So What is the Trail Circuit?

Next weekend, the FLRC Trail Circuit kicks off with the Thom B Trail runs on May 13. For those of you new to the club, new to the trails, or both, our annual Trail Circuit is a series of FLRC and non-FLRC organized off-road races spanning from May through October. Each race is pretty low-key, with a home-grown feel, low entry fees, and little-to-no swag or fancy awards. These races are a great way to meet some new people, get more in touch with Mother Nature, and come up with some wacky trail tales to impress your buddies over a post-race beer.

How about running through the beautiful gorges at Robert Treman State Park at the Monster Marathon and Half Marathon, then sticking around for our volunteer picnic that same afternoon? Some of you might even decide to double up and run the gorge again the next day at Lucifer’s Crossing. What about conquering your fear of hills while surrounded by bright green flora at the Forest Frolic? Or escaping the confines of your cubicle on a Thursday evening in August to get down and dirty at Forge the Gorgeous? Not running? It’s just as fun to pitch in and volunteer at an aid station or road crossing, and then join the post-race gathering afterwards at the finish line. There’s something here for everyone!

Our Trail Circuit ranking system helps keep things fun and a little more competitive. Anyone who completes at least one series race is automatically added to the rankings. At the end of the season, awards are given in three categories, to the top male and top female in each. (Thank you to Karen Ingall for compiling the statistics year after year!)

  • Stonehead – Top points earner across all series races that a runner has completed. A runner’s “score” for a race is determined by dividing the winning time by his/her time, then multiplying by 100.
  • Pebblehead – Same as above, except only the runner’s top three scoring races are counted.
  • Boulderhead – Points are based on the total number of Trail Circuit miles a runner completes, regardless of finishing position. A DNF (did not finish) is scored as a 0.

After the aforementioned Thom B, the next series race is the Tortoise & Hare at Buttermilk Falls on June 4. Click here for a full list of races that are part of the series. (Note: We’ve confirmed that the Highland Forest 1-2-3 will not take place this year, but will likely return in 2018. Also note that the Finger Lakes 50s is already sold out.) Registration is open for many of the trail races, and will be open soon for the others.

So whadd’ya say? It’s time to bust out the gaiters and trucker hats and get a little mud on your new shoes!

The FLRC Book Lending Library

You probably didn’t even know that FLRC has a lending library, did you?
It’s located at Gerrit Van Loon’s office on Snyder Hill, and it’s populated
largely with books from the collection of Diane Scherrer and Jim
Hartshorne, although there have been more recent additions too.

Many of the books are pretty old—there’s even a yearbook-style volume
with results from the 1960 Olympics that shows that Jack Daniels did indeed
win a medal in the modern pentathlon. But while that’s amusing for the
haircuts alone, there’s one that Adam Engst recommends highly, particularly to
those who remember runners like Frank Shorter, Jim Ryun, Bill Rodgers,
Marty Liquori, Benji Durden, Rod Dixon, Pat Porter, Jeff Galloway, and Jack
Bacheler.

Written by John L. Parker, Jr. of “Once a Runner” fame, “Runners & Other
Dreamers” is a collection of articles originally published in magazines in
the 1980s, often with a postscript that brings the story up to date as of
1988. Of the 24 articles, there are a handful that aren’t about running at
all, and a couple that just feel odd. But overall they’re great. Parker was
a national class miler in his own right, with a 4:06 mile in college, and
he ran with the Florida Track Club in Gainesville when it had some of the
best distance runners in the world. If he’s to be believed, he introduced
Frank Shorter to Jack Bacheler there.

As anyone who has read Parker’s writing knows, he understands at a deep
level what it’s like to run and race at the highest levels. For him, a
bunch of old washed-up ex-professional runners getting together for a
charity race means that they all run under 34:30 for 10k, with most of them
in the 30:00 to 32:00 range. But since he knows all these people
personally, reading the articles feels like getting the stories on a
cooldown run after a hard workout. He may not be Rick Cleary, but no one’s
succeeded in goading Rick into writing a book yet. :-)

Anyway, next time you’re at Gerrit’s, look for “Runners & Other Dreamers”. To check any of the available books out, just give the receptionist the card inside the back cover like you’re in an old-fashioned library before the days of computer catalogs. You can keep the books for 3-4 weeks and there are no overdue fines if you miss by a day or two. You may also donate books to the collection if you wish.

Skunk Cabbage Results

On April 9, the local running community came together for the 36th consecutive running of the Skunk Cabbage Classic. All told, 366 runners completed the 10k while 535 completed the half marathon, for a total of 901 finishers between the two distances. Many runners were out to run their first 10k or half marathon, while others were seasoned veterans chasing a personal best. Some were competing for age group or overall awards, and most were out to enjoy a beautiful morning on the outskirts of Ithaca.

Despite Mother Nature’s full cooperation this year, there were no new records set. The race wasn’t without excitement, though. In his half marathon debut, Adam Pacheck took home the men’s win in 1:11:13, outlasting defending champion Richard Powell. Powell took the runner-up spot in 1:14:03. For the women, Ithaca’s Jennifer Boerner was victorious in 1:22:33, placing ninth overall. The 10k was won by William Hoyne and Jullien Flynn in 33:28 and 37:02, respectively.

Half Marathon Results With Awards

10k Results With Awards

As always, we wouldn’t be able to put on an event of this magnitude without such a large crew of amazing volunteers and sponsors. Much gratitude to everyone who helped with the race in some capacity. Between course marshals, water stops, equipment management, finish line help, and many other areas, we had our hands full making sure that every runner had a safe and enjoyable race day experience.

Additional thank you to the following sponsors for their support of Skunk Cabbage Classic:

  • Buffalo Wild Wings, Cornell Dairy, Ithaca Bakery, Ithaca Milk, Gimme! Coffee, and Wegmans for providing post-race refreshments.
  • Finger Lakes Running & Triathlon Co. for hosting Saturday packet pickup and providing awards in the form of gift cards. 
  • Top Stitch for the really cool finishers’ medals.
  • Tompkins County Amateur Radio Association, Cornell University, and the Cornell Running Club for their continued support of the race.

Race photos from Steve Gallow, our official event photographer, will be available shortly. In the meantime, check out our Facebook page to view and post your race day photos. We also welcome you to share with us on Twitter and Instagram, tagging @FLRCithaca and using #SkunkCabbageClassic.

We hope to see you all next April for Skunk Cabbage 2018!

FLRC Scholarship Program Deadline is Approaching

The deadline is fast approaching so get those applications in! We are proud to announce the following scholarship program:

Program/Eligibility:

  • A minimum of two unrestricted $1,000 scholarships to be awarded to two deserving high school seniors who participated on their school’s cross county and/or track & field teams.
  • Eligible students must reside in Tompkins or a surrounding county.
  • FLRC membership is not required.

Process:

  • To apply, applicants must submit a letter describing their academic, extracurricular, and running achievements. Include any plans you may have for a running career beyond high school and the personal benefits you have gained by participating in the sport.
  • Applicants should include two letters of recommendation, one from a teacher and one from a coach. Please do not send complete transcripts or additional material for consideration as these will not be reviewed.
  • Mail application materials to:

    FLRC Scholarship Committee
    Attn: Lorrie Tily
    P.O. Box 185
    Locke, NY 13092

Identification of Recipient:

  • Scholarship applications must be received by the Scholarship Committee by Friday, April 7, 2017.
  • Committee members will review submissions and identify recipients by May 12, 2017.
  • Recipients may be asked to present their scholarship application materials to the FLRC Board.

Leon Atkins and Allison Koch Dominate FLRC March Track Meet

Our final indoor meet of 2017 wasn’t quite as large as the previous two meets, due to the high school indoor track season being over, but it was still a hopping good time for a lot of people. 184 runners competed in 45 heats across 4 individual events and 1 relay for 404 total entries! Results are now up!

If we had meet MVPs, those awards would certainly have gone to Leon Atkins of the Auburn Pulsars and Allison Koch of Camden. Although his specialty is the 400m, since we didn’t have that event at this meet, Atkins ran almost everything else, taking first in the 200m and the 1 mile, second in the 60m, and anchoring the winning 4x400m relay team. Koch won the 60m and the 200m, and also anchored a women-only relay team.

But we wouldn’t realize how dominant they were going to be since the first race was the 3000m, which Evan Magnussen took out hard from the gun and held the lead all the way to the tape in 8:58. Patrick Queiroz of the University of Buffalo XC and Track Club took second in 9:05. For the women, Jordyn Naylon’s 10:40 outpaced the 11:04 by Karen Simmonds-Brady of the Auburn Pulsars.

In the 60m, Thomas White ran a commanding 6.69 to beat Leon Atkins, who crossed in 7.02. On the women’s side, Allison Koch of Camden took the win in 8.50 over Charlie Slusser of Southern Tier SOAR, who ran 8.70.

But after a false start that marred the final heat of the 200m, Leon Atkins showed what he could do, running a 23:59 to beat the 24.05 run by Justin Starks of the Cornell Track & Field Club by almost half a second. Similarly, Allison Koch of Camden doubled her victory count with a 28.03 that beat Annie Geiger of the Cornell Running Club’s 29.63.

Coming back in the 1 mile race, which he had never run before, Leon Atkins went out way too fast, like most novice milers, but then settled down and led the rest of the race and outkicking Clayton Wolfe of Owego Free Academy in the final lap to win in 4:37 over Wolfe’s 4:38. Elizabeth Lucason of Camden won the women’s race commandingly, with a 5:14, a full 10 seconds faster than her win in the January meet’s mile. Faithe Ketchum of Team PREFO was second in 5:36.

In the final event of the day, the 4x400m relay, Leon Atkins teamed with Clayton Wolfe and Vince Duvall of Owego Free Academy, and sprinter Alex Tompkins to win the relay in 3:48.5. Although impressive, that time remains only the second-fastest 4x400m of the year, behind Corning-Painted Post’s astonishing 3:39.6 in the February meet.

As always, dedicated work by a team of volunteers was essential in helping this meet run smoothly. Tonya Engst and David Keifer handled registration, with Mickie Jauquet and Bob Talda entering day-of-meet registrants and then wrangling all the heats as clerks of course. Alex Colvin reprised his role from January as head timer, Tom Rishel used our new electronic starting pistol as the starter, and David Rossiter counted laps and did backup timing along with Nancy Kleinrock. Steve Shaum managed the finish line with aplomb, Scott Wehrwein did a fantastic job of entering results with help from David Keifer and Jesse Koennecke. Special thanks to Mike Stewart for help setting up, Bryce Derick and Gavin Derick for helping out with timing and keeping finishers in order, and Don Tompkins for timing the 60m.

Thanks for a great indoor season, and we’ll see you outdoors on June 20th!

Annual Meeting Highlights

On March 5, the Finger Lakes Runners Club hosted its Annual Member Meeting at Joe’s Restaurant. The meeting is a gathering of FLRC members and their families, where the officers and board members openly discuss the club’s finances, past and upcoming events, and other club business. It is a time for members of the local running community to meet new, liked-minded people, and for the club to recognize members for their outstanding volunteer work.

This year’s special guest speaker was Amelia Habicht. A well known member of the Ithaca community, Amelia gave a presentation titled “Running 2020: Looking Back, Looking Forward.” She described her life as an endurance athlete prior to suffering a serious stroke at a young age. Amelia underscored the power of determination in helping her get back into endurance sports after her stroke, and highlighted how her condition has empowered her to achieve new goals and inspire others. The presentation was an abbreviated version of a TEDx talk Amelia gave at Ithaca College.

Following the guest presentation, several club officers discussed recent and upcoming FLRC events. Highlights include the successful Track Friday—a fundraiser for the Finger Lakes Trail Conference that we are making into an annual FLRC event,—the Mithical Miler race series and weekly training groups, the FLRC and High Noon cross country teams, and the 2017 Trail Circuit. Treasurer Mike Allinger then gave a brief report on the club’s financial state.

Next it was on to the awards. Gary McCheyne announced the Trail Series winners for the 2016 season. The Stonehead awards for the highest score across all ten races in the series went to Bill King and Audrey Balander. The Pebblehead title—for highest score compiled from a runner’s top three series races—was awarded to Fred Harle and Nora McIver-Sheridan. Nora had a perfect score of 300, meaning she won at least three series races. The Boulderhead crown is for the runner who completed the most miles in the series races, regardless of his/her finishing time or place. The 2016 Boulderheads were Ron Cunningham and Nancy Kleinrock. Special thanks to Karen Ingall for compiling the statistics and organizing these rankings year after year.

FLRC president Micki Sanders-Jauquet recognized the five new FLRC Life Members, as voted on by the Board of Directors earlier this year. Lifetime membership status is a way for the FLRC to acknowledge individuals who have volunteered their time, energy, and resources toward the club’s activities—and the local running community as a whole—over many years. The Lifetime Member Class of 2017 is comprised of Bruce Robel, Steve Shaum, Nancy Kleinrock, Sue Aigen, and Tom Hartshorne. Thank you all for your years of dedicated volunteer service! (Here is a brief bio of each new Lifetime Member.)

Every year, all club members are invited to vote on the FLRC Volunteer of the Year. The award recognizes an individual for going above and beyond the call of duty in a volunteer capacity at club events during a single calendar year. The 2016 award went to Katie Stettler—the former club treasurer who meticulously kept records of all of the club’s financial transactions and yearly budgets through a series of spreadsheets. Katie served as the club’s treasurer for several years before handing the reigns to Mike Allinger in January 2017. She also lent a hand at many of our races throughout 2016.

In the Desert Contest, Bruce Robel eked out a win with his brownie recipe. The brownies included real whipped cream, which likely put him over the edge as the top vote-getter.

We’d like to thank everyone who attended the meeting, as well as all who contributed to the delectable dessert table. As a reminder, all FLRC club members—not just board members—are welcome to attend our monthly board meetings, usually held on the second Wednesday of each month. If you are interested in voicing your opinions on club activities, or looking to serve as an officer, board member-at-large, or a race director, the meetings are the best way to learn how the club functions behind the scenes and see what opportunities are available.

New FLRC Lifetime Members

The Finger Lakes Runners Club is pleased to announce the addition of five new Lifetime Members, as voted on at our January 2017 Board of Directors meeting. The FLRC’s Lifetime Membership status is a way for the club to acknowledge individuals who have committed extensive time and energy to the club on a voluntary basis, over a period of many years. This includes, but is not limited to, directing or organizing club events, holding a significant position on the club’s Board of Directors, outstanding community involvement with regards to running, and volunteering at several club races each year.

The FLRC would like to recognize the following individuals for their years of service to the club, the community, and the sport of running.

Steve Shaum:

Steve announcing the FL50s awards

Steve Shaum has served on the Finger Lakes Runners Club Board of Directors since 2005. During his tenure, he has served as Membership Coordinator from 2005-2010, Co-President in 2006, Board Member-at-Large from 2011-2012 and 2017 to present, Race Director for the Finger Lakes 50s Trail Races from 2012-2016, and is currently on the Finger Lakes 50s organizational committee. Shaum has also served on various board committees, including the marketing, finance, web development, and governance committees.

The Finger Lakes Runners Club organizes over 20 running events each year, and Shaum has not only run in nearly all of the events—he has also volunteered at them. Shaum is known to show up early at a race to help out with registration and set-up, run the race, then step in to assist with finish-line timing and cleaning up after the event. He is also known to volunteer at and run in many other races around the Finger Lakes region.

Shaum has been a runner for 30 years. He and his wife Nancy Kleinrock enjoy traveling globally and participating in races during their travels whenever possible. Both of them have enjoyed running races around the United States, and in New Zealand, Spain, and Italy.

Shaum has worked full-time in higher-education administration for 22 years and currently works in the Office of Student Services at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, where he conducts academic and career advising.

Bruce Roebel:

Bruce Roebel became a runner after turning 40. He has run with the High Noon Athletic Club since 1996 and has volunteered extensively with the Finger Lakes Runners Club. Roebel has been the race director of the FLRC Turkey Trot since 2007, turning the low-key prediction run into a much larger event with over 400 runners. Before he took on this role, the Turkey Trot rarely exceeded 100 participants. This is truly a labor of love for Roebel—keeping extensive records, all by hand and memory. For the last eight years, he has used the Turkey Trot to help the Finger Lakes Runners Club partner with Loaves & Fishes of Tompkins County to provide meals for those in need. Last year, with only 268 participants, the Turkey Trot contributed $2,756 to Ithaca Loaves & Fishes.

Roebel directed the indoor and outdoor FLRC track meets from 2010 to 2015. He has been the official starter at the meets since the turn of the century. In addition to volunteering at track meets, Roebel arranges to secure the Barton Hall and Kane Field tracks for FLRC events. For the past ten years, Roebel has served as a course marshal the Skunk Cabbage Classic Half Marathon and the Ithaca 5 & 10, and he has helped out at the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile.

Roebel has worked at Cornell University for the past 36 years. He is currently the administrative manager of the Department of Anthropology, the Program in Archaeology, and the Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines. He and his wife, Kathleen Gibson, share their time in Ithaca and Watkins Glen.

Nancy Kleinrock:

Nancy en route to another FL50s finish

Nancy Kleinrock has served on the Finger Lakes Runners Club’s board for 13 years in various capacities. She served as Assistant Newsletter Editor from 2004-2007 before becoming the Newsletter Editor—a position she continued through 2012. In 2006, she was the FLRC’s Co-President. Additionally, Kleinrock served as the club’s Secretary from 2009-2012, as Executive Vice President from 2012-2013, and returned to Secretary in 2014—a position she currently holds.

Kleinrock regularly volunteers at races, either throughout the entire duration of an event or before or after she runs it. The FLRC awarded Kleinrock the Hartshorne Volunteer of the Year award in 2013.

Along with her various roles on the Board of Directors and as a volunteer, Kleinrock can be found putting in miles on the area’s trails—around the Finger Lakes region, and nationally and globally while traveling. She’s also competed in many road races, achieving age group national ranking times in distances including 5k, 10k, the half marathon, and the marathon. She is happiest when she runs long on trails, with favorite race distances being 50k or 50 miles. In 2010 she placed first masters woman at the USATF 50-Mile National Championship, and the same year placed third in the 50–54 age group at the USATF National Cross-Country Club Championships. She’s even won a couple of races outright, finishing ahead of not just the women, but all the men too!

Outside of running, Kleinrock works as a writer for a Southern California conference company that focuses on emerging high technology.

Tom Hartshorne:

Tom Hartshorne, son of Finger Lakes Runners Club founder James Hartshorne, was the club’s “copy jockey” during its early years. In the late 1960s and early 70s, when Tom was in middle school and high school, he took on the tasks of copying announcements and invitations, stuffing envelopes, and licking stamps for numerous FLRC event mailings.

In 2002, when Tom Hartshorne returned to Ithaca after 30 years away, he stepped in to become Assistant Director of the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile—a competitive track event named in honor of his father. His role involved helping race director Rick Hoebeke bring in talented athletes to flesh out the elite masters fields. Hartshorne was racing against international competition at the time and was able to convince many of the world’s best masters track athletes to come to Ithaca and race at Cornell’s Barton Hall. In 2007, Tom took over the Hartshorne Masters Mile as Head Director—a job he’s held for the past ten years.

Hartshorne has also contributed his time to many other volunteer tasks, such as the lead cyclist for the Skunk Cabbage Classic Half Marathon, and as a course marshall for the Ithaca 5 & 10 and FLRC Turkey Trot. From 2002 to 2014 he also volunteered his time coaching youth soccer and hockey.   

Hartshorne has competed in dozens of USATF Masters Championships and has won several national titles in 800-meter and 1500-meter individual competitions, as well as a 4×800-meter relay team member. He has competed in seven World Athletic Veterans Association Track Championships over the past 21 years, making the finals five times in the 800 and 1500-meter events.

Hartshorne has worked in Brooklyn since 1983 as a real estate developer and presently manages properties in Brooklyn and Ithaca. His son Hunter runs cross-country for Carnegie Mellon University. His daughter Corinne runs cross-country as a sophomore at Ithaca High School.  

Sue Aigen:

Sue Aigen has served on the Finger Lakes Runners Club Board since 2001. During this time she volunteered as Race Director for the Danby Down & Dirty from 2001-2006, has been a Race Co-Director for the Women’s Distance Festival 5k since 2008, and has served on the club’s finance committee since 2001. Aigen regularly volunteers throughout the year at FLRC races, as well as at local, non-FLRC running events. This past year Aigen volunteered at the Skunk Cabbage Half Marathon, the Monster Marathon, the Cayuga Nature Center 5k, and the YMCA Santa Run 5k.

Aigen’s running career began in 1974 as a member of the Cornell women’s cross-country and track teams coached by Greg Page. She became a member of FLRC in 1995 when she joined Bob Congdon’s Sunday running group in order to meet new friends and prepare for her first marathon.

Aigen has worked in the financial services industry for the past 38 years, and is currently a financial planner with Finger Lakes Financial Group.  

Fabulous performances from FLRC’s February indoor track meet

FLRC’s February 19th meet was another huge one, with 252 runners across 4 individual events and 2 relays (42 heats all told) for a grand total of 536 entries. Phew! It was a record number of teams too, with 18 teams coming from all over New York and even several from Pennsylvania.

We always start with the longest race, which this month was the 2 mile, where Ace Serianni outlasted Joseph Thompson to take the tape in 10:37. Olivia Lovejoy of Elmira won the women’s race in 12:06, with Amrita Ramamurthy of the Cornell Running Club in second in 13:17.

After 20 heats of the 200m, we ended up with nine runners under 25 seconds, with Alex Spicer of Corning-Painted Post finishing strong in 24.05 to edge his teammate Carrington Vaughn’s 24.06. The women’s race was almost as close, with Elmira’s Agrieanna Mathewson running 27.22 to beat her teammate Hannah Brooks’s 27.33.

The 800m proved to be one of the most exciting races of the meet, with Corning-Painted Post’s Kevin Moshier, one of the top cross-country runners in New York State last fall, winning in 1:58.1 over Owego’s Clayton Wolfe, who came through just a half-second later in 1:58.6. In another nail-biter, Alyssa Walker of Team PREFO took the women’s crown in 2:25.7, outleaning Elmira’s Madaleen Nelan, who finished just two-tenths of a second later in 2:25.9.

In the 1 mile, Kevin Moshier paced his Corning-Painted Post teammates through the first five or six laps before dropping out to let Quinn Nicholson and Jack Ustanik battle for the win. Nicholson took it in 4:32, with Ustanik back just slightly in 4:36. It was another deep race, with the top ten men all under 5:00. On the women’s side, Kristina Kronauer of Red Newt Racing won handily with a 5:09, followed by a trio from Corning-Painted Post — Katherine Mertus, Emily Nui, and Cleo Baker — all of whom finished within tenths of a second in 5:19. Sadly, the second mile heat was marred when world-class super-vet runner Coreen Steinbach went down shortly after the start, breaking her clavicle. Our best wishes for a speedy recovery, Coreen!

Although we were tempted to dock some of the teams in the post-Valentine’s Day 2x400m relay for insufficient smooching, we resisted the urge, and Owego’s middle distance runners took the top two spots, with Clayton Wolfe’s team running a 1:51.2 to beat Vince Duvall’s team’s 1:54.2. In the more traditional 4x400m relay, Corning-Painted Post’s Alex Spicer followed up on his 200m victory to anchor the winning relay team in a smoking 3:39.6, beating out Owego’s 3:55.8, anchored again by Clayton Wolfe.

Such a big meet would have been impossible to put on without the hard work of numerous volunteers. Carl Franck helped set up, managed rolling bib pickup, and arranged the relay heats. David Keifer helped with setup, team registration, heat management, result entry, and breakdown at the end. Tonya Engst was also there the entire time to help with setup and registration before moving on to take over heat management, which was key in keeping the meet moving. Mickie Jauquet did setup and registration and heat management as well, plus coordinated FLRC gear sales. Alex Colvin and Harris Bockol filled out essential roles on the heat management team. Ved Gund and Jesse Koenecke entered day-of-meet registrants and seeded the races, with Scott Wehrwein moving from backup timing to take over the computer to enter results with Jesse — they were the last ones working! Tom Rishel, after making it clear that he remains a pacifist, did a great job with the gun as starter. Alex Looi returned from Vermont to be head timer, with Julie Quinn reprising her usual role of recording finishers. Aaron Proujansky shouldered the harder-than-it-looks job of counting laps for the leaders and helped Julie keep finishers in order in big heats. Casey Carlstrom and Kevin Nelson and Jullien Flynn all helped out with backup timing. And finally, Jim Miner pitched in to help break down all the equipment at the end.

Skunk Cabbage Registration and T-Shirts

The 36th Annual Skunk Cabbage Classic is barely a month away. Are you up to the challenge of running one of Ithaca’s oldest and most popular road races on April 9? Then come check out Ithaca’s rolling hills on our USATF certified course.

Online registration for both distances—the 10k and the half marathon—will remain open until April 6. The price is $35, but runners under age 18 can register for the 10k for free! Afterwards, the cost is $50 for everyone, regardless of which distance they choose. Click here to register.

The first 550 half-marathon finishers will receive an all-new, custom finisher’s medal. Special awards will go to the top three overall open, top two overall masters (40–49), and first overall vets (50+). The award ceremony takes place soon after each race, with male and female age-group awards in five year increments. All the race details are right here.

T-shirts are available for order through March 26, but only for those who register online. Made by Zorel, the short sleeve tech shirts are gender-specific styles and cost $15 each. The black design is guaranteed to match anything in even the craziest looking runner wardrobe! (Including your mom’s neon spandex from 1989.)

Men’s Tech Shirt

Women’s Tech Shirt

 

Winter Chill Series Results and Recap

Well folks, that’s a wrap for the 2017 Winter Chill 5k series. Between the four races, we had some nasty cold in Chill #1, late April sunshine and warmth in Chill #3, and some pretty typical January weather for weeks two and four. For many, the series was a way to kick off the year on a positive note and to keep active when Mother Nature fails to cooperate.

Many thanks to the 102 different runners (and at least five dogs) who completed one or more Winter Chill race! We had 14 runners complete all four races to be eligible for the overall series win. The series came down to the wire in the fourth week, with Gerrit Van Loon and Yvette de Boer separated by a mere two seconds after the first three races. When the dust finally settled, Gerrit earned the top spot with an overage time of 20:38.4 over the four 5k races.

Results: Week 1

Results: Week 2

Results: Week 3

Results: Week 4

Overall Series

Following Winter Chill #4, runners and volunteers met for brunch at Kelly’s Dock-Side, race director Bob Talda handed out some fun awards. The costumed runners from each week—sports apparel, pajamas, animal costumes, and colors of the rainbow—were eligible for a raffle to win some fun shwag. If anyone wishes to share their race photos on social media, don’t forget to use #WinterChill5K and tag @FLRCithaca on Instagram and Twitter.

As always, our Winter Chill volunteers were amazing—from the timing crew, to the course marshals, to registration, to post-race cleanup, and anything else we might have missed. These folks gave up part of their Sunday mornings to stand in the cold and help us put on the race each week. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Week 3 pajama party. PC: Bob Talda