Greetings, runners! We’re deep into the cold and snow, with the Winter Chill 5K series and Super Frosty Loomis in the books and indoor track canceled for pandemic reasons. Our next race is the long-awaited return of the Skunk Cabbage Classic on April 3rd! Read on for details and other club news, such as the results from our 2022 FLRC Runner Survey.
RACE RESULTS
Winter Chill 5Ks battle tough weather conditions; Moseley and Codd win the series
Kudos to race director Sarah Drumheller for orchestrating the successful return of the Winter Chill 5K series despite icy, snowy, and downright frigid conditions that forced multiple course changes. The first race even had to be turned into five cross-country-style loops of a 1K field due to thick ice. Results from WC#1, WC#2, WC#3, and WC#4 are all online, and congratulations to our series winners, 47-year-old Roger Moseley and 23-year-old Sarah Codd, who posted the fastest average times across all four races. Be sure to check out the photos from all four races, including professional shots of nearly everyone at the orange-themed WC#3 by Steve Gallow!
Super Frosty Loomis continues its streak with wins from Esposito, Langerfeld, Watson, and Loehr
The only FLRC race that has escaped pandemic-related cancellation is our Super Frosty Loomis snowshoe race. Race directors Dave Kania and Eric Sambolec—with a guest appearance by race director emeritus Boris Dzikovski—coordinated another successful running on the snowy trails of Hammond Hill. 32-year-old Steve Esposito of Binghamton won the 10K for the men in 51:33, with 35-year-old Donna Langerfeld of Port Byron taking the women’s crown in 1:04:04. The 5K went to a pair of Ithaca runners, with 33-year-old Bill Watson winning in 33:10 and 56-year-old Caitlin Loehr placing first for the women and third overall with a time for 35:01. With 47 total runners, attendance was just off the all-time high of 49, and this was the first year where the 5K (26 runners) was larger than the 10K (21 runners), likely due to more people trying snowshoeing for the first time. Thanks to everyone who carpooled—limited parking is the main reason we have to cap registration for this race. Don’t miss the great snowshoeing photos!
UPCOMING RACES
Skunk Cabbage Classic 10K and Half Marathon returns on April 3rd!
Skunk is back! Our apologies for the delay in opening, but working with Cornell on an event that could attract as many as 1,000 runners is challenging in this day and age. Race directors Vinny and Nichole Cappadora are pleased to announce that the Skunk Cabbage Classic will return on April 3rd, and registration is now open! The 10K and half marathon courses remain the same, but we have a new staging area under the overhang of the Schoellkopf Stadium Crescent. Besides being outside (but under cover if there’s weather) to reduce COVID-19 concerns, the Schoellkopf Crescent has the advantage of more bathrooms than Barton Hall, plus lots of parking right in front of the stadium and in the Cornell parking garage. Learn more on the FLRC website and register by March 18th to get a personalized bib number with your first name on it! And if you can’t run for some reason, we could use your help volunteering. Add yourself to our Volunteer Sheet or contact the race directors at skunk@fingerlakesrunners.org for more information.
March indoor track meet canceled
Before the rise of Omicron, we thought we might be able to have some indoor track meets in 2022, but the combination of the concerns surrounding infection, COVID-19 requirements from institutions, and extremely tight venue schedules have thrown a wrench into our plans. To mix our sports metaphors, we’re punting on indoor track for this year and will be turning our attention to the outdoor season of track meets in June, July, and August. Stay tuned for details on those, and here’s hoping that indoor track can return to normal in 2023.
CLUB NEWS
FLRC runner survey results
With 111 respondents, we collected a lot of great data in our 2021 FLRC Runner Survey, and you can now read our write-up of the results that are of interest to the general public. The most popular race distance is 10K, the preferred post-race food is the banana, and amazingly, the most desirable bagel flavor is Everything. See the full report for more, complete with pretty pictures.
Get your FLRC calendars here!
When are your favorite FLRC races taking place this year? We now have our calendar set for 2022, although note that it’s not inconceivable that we would need to nudge a race date around for a permit. You can view the FLRC race calendar in three different ways, so pick whichever works the best for you.
- Subscribe to our Google Calendar so race dates and other FLRC events flow into your computer and phone calendar. Download and import this ICS file for most calendar apps; subscribe to fingerlakesrunners@gmail.com if you use Google Calendar.
- Check the home page calendar on the FLRC website, which lists all FLRC events alongside other races in the area. Anyone can submit a local race to our home page calendar.
- Download a PDF of our attractive print calendar, suitable for posting on a refrigerator or bulletin board near you! Speaking of which, could you do us a favor? If you know of any bulletin boards in the buildings or businesses you frequent, could you print a copy out and post it?
Saturday morning group runs resume; Thursday night group runs continue
Group runs have been on the upswing of late, with three options in the coming month:
- After taking January off for the Winter Chill 5K series, Heather Cobb has resumed our first- and third-Saturday morning group runs, with a variety of courses to match weather conditions.
- Mickie Sanders-Jauquet continues to coordinate all-comers group runs on one Thursday night each month, followed by drinks and dinner afterward. Others have picked up the baton to fill in other Thursday nights throughout the month.
- Throughout the month of March, Adam Engst is bringing back the Sunday Skunkday runs, meeting in front of Barton Hall each Sunday at 8:30 AM and running some or all of the Skunk Cabbage courses.
Check the Group Runs & Workouts forum for details on these and other group runs, and remember to sign the 2022 waiver the first time you attend an FLRC group run.
FLRC Forum FAQ #5: What are notifications, and can I get everything via email?
A lot happens on the FLRC Forum—it has grown into a vibrant community of local runners with over 400 posts and 30,000 page views every month! The Discourse software used by the forum has flexible notification options so everyone can set the level to which they want to be alerted. You don’t have to change the current defaults if you visit the forum website regularly or if you’re happy with how many emails you’re receiving, but if you feel like you’re missing posts, you might want to “watch” more categories. And if you pine for the old FLRC mailing list, you can simulate that with “mailing list mode,” discussed below.
First, for each forum/category, you can choose among five notification levels. To set a notification level, click the bell icon in the upper-right of any category list or at the bottom of any topic, and then click the desired notification level.
What are these?
- Watching: Select Watching for categories you want to follow closely. For each new post, you’ll get a blue dot notification bubble on your avatar in the upper-right corner and an email message. In topic lists, blue dots will indicate new posts.
- Tracking: With Tracking, your avatar gets a blue dot notification only if someone mentions your @name or replies to a post you’ve made. In topic lists, blue dots will indicate new posts. You won’t receive email notifications. By default, when you reply to a post, you’re automatically set to Tracking for that topic.
- Watching First Post: If you select Watching First Post, the system notifies you—both with a blue dot on your avatar and an email message—of new topics in the category, but not of new posts within a topic. Everyone is set to Watching First Post for the Announcements category and for the Important tag—it’s how FLRC board members and race directors can ensure that everyone receives email about certain topics.
- Normal: The default notification level is Normal, which is like Tracking in that you’re notified with a blue dot on your avatar if anyone mentions your @name or replies to one of your posts. Unlike Tracking, Normal doesn’t show blue dots for new posts in topic lists.
- Muted: It’s unlikely you’d need to use Muted unless you absolutely don’t want to be notified of any new topics or posts. It’s for forums with much higher traffic than ours.
Now you can see how you can get email for new posts. For each forum/category you want to follow via email, click the bell icon in the upper-right corner and choose Watching.
You can see all the categories you’re Watching in your account’s Notifications > Categories preferences. Click the X button next to any category name to remove it.
There is one other brute-force method of getting email for all new posts: mailing list mode. We don’t recommend it for most people because it will send you an email message for every post on the entire forum, which may be overwhelming. To turn it on, in your account’s Emails preferences, click Enable Mailing List Mode at the bottom.
That’s it for now, and we’re looking forward to seeing you at Skunk Cabbage in April!
—Adam Engst, FLRC President and VP of Track