:39:37. And most recently, Damian Clemons completed the Ultra Challenge on November 27th with a running time of 15:18:14 and an elapsed time of 23:04:47. Making Damian’s achievement even more impressive is the fact that he had attempted the Ultra Challenge earlier in the month but ran out of time to finish the last course before he had to go to work. Be sure to follow the links above for their fascinating reports.
Sixty-six runners have now completed the FLRC Challenge—will you?
The FLRC Challenge still has a month to go, and the completions are coming fast and furious now, with 16 new completions since last month. Even more impressive, we’ve crossed the 4000-run mark and are closing in on 19,000 total miles. Will we hit 20,000 by the end of the year? Standings haven’t changed much since last month, except for the Most Miles competition, where Bob Walters remains in the lead with 1076 miles but is in the sights of Pete Kresock, who has 1051 miles and recently passed Karen Ingall (1009 miles) to move into second. It’s impressive that all three have exceeded 1000 miles; in fourth place, Heather Cobb has run “only” 721 miles.
Until next time, see you on the roads, trails, and tracks of the Finger Lakes!
—Adam Engst, FLRC President and VP of Track