FLRC’s first summer meet of 2018 at Lansing High School was a rousing success, with 142 runners participating, thanks to large groups from the Ithaca Youth Bureau and the new Lansing Lightning club. They brought a ton of young children, joining our usual clubs: the Auburn Pulsars, Southern Tier SOAR, and Team PREFO. That’s at least 50% more runners than the summer meets drew last year, and it was great (and utterly hilarious) see kids as young as 3 and 4 scampering down the track, weaving between lanes, and sometimes failing entirely to understand the concept of a finish line (“Come back, come back,” we’d yell as they headed into the turn after the 100m).

The meet kicked off with the 2 mile, a race that we may be swapping out for the 3000m next year, given that it’s never run in any competitive meets anymore. Joshua Derrick ran away from the field, clocking sub-5:00 miles to finish in 9:57, followed by Chris Mason of the Auburn Pulsars in 11:09. The lone woman in the race was Althea Johnston of the Ithaca Youth Bureau, who finished in a thoroughly impressive 17:54, given that she’s only 7 years old.

Next up was the 100m dash, which was the most popular event of the meet, given all the kids, with 86 finishers. Mike D’Angelo won it in 11.34 seconds, just edging out Eric Ryan in 11.51 and Leon Atkins of the Auburn Pulsars in 11.53. Elizabeth Shaw of the Lansing Lightning took the women’s crown with a 15.01, edging out her teammate Emma Beckley, who ran 15.09. Props to Kaarina Granroth, who managed to cover the 100 meters in 31.69 at age 3, beating out a couple of 4- and 5-year-olds.

The 800m proved to be an exciting race with Sean Satchwell of the 315 Elite TC winning in 2:11, followed closely by Franklin Skarupinski and Jason Tuori in 2:13.03 and 2:13.84. The top women’s times were identical at 3:06, but unfortunately 67-year-old Coreen Steinbach and 10-year-old Kyleen Brady weren’t in the same heat, so we didn’t get to see them battling to the finish.

One of the highlights of the meet was a race-walking clinic put on by nationally acclaimed race walker Erin Taylor-Talcott, fresh from a 3rd place finish in the 5K Race Walk at Nationals. After her clinic, we had an exhibition heat of the 800m for race walkers, with Kevin Nelson taking the tape in 5:02.

As so often happens, though, the mile was once again the highlight of the meet. After the gun, the pack settled in behind Scott Dawson for the first lap, with a four-man pack breaking free after that, including 2018 Twilight 5K winner Ethan Seltzer, Joshua Derrick (trying to double from the 2 mile), Cornell University grad student Adam Pacheck (who won both the Skunk Half Marathon and Monster Half Marathon in 2017), and Leon Atkins of the Auburn Pulsars, who ran the 800 in 1:52 for the University of Buffalo. Just past the halfway point, Pacheck took the lead, followed by Atkins, and together they pulled away from Derrick and Seltzer. Pacheck still held the lead at the final bell lap, but Atkins unleashed a ferocious kick to win in 4:32, putting 6 seconds on Pacheck in that last lap even as he was kicking too to come through in 4:38.

The race was far from over though. Derrick and Seltzer battled to the line for third and fourth, with Derrick outleaning Seltzer by 0.18 seconds in 4:48. Then, after Jason Tuori cruised in fifth in 5:12, 15-year-old Hayden Belanger of Southern Tier SOAR barely nipped 37-year-old Phil Kwasney of STRC by 0.41 seconds in 5:14. And then, Scott Dawson — remember him from the first lap? — ended up running a 1 mile PR in 5:17 just days after running a half-marathon PR with an 8th place finish in the Gorges Half Marathon.

The top women’s finishers weren’t close, but it was another multi-generational finish, with 52-year-old Michelle Rohl winning in 5:51 and 10-year-old Kyleen Brady second in 6:48.

As always, the meet ran smoothly thanks to the efforts of our experienced volunteers. Scott Wehrwein served as head timer for the final time before he leaves Ithaca for Western Washington University next month, Adam Pacheck ran backup timing until his race, after which Tonya Engst took over. Julie Quinn and Aaron Proujansky recorded finishers, and Jullien Flynn managed race entries, seeding, and results with aplomb, thanks in part to help from Kristina Schwartz. Becca Lovenheim and Carl Franck adroitly wrangled getting everyone into heats as clerks of course. Tonya Engst and David Keifer handled registration. And Bruce Roebal reprised his traditional role as starter while Tom Rishel was away. Then we all ate subs and enjoyed the fabulous sunset!

So another Twilight 5K is in the books. This year we had both rain and the train, 413 runners, several regional Girls on the Run teams, and Joel running barefoot in a banana suit. Approximately 140 runners were under the age of 18, the youngest being 7. The men’s winner was Ethan Seltzer in 17:23. The top woman was 13-year-old Kinsley Jacobs in 20:50.

Results | Text results with age group awards

We have many thank you’s to give so here it goes in no particular order. Thank you Bill King and John Donaldson for unloading the van, setting up the course and reloading the van afterward, and John for helping to unload at the storage unit. Super thanks to our traffic control monitors, Bill Gilligan, Jim Rogers, Morgan Howland, and Jack Gould of the Ithaca Fire Police, and FLRC board members Alan Lockett and Dan Longaker. Thank you to our course marshals Denice Cassaro, Emily Funk, Bailey Drewes, Julienne Flynn, Erin Larson, Julie Quinn, Jeremy Downs, Pete Kresock, Courtney Grey, and Aaron Proujansky! Tim Ingall—lead and sweep biker—you’re the man! Sherry, Maren, and Nora Golden, and Mark and Bryce—thank you for manning the water stops! Thanks to the finish line timing crew Leone Timing and Results Services.

We had an awesome packet-pickup/registration crew also: Pete Dady, Amelia Habicht, and Emily Funk heading up Tuesday pickup at Finger Lakes Running & Triathlon Company. Thanks to them and the folks at the store for the use of their location for packet pickup. On race day, we had Steve Shaum, Jon Shaff, Brenda Michaud, Ally Jauquet, Pete Kresock, Sarah Anderson, and Mike Allinger working to get everyone registered on time. Thanks everyone for a great evening!

If we’re forgetting someone here, we’re truly sorry. (And please let us know!) Without all of you, FLRC could not continue to hold these events!

– Race Directors Mickie Saunders-Jauquet and Gary McCheyne

FLRC’s final indoor track meet of 2018 went off without a hitch on Sunday, and full results are now available. The meet was one of our largest ever, thanks in part to being cosponsored by the Cornell Running Club as a National Intercollegiate Running Club Association (NIRCA) meet that drew teams from as far away as Buffalo, NY and Burlington, VT. Also increasing interest in the meet was a popular race walking clinic presented by Erin Taylor-Talcott, a world record holder in the 50K race walk who was fresh off a second place in an international 50K race walk in Monterrey, Mexico. And we were happy to see youth teams from Ithaca’s own GIAC Navigators and the Syracuse-based SAS ATOMS joining our regulars from the Corning-based Southern Tier SOAR and the Auburn Pulsars.

We kicked the meet off with four heats of the 3000m, culminating in a compelling final heat in which Sam Lagasse repeated his win from last month (a 9:49 in the 2 mile) by running an even more impressive 8:51. In the last lap, Lagasse turned up the speed to outkick David Richards (8:54) and Keith McAteer of the Syracuse University Running Club (8:59). Further back in the pack in the fast heat, Jullien Flynn of Red Newt Racing keyed off the extra competition from being in a mixed race to run a strong 9:57, a season’s best and 1:13 ahead of the second place woman.

Switching from our longest race to the shortest, the 60m showed incredible depth, with a slew of fast times across the last three heats. Patrick Skinner took the win in 7.19 seconds in heat 16, followed by Mike D’Angelo’s 7.25 in heat 17, William Zuckerberg’s 7.31 in heat 16 for the Cornell Running Club, and a tie for fourth between Arnoldo Burnett (heat 15) and Blake Williams (heat 17, for the University of Vermont Running Club) in 7.32. For the women, Charlie Slusser of Southern Tier SOAR won in 8.36, beating Rose Simmons of Mohawk Valley Community College’s 8.67. Four other women also finished under 8.87 seconds.

Next up was our exhibition event — the 800m race walk. It’s not a traditional event, but after Erin Taylor-Talcott’s presentation, we wanted to give people a chance to try race walking for real. It’s not as easy as it looks, and good race walkers speed right along. We had 20 finishers, led by Tayler-Talcott’s husband, Dave Talcott (himself an accomplished race walker) in 3:58 and followed by local favorite Gerrit Van Loon in 4:20 and the Cornell Running Club’s Claire Jones in 4:21. Geraldine Rogers even made the long drive down from near Rome for the race walking presentation and to try this race.

Changing gears again, we moved on to 19 heats of the 200m, and again, there was great depth. The two fastest times of the day came in the final 19th heat, but the next two finishers set their times in heats 18 and 17. In a finish that was really too close to call, Alex Worsley of the Cornell Track & Field Club nominally outleaned Blake Williams of the University of Vermont Running Club, 23.94 to 23.95. Without camera-based fully automatic timing, however, it’s impossible to know for sure who really won. For the women, Charlie Slusser of Southern Tier SOAR repeated her win in the 60m, coming through the tape in 28.87, nearly 1 second ahead of Mya Marsh of the Candor CSD Running Club.

Our final and largest individual event of the day was the 1 mile race, with 120 finishers across 10 heats. It was the fourth event in the MITHACAL MILE SERIES, so I’ll start calculating rankings soon — remember that you need to race four miles to compete for an age-group award. The mile races were exciting, and the times were impressive — fully 31 competitors ran under 5:15. The fast last heat featured blistering kicks and exciting finishes for both first and second, and third and fourth. Mik Kern, who won last month’s mile with a strong final lap in 4:41, tried for the same strategy this time, but Kody Parrott of the University of Buffalo XC and Track Club had a ferocious kick of his own, and managed to outpace Kern in the final meters, 4:36.1 to 4:36.4. Just seconds behind them, David Richards pulled off a similar feat to take third, beating Nico Tripeny of the B Team, 4:39.4 to 4:39.9. The women’s race wasn’t in the slightest bit close, with Kristina Schwartz of Red Newt Racing duplicating her teammate Jullien Flynn’s strategy of moving up smoothly to clock a 5:00.4, 22 seconds in front of second place.

(As an aside, the day before, in the outdoor Belmar Parade Day Mile in Binghamton, the Ithaca-based Red New Racing team of Kristina Schwarz, Jullien Flynn, and Rachel Hilliard, who was head timer for Sunday’s track meet, swept the women’s elite race in 5:15, 5:29, and 5:44!)

As always, we closed out the meet with 6 heats of a relay race — a 4 by 400m this time. Despite all the collegiate runners participating, the Candor CSD Running Club replicated their February win, clocking a team effort of 3:55.

Finally, I want to thank our volunteers, who get better and better at running these track meets even as the number of runners grows — they deserve significant appreciation for putting on a 6-hour event for hundreds of runners and spectators. Rachel Hilliard shouldered head timer duties after being shown the ropes by Scott Wehrwein, and Adam Pacheck did a stellar job with backup timing and lap counting. Jullien Flynn and Emily Funk juggled athlete entries, scratch, and seed time changes with aplomb, and produced results faster than ever before. Becca Lovenheim wrangled a record number of runners in her role as head clerk-of-course, with Tonya Engst shepherding each heat to the starting line. Tom Rishel started each race perfectly, with no false starts or major delays for reloading. Julie Quinn recorded finisher order calmly and accurately, no mean feat when four runners finish in quick succession within seconds. Josh Brockner and Alex Colvin joined us to time the lane-timed races and both were generally helpful as necessary. David Keifer, Carl Franck, and Tonya Engst came early to help set up, and David both managed rolling bib pickup and had many things torn down before the final relay heat was done. My thanks to each and every one of you — numerous runners and coaches have commented on how smoothly our meets run due to your efforts!

We’ll be taking a break from track for a few months before starting up the summer meets at Lansing High School. The dates for the summer meets are June 19th, July 17th, and August 21st — get full details and event info here.

See you then!

FLRC’s February 2018 indoor track meet is in the books! On Sunday, 230 runners piled into Cornell’s Barton Hall to compete in the 2 mile, 800m, 200m, 1 mile, and 4x400m relay. We had runners as young as 5 and as old as 70 (sometimes in the same heat). Everything went swimmingly (runningly?) and good times were had by all, both on and off the track. Results are now available.

In the 2 mile, Sam Lagasse seeded himself at 10:00, and then proceeded to give a master class on pacing while running at 9:49, lapping even second-place Joe Thompson, who finished in 10:55. Local runner Rich Heffron had also seeded himself at 10:00 and might have been able to give Lagasse some competition, but Rich was unable to make the meet given that his wife gave birth to their first child a few hours before. Congratulations, Rich! For the women, Veronica Dailey ran a 12:52 for first place, with 52-year-old Anne Shafer-Nolan (coming off a strong performance at the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile) not far behind in 13:03.

We had 9 heats of the 800m next, and it was a strong field, with 15 runners going under 2:10. In the final heat of the day, Corning-Painted Post West’s Bryce Derick took the lead in the last lap and managed to hold off a spirited kick by teammate Quinn Nicholson, winning in 1:59.9 to Nicholson’s 2:00.2. The women’s race was almost as close, with Alyssa Walker of the Crusaders running a 2:21.0 to beat Corning-Painted Post West’s Alyssa Walker by 1 second.

Next up were the sprinters in the 200m, and Jhamir Brown of Elmira took the crown with a masterful 24.05. After him came a tight pack of Lance Jensen of the Candor CSD Club Runners, second in 24.85, Steven Shepard of Chenango Forks, third in 24.88, and Tyreek Billups of the Cornell Track & Field Club, fourth in 24.98. Similarly closely contested was the women’s race, with Isobel Sheffey of Watkins Glen beating Elora Ferrie of Corning-Painted Post West 27.54 to 27.79.

The most popular race of the day was the 1 mile, with 80 runners spread across 8 heats. It also proved one of the most exciting as all the runners in the fastest heat went out in a tight pack for three laps. Eventually, though, it broke up a bit, and Mik Kern went to the front at the start of the final lap and threw down a ferocious kick to beat Steven Segal of Notre Dame High School 4:41 to 4:43. The women ran strong as well, with Aneisa Dodson of Elmira crossing the finish line in 5:27, 1 second ahead of Katherine Mertus of Corning-Painted Post West.

Finally, in the 4x400m relay, Lance Jensen anchored a powerful Candor CSD Club Runners team to clock a 3:51.6, not quite 2 seconds ahead of Elmira’s team, anchored by Patrick Hemmenway, which finished in 3:53.0.

This was one of our smoothest meets yet, thanks to the efforts of an increasingly experienced volunteer team, and they deserve huge thanks for putting on 5-hour event for hundreds of runners and spectators. Scott Wehrwein was head timer, with Aaron Proujansky as backup timer; he also did double duty counting laps for leaders. Jullien Flynn set new speed records of her own in getting results out after each event (with help from David Keifer and Casey Carlstrom), and her work in entering day-of-meet entries and changing seed times made everything run well. Becca Lovenheim exercised a calm hand while wrangling runners as clerk of course, and Bob Swizdor shepherded each heat to the starting line. Tom Rishel, a past president of FLRC, did a bang up job (sorry) of starting each race. Pete Kresock and Jesse Koennecke recorded finisher order, which is sometimes easier said than done when four runners finish within a second or two of each other. Jesse also took a break to run the mile and lower his PR by a few seconds before coming back and taking over as head timer for the relays. Tonya Engst ran registration and the 1 mile, lowering her 2018 personal best by 5 seconds in the process. And David Keifer was instrumental in both setup and teardown, along with handling rolling bib pickup and helping out wherever else he could. Thanks to all of you!