FLRC’s February Track Meet Hosts Fast 5000m and More

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Our second track meet of 2024 was once again a big success, with 199 athletes and numerous spectators. This month, 12 teams competed, and we racked up 427 event participations. Full results are available on the FLRC website, and we have photos in our public album from Abigail Silva and Jay Hubisz—contribute yours too! (Photos below each event writeup are from those events, but not necessarily of the people mentioned.)

We kicked off the meet with a tough race—25 laps for the 5000m. That didn’t stop it from being wildly popular, though, with 61 finishers across three heats. That’s almost twice as many as ran the 3000m in January. In the final heat, 40-year-old Sam Morse of the Syracuse Track Club and 16-year-old Riley Hubisz of the Ithaca Running Club set a sizzling pace, running together through 22 laps at sub-5:00 splits. In the end, age won out, with Morse pulling away slightly to cross first in an astonishingly fast 15:14, with Hubisz second in 15:22, almost a minute ahead of third place. On the women’s side, 14-year-old Lauren Kosek also ran an impressive race, laying down a 19:20 to beat 37-year-old Donna Langerfeld of the Genesee Valley Harriers, who finished in 19:29. Third place went to 50-year-old Heather Webster, also of GVH, in a strong 20:01.

In the racewalking sub-competition, Team USA’s Erin Talcott won in 28:47 after pacing 15-year-old Madison Tuttle for much of the race—she finished second in 29:03, with 14-year-old Madigan White third in 31:29.

Switching from long to short, we moved into 12 heats of the 60m, where Kyren Young of Watkins Glen took the top spot with a 7.09, beating Tyler Burke and Edson Jean-Baptiste of Morrisville State College and Ryan Haisler of the Cornell Track & Field Club, whose times ranged from 7.28 to 7.32, too close to call for hand timing. Our top woman was Erica Chiang of the Cornell Track & Field Club, whose 8.23 was almost a second ahead of the 9.10 from 14-year-old Carolyn Cherwinski. The first heat was once again cute beyond belief, and we decided that when you’re just 1 year old, as was Amedeo Bisogni, you’re allowed to have aerial assistance from your mother.

Given that we’d gone long with the 5000m, we traded our traditional mile for the 800m and were treated to some super exciting races. In the final heat, Isaac Mazzeo kicked hard to beat Lucas Baker by less than a second, 2:01.04 to 2:01.65, with Riki Sampson of the Cornell Track & Field Club just another second back in 2:02.79. The women’s race could have been equally as exciting, but Eliza Derito of the Ithaca Running Club wasn’t in the same heat as Ella Whiffen of the Cornell Running Club, with both clocking 2:27. Kudos also to Jesslynn Lewis of the SOAR Running Club, who racewalked the 800m in 5:07.

The final individual running event of the day was the 200m, where Kyren Young of Watkins Glen took his second win for the day in 23.36, ahead of Edson Jean-Baptiste of Morrisville State College in 23.52, Riki Sampson of the Cornell Track & Field Club in 24.25, and Tyler Burke of Morrisville State College in 24.44. On the women’s side, Erica Chiang of the Cornell Running Club also doubled for the day, winning in 29.11, beating 15-year-old Gretchen Hulsey, who came through in 31.62.

Throughout the meet, Brett Shelton of the SOAR Running Club managed the long jump, with 45 athletes completing a jump. The top two spots for the men went to Merritt Cox of the Cornell Track & Field Club and Tristin Weeks of the Groton Project, both of whom recorded jumps of 17 feet, 11 inches. The women’s competition also saw a distance tie, with Megan Wong of the Cornell Track & Field Club and Makenna Keough both jumping 15 feet, 4 inches.

The same thing happened in the high jump, managed by SOAR’s Steve Wagner. Max Paciorek and Nick Spoto, both of the Cornell Track & Field Club, cleared 5 feet, 8 inches for the men, and for the women, both Makenna Keough and Gretchen Hulsey jumped 4 feet even. All told, 21 athletes cleared the bar.

The last event of the day was the 4x200m relay, with 18 teams across three heats. Cornell Track & Field Club teams took first and third in 1:39 and 1:42, with Morrisville State College placing second in 1:42. All told, six teams went under 2:00.

The meet went smoothly, and we appreciated all the kind words from runners and coaches. Tonya Engst, Carl Franck, Damian Clemons, Jamie Loehr, Jean-Luc Jannink, and Michelle Woods arrived early to help set up. Tonya continued to run the registration desk and answer questions with Rebecca Lambert. Tom Rishel reprised his traditional role as our starter, Patrick Boyle added to his experience as head timer, and Heather Cobb and Rich Bernstein managed the heats. Laurel Gilmer and Dave Kania kept HyTek Meet Manager running smoothly for results, Molly Doruska recorded bibs for longer races, and Truck Rossiter counted laps and ran the backup timer. Our sprint timing team was Jon Lewis, Truck Rossiter, Ruth Sproul, Molly Doruska, Tristan Lambert, Kate McCormick, and Anne Shakespeare. Special thanks to Steve Wagner of the SOAR Running Club for managing the high jumps with the able assistance of Kathleen Sullivan and to Brett Shelton of SOAR for the long jump, assisted by Ted Boscia, Tim Tucker, and Maren Golden.

Sign up for FLRC’s next track meet on March 10, when we’ll go old school with both the 2-mile and a 1-mile, plus a bonus 400m. Hope to see you there!

Amidst Other Fast Times, Hartshorne Masters Mile Runner Breaks W85 American Record

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Continuing the tradition, the Finger Lakes Runners Club organized the 55th annual Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile at Cornell University’s Barton Hall on January 13, 2024, playing host to 67 local and elite masters runners from the Ithaca area, the Northeast, and throughout the US and Canada. Six heats of the mile were contested, with fast times, thrilling finishes, and a W85 American record-breaking run from 89-year-old Edna Hyer.

We have full results on the FLRC site with age-grade percentages and times. Leone Timing’s results are also worth a look for their split times and position changes. Don’t miss the fabulous race photos and race videos! (You can also click the header links below to watch the associated videos.)

Race Results

Combined Women & Men: In our leadoff race, the first two runners—43-year-old Maria Tabatabaei (8:08) and 46-year-old Gerald McKinley (8:26)—brought the average age of the heat down to 68. But the second man was 69-year-old Steven Clark in 8:35, and 76-year-old Deb Bliss was the second woman across the line in 9:44. The real star of the show, though, was 89-year-old Edna Hyer, who ran 14:02.99 to best Tami Graf’s previous W85 American record for the indoor mile of 14:18.28 by 15 seconds.

Men Section 2: Although top seed 71-year-old Spider Rossiter controlled the pace for the first lap, the race quickly turned into a battle between 62-year-old Steven Hoover and 53-year-old Chris Cox. At the bell, however, Hoover threw down a blistering kick that went unchallenged and cruised in for the win in 6:11. And Cox ended up third after hard-kicking Gary Williams (59), who snuck past him at the line to take second in 6:14.43 by 0.10 seconds. Rossiter ended up fourth in 6:26, which was still good enough for the 70–74 age group win.

Men Section 1: Talk about a race! Last year’s winner of this heat, 51-year-old Mike Middendorf, took control of the race from the gun, opening up a 30-meter lead within a few laps. But a four-man pack gradually reeled him in, with newly minted master Patrick Boyle starting his kick from 300m out, taking the lead at the bell, and fighting off a ferocious kick from 64-year-old veteran miler Casey Carlstrom to win by 0.28 seconds in 5:34.52. 48-year-old James Kinton crossed less than a second later in 5:35.18, with Middendorf fourth in 5:36.15 and 49-year-old Damian Clemons fifth in 5:36.26. That’s five finishers across the line in 1.74 seconds!

Men Elite 2: Although the eventual first and second runners tucked into those positions behind rabbit Patrick Milano for the first three laps, 50-year-old Terrance Shea took the lead at the halfway point and looked like he might be able to hold on for the race. But at the bell, 49-year-old Roger Moseley found another gear that gave him a 34-second last lap to Shea’s 40-second lap to win handily in 5:06. Sharing that gear was 47-year-old Tristan Lambert, whose last lap was even slightly faster than Moseley’s, enabling him to overtake Shea for second in 5:10, with Shea coming through in 5:12.

Women Elite: With the return of four-time Hartshorne champion and W45 American record-holder Sascha Scott, who has never been beaten in this race, the top spot was never in question. The 48-year-old Scott hadn’t raced a mile for two years before this but tracked rabbit Bella Burda closely for five laps before cruising in for an uncontested win in 5:16. Had 58-year-old Michelle Rohl been in the kind of shape she was last year, when she broke the W55 American record with a 5:16.70, Scott might have had a race on her hands. Instead, Rohl ended up in a three-woman pack with 45-year-old Carly Shea and sub-master Donna Langerfeld for the middle of the race before blasting the final three laps to take second in 5:37, with Shea following her in 5:41. Rohl’s time was still good for the top age-grade percentage of the day, at 91.59%, with Scott second age-graded for the women with an 89.90%.

46-year-old Alison Schwalm outran Langerfeld in the last lap for fourth in 5:45, with Langerfeld fifth in 5:49. 50-year-old Heather Webster trotted in next at 5:53, followed by 41-year-old Liz Hartman in 5:58, and 43-year-old Erin Dewalt in 6:08. Ninth place went to 62-year-old Lorraine Jasper, who held off a kicking 44-year-old Jade Barth to cross in 6:18 to Barth’s 6:19. Then, just a few seconds later, 47-year-old Debra Vertoske overtook 60-year-old Louise Kelley in the home stretch for eleventh place in 6:21 to Kelley’s 6:22. Jasper, Kelley, and Webster took home the remaining age-graded prize money with Jasper hitting 84.84%, Kelley 82.23%, and Webster 81.65%.

Men Elite 1: In the final race of the day, rabbit Adam Pacheck took top seed Sam Morse out at the requested 33-second pace, and the 40-year-old Morse stuck with him for five laps before taking off on his own to race in for the win in 4:31. Last year’s winner, 42-year-old Jaret Herter, dogged Morse for the entire race but was never able to close the gap and finished second in 4:35. 51-year-old Mark Williams, a three-time Hartshorne champion, maintained third place for most of the race but couldn’t hold off the hard-charging William Hoyne, age 41, who closed with the fastest lap of the day to nip Williams at the line 4:39.31 to 4:39.94. Nonetheless, Williams’s time converted to a 90.74 age-grade percentage to take home the top age-graded prize.

Last year’s surprise second-place runner, 42-year-old George Young, bested last year’s time by 2 seconds, running 4:46.54 for fifth and holding off 41-year-old Chuck Terry in 4:46.79. 40-year-old Samuel Mackenzie was seventh in 4:47, crossing ahead of 44-year-old Mark Walchinsky in 4:48 and Mackenzie’s high school coach, 51-year-old Scott Weeks, who finished in 4:51. Filling in the final two spots were 44-year-old Jordan Varano in 4:59 and 58-year-old Benoit Hogue in 5:04. Hogue may have been last in the heat, but his time was good for second place in the age-graded prize money with a 88.29%. Weeks was third with 87.20%, Herter fourth with 86.39%, and Morse fifth with 86.38%.

Volunteers

Hartshorne requires a significant volunteer effort, starting with race director Adam Engst and assistant race directors Charlie Fay and Tom Hartshorne. Jim Miner, Bob Swizdor, and Bob Talda arrived early to help set up. Jim Miner and John Whitman managed the registration table until Jim had to warm up for his race and John moved to help Charlie with race operations, after which Rebecca Lambert took over registration. Shana Snyder sang the national anthem, Bruce Roebal served as clerk of course this year, and Dan Hurley once again started all the races. Tonya Engst coordinated volunteers. Laura Helmerick and Bob Talda counted laps and rang the bell, David Rossiter read lap splits to runners, and Rich Bernstein monitored the finish line. Megan and Erica Powers helped runners take photos in front of our photo banner, and Aaron Proujansky, Kim Jackson, and Jesse Koennecke helped keep bystanders off the track during the races. Finally, Marte Reps coordinated the award luncheon. Thanks to you all!

Sponsors

Finally, we’d like to thank the sponsors who made this year’s Hartshorne possible. It takes a lot of money to put on a national-level meet like this, with rabbits, an announcer, extensive race photos, video of all the races, a post-race banquet, and cash prizes to attract some of the top talent in the US and Canada. The race’s 2024 sponsors include Sean Nicholson, Joe Daley, the Hartshorne Family, Javier Martinez, Cayuga Health, and Bangs Ambulance. The masters running community is tremendously appreciative of their support. Just because we’re not so young anymore doesn’t mean we don’t take our racing seriously!

See you next year!

FLRC’s January 21 Meet Kicks Off the 2024 Indoor Track Season

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Our first track meet of 2024 is in the books, with some smoking-fast times and impressive jumps. We had 216 runners, including 11 teams, competing in 477 events. Full results are available on the FLRC website, and we have photos in our public album from Jamie Love and Jay Hubisz—contribute yours, too! (Photos below each event writeup are from those events, but not necessarily of the people mentioned.)

Our first event was three heats of the 3000m, with Lucas Baker taking control of the race halfway through and cruising for the victory in 9:21, ahead of Curtis Mann’s 9:36. The first woman was 15-year-old Ella Devlin, who ran an 11:18 to outpace Liz Hartman by 5 seconds. In a racewalking sub-competition, 14-year-old Madigan White bested 63-year-old Dave Talcott 17:30 to 18:06.

Switching from long to short, we moved to 14 heats of the 60m, where Chase Luangsuwan and Benjamin Rhode went one-two in 6.97 and 7.00 seconds—too close to call for hand timing. On the women’s side, Olivia Haley sprinted to the win in 7.94 seconds, beating out Jalasia Demember in 8.18 seconds. But the most fun in the 60m was the first heat, which featured a slate of three- and four-year-olds—cute beyond belief!

The marquee event of the day for many was the mile, where 16-year-old Riley Hubisz, one of the top scholastic middle-distance runners in the area, laid down a stellar 4:24 for the win, easily outpacing Nate Wilsoncroft’s 4:35 in second. The women’s race was never in question, with 14-year-old Tsadia Bercuvitz, a national standout, running a 5:03, 37 seconds ahead of teammate Eliza Derito. Also notable among the nine heats of the mile were 76-year-old Deborah Bliss running a 9:25 and 14-year-old Isaac Hendrickson racewalking in 9:54.

The final individual running event of the day was the 200m, where Chase Luangsuwan notched his second win for the day in 23.78 seconds, though Kyren Young’s 23.80 in the previous heat was too close to differentiate with hand timing. Olivia Haley also doubled for the day, winning for the women in 27.51 over Zalayna Brown in 28.81.

Throughout the meet, Brett Shelton of the SOAR Running Club managed the long jump, with 51 athletes completing a jump. Rocking some sporty flannel bottoms, Allen Simms, Jr. jumped the longest, at 19 feet, 9 inches, just edging out Ross Bush, who recorded a 19-foot, 7-inch jump. The top women’s competitors were similarly close, with Makenna Keough jumping 15 feet, 9 inches, to Piper Hooey’s 15 feet, 7 inches.

In the high jump, managed by Steve Wagner of SOAR, Dylan John cleared 6 feet, 2 inches for the win, besting Nick Spoto’s 5-foot, 10-inch jump. Mia Wilcox led the women with a 4-foot, 8-inch jump, and Makenzie Kitner and Amelia Maxson tied for second at 4 feet, 6 inches.

The meet closed with a 4x200m relay, with a whopping 22 teams across four heats. The Elmira Track & Field team took the day with an incredible 1:37 (for 800m) time, outpacing Watkins Glen in second with a 1:43. Notably, however, the next two teams tied at 1:44, the two after that tied at 1:45, and overall, the top ten teams all broke 2:00. An exciting set of races!

The meet went smoothly, and we appreciated all the kind words from runners and coaches. Tonya Engst, Carl Franck, Joe Schlimmer, Jonah Schumacher, and Michelle Woods all showed up early to help set up in the heat of Barton Hall before the custodian opened the doors to let in cool air. Tonya stuck around to run the registration desk and answer questions with Rebecca Lambert, and Jamie Slater did a great job of selling FLRC clothing. Tom Rishel reprised his traditional role as our starter, Patrick Boyle did a bang-up job in his debut as head timer, and Heather Cobb and Rich Bernstein managed the heats with aplomb. Laurel Gilmer and Jesse Koennecke kept HyTek Meet Manager humming smoothly for results, Katie Gannon recorded bibs for longer races, and Truck Rossiter counted laps and ran the backup timer. Our sprint timing team was Jon Lewis, Truck Rossiter, Ruth Sproul, Bob Swizdor, Crosby Woods, Militsa Yaneva, and Katie Gannon. Special thanks to Brett Shelton and Steve Wagner of the SOAR Running Club for managing the jumps, and to Tyler Craige and Kathleen Sullivan for helping them.

Sign up for FLRC’s next track meet on February 18, when we’ll swap the 3000m for a 5000m and the 1 mile for an 800m. Hope to see you there!

2023 Turkey Trot raises record amount for Loaves & Fishes

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The 51st running of the Finger Lakes Runners Club’s Turkey Trot was a smashing success. A record $6,730 was raised for Loaves & Fishes, and 458 people participated on an overcast morning in the mid-30s. Did you know the Turkey Trot is now FLRC’s second-largest race after Skunk Cabbage? Consider adding the Skunk Cabbage Classic to your schedule in April as a volunteer or a runner. We have fantastic photos from the Turkey Trot, and if you took any, you can add more photos to that album!

Donation History

2010–13: Truckloads of cans and boxes of food collected
2014: $2,024 collected with 333 participants
2015: $2,855 (423 participants)
2016: $2,756 (268 participants)
2017: $4,030 (397 participants)
2018: $2,549 (211 participants)
2019: $4,137 (312 participants)
2020: $4,192 (virtual, 157 participants)
2021: $4,251 (289 participants)
2022: $5,895 (390 participants)
2023: $6,730 (458 participants)

This year was the 50th anniversary of the Turkey Trot and was, after 17 years, Bruce Roebal’s last year directing this wonderful event. We thank him for his efforts and energy in directing this staple of Ithaca’s race schedule. Steph Bailey will direct next year’s Turkey Trot.

Bruce transferred the names and actual times submitted on stickers handed out at the finish line to the signup sheets with predicted times. “By hand” takes time! A PDF of the “results” is online with a list of those closest to their predictions.

Thanks to Ithaca Bakery for donating bread, bagels, and pastries; Purity Ice Cream for the prize-winning pies; and Cornell Orchards for apples. FLRC picked up the tab for everything else. Thanks to all those who were so generous to Loaves & Fishes.

Thanks to all our volunteers! Although there are too many to list everyone who helped out, the race wouldn’t have been possible without Kathleen Gibson coordinating the food; Tom Hartshorne organizing the police, Scott and Amy Dawson publicizing the race and managing the course marking signs, Adam Engst and Jamie Slater handing out T-shirts, and Christina Culver for putting together a crew of Loaves & Fishes volunteers.

FLRC and High Noon Post Highest PGXC Cup Ranking in 2023

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Now that we’ve had our post-season PGXC party with runners and family members, it’s time to share the highlights from the final season results. (To see the series results at Run4Results, select 23 for the year, click Individual, Teams by AG, or Cup, and then click Submit.)

First, as I noted at the party, I write these recaps because I think it’s important to celebrate the achievements of the talented athletes in our community. It’s healthier to run with or cheer for our local stars than to focus on random celebrities.

And I hope that sharing the enjoyment and mutual support of team running encourages more people to join our cross-country teams next year! The season may be over now, but if you get in touch, we’ll make sure you’re on the @pgxc-flrc or @pgxc-high-noon groups when we start organizing parties and races next year.

Finally, a big thanks to this year’s PGXC age-group captains for recruiting and building community around their teams: Molly Doruska, Jessica Daily, Julie Barclay, Sandy Gregorich, Banyan Love, Mik Kern, Tristan Lambert, Jesse Koennecke, Charlie Fay, and Carl Franck.

Club Cup

Most notably, the FLRC and High Noon teams combined to place a solid third in the overall PGXC Club Cup competition, our first time out of fourth place since the Club Cup started in 2018. This is a huge accomplishment given that we draw from a population base of about 100,000 compared to Buffalo’s (Checkers) 1,160,000, Rochester’s (GVH) 1,080,000, and Syracuse’s (STC) 650,000. In particular, check out the points we racked up in Race #3, our home race at TC3.

Arc 2023-11-20 at 19.38.06@2x

Team Placements

From the FLRC team standpoint, we had three particularly strong groups, the FLRC U19 co-ed team, the FLRC Super Vets (60-69) women’s team, and the FLRC Ultra Vets (70+) team, each of which won their category for the series.

  • FLRC U19: 1st (yay!)
  • FLRC Open: 2nd (tie with Syracuse B-team)
  • FLRC Masters: 4th
  • FLRC Vets: 2nd
  • FLRC Super Vets: 1st (yay!)
  • FLRC Ultra Vets: 1st (yay!)

Two of those places merit special mention. Cross country is a team sport, and if a team doesn’t field enough runners, it doesn’t score. Plus, the PGXC rules require teams to compete on championship day or they fall out of the scoring entirely. We had two runners—Hope Towle on Open and Nancy Lorr on Ultra Vets—whose individual places were far back in the pack, but whose presence ensured we had a team. Without Hope on championship day, the Open team wouldn’t have had a team and thus taken second overall, and without Nancy, we wouldn’t have even had an Ultra Vet team. In cross-country, everyone matters!

Special kudos to the FLRC Super Vets team, which was both fast and large, often allowing us to run one or more Super Vets down to another team that needed another runner for a full team, even while fielding the top team in the series.

It was a tougher year for the High Noon men’s teams. Despite our strong Open and Masters teams, the Syracuse and Checkers teams were just faster and deeper, dropping us to third overall in both categories. And despite having the first and third overall Ultra Vets runners, the shocking depth of other Ultra Vets teams—Syracuse fielded four three-man teams for two races and GVH had two teams!—knocked us to fourth overall.

  • High Noon Open: 3rd
  • High Noon Masters: 3rd
  • High Noon Vets: No team on championship day
    (would have been 3rd)
  • High Noon Super Vets: No team on championship day
    (might have been 4th)
  • High Noon Ultra Vets: 4th

Individual Placements

It was a good year for our individual runners on either end of the age spectrum: three FLRC and High Noon runners brought home individual first-place awards for the series. Kate Hulsey won the women’s U19 division, Ruth Sproul topped the women’s Ultra Vets competition, and Charlie Fay placed first in the men’s Ultra Vets category. (And Banyan Love, had he not been off at a national mountain bike race in Maryland, would have won the men’s U19 division.)

The PGXC series awards go 10 deep after the overall winner of each category, so FLRC and High Noon ended up taking home 22 awards. Note that a perfect score is 80 points. They went to:

U19

  • Kate Hulsey: 1st Women’s U19 (71 points)
  • Gretchen Hulsey: 2nd Women’s U19 (62 points)
  • Rahmon Daily: 2nd Men’s U19 (46 points)
  • Ben Lambert: 3rd Men’s U19 (45 points)

Open

  • Molly Doruska: 11th Women’s Open (15 points)

Masters

  • Jessica Daily: 11th Women’s Masters (18 points)
  • Dan Timmerman: 2nd Men’s Masters (54 points)
  • Jay Hubisz: 6th Men’s Masters (33 points)
  • Jordan Varano: 7th Men’s Masters (26 points)

Vets

  • Julie Barclay: 2nd Women’s Vets (71 points)
  • Brenda Osovski: 5th Women’s Vets (44 points)
  • Jean-Luc Jannink: 8th Men’s Vets (26 points)
  • Alan Filipowicz: 11th Men’s Vets (15 points)

Super Vets

  • Sandy Gregorich: 2nd Women’s Super Vets (52 points)
  • Gill Haines-Sharp: 4th Women’s Super Vets (45 points)
  • Lorrie Tily: 6th Women’s Super Vets (42 points)
  • Laura Helmerick: 7th Women’s Super Vets (42 points)

Ultra Vets

  • Ruth Sproul: 1st Women’s Ultra Vets (77 points)
  • Deb Bliss: 2nd Women’s Ultra Vets (54 points)
  • Nancy Lorr: 5th Women’s Ultra Vets (33 points)
  • Charlie Fay: 1st Men’s Ultra Vets (74 points)
  • Joel Leff: 3rd Men’s Ultra Vets (51 points)

Congratulations to everyone, and thanks for a great season! Here’s looking forward to more runners doing even better in 2024.

Two Hollows Monster Marathon and Half 2023 Recap

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For 2023, the Two Hollows Monster Marathon and Half Marathon—formerly, simply the Monster Marathon and Half Marathon—moved to a beautiful network of Finger Lakes Trail-associated trails in Kennedy State Forest that most participants had never set foot on, despite being local to the area. In this way, the trail races differed from past runnings, along with nonbinary registration option and a new team of race directors, but in many ways the Monster remained the same:

  • it moved back to its traditional date of the Sunday of Labor Day weekend;
  • it retained the age-and-gender head start structure;
  • it was conducted as an out-and-back (this time, two out-and-backs, or more precisely an out-and-back in one direction and then a down-and-up in a different direction), so runners could assess where they stood with respect to their competition, but mostly so they could encourage one another throughout;
  • it featured hand-crafted finisher awards for every runner who covered the distance, in this case hand-knit leaf “medals” by RD Nancy and bottles of homemade “Monster Sauce” that RD Steve V. cooked up from his homegrown hot peppers;
  • it had friendly monsters in the woods greeting runners before they climbed the last of the monster hills.

The race team, volunteers, Wilderness Search & Rescue, and runners convened on a picture-perfect day—albeit a bit warm, especially as the marathoners were finishing up their final out-and-back.

Inexplicably, nearly half of the marathoners were no-shows, including all of the young bucks, so each of the 11 marathoners was out on the course in advance of the 8:00 am scratch start. This was definitely an opportunity lost for those who elected not to show up: no lovely singletrack, no trail camaraderie, and no cake and beer and sandwiches at the finish line for them. Nine marathoners finished, with Stephen Jesch crossing the line first in 4:36 clock time and, at age 54 and therefore with a 31-minute start ahead of the clock, logging the fastest raw time of the day (5:07). He definitely earned his “Thing 1” plush monster award and six-pack of beer of his choosing. “Thing 2” went to the 2021 champ, Gerrit Van Loon (4:39). Rounding out the top five in close succession to one another, were Gabrielle Woo (5:23:03), Pete Kresock (5:23:51), and Diana Hackett (5:28:54)—all clock times, not accounting for their respective head starts. Each of them went home with a personal “monster” and six pack.

The half marathon had 62 entrants and 55 starters and 54 finishers, so a much better respective turnout. These folks ran each out-and-back once, whereas the marathoners did it twice. With RD Steve Shaum holding down the monster cave at the finish line, RDs Nancy Kleinrock and Steve Vanek both partook of the fun on the trails. When all was said and done, Nancy (age 63) was second out of the gate and first across the finish line in 1:39 clock time (2:23 raw time), earning Thing 1 for her efforts. Thing 2 went to Brian Lee (age 50) in 1:46, and the 3rd place monster went to Crosby Woods (age 17) in 1:50. Monsters 4 and 5 went to Jeremy Thomas (age 47) and David Olds (age 56) in 1:59:14 and 1:59:42, respectively—again, all clock times. Just missing out on a stuffed monster of his own was Bob Swizdor (age 57), who crossed the line in 1:59:43, but had a one-minute head start on David; it just wasn’t quite enough to prevail.

Full results can be found for the full marathon and half marathon.

Snippets of the entire event were captured by photographer Jamie Love. You can view them here and download free of charge those you like. If you have pix you’d like to share, please upload them here.

Of course, the race couldn’t have happened without the many volunteers who stepped up to help: Vinny and Charlotte Cappadora (bib pickup and morning start/finish aid station); Pete Kresock (bib pickup before heading out to face his own monster on the marathon course); Ian Golden and Jake Werblow (Hilsinger Road aid station; special thanks to Ian who supplied all the food, fluids, and equipment for that aid station); Michelle Dardia and Stephanie Mulinos (afternoon start/finish aid station and post-race cleanup); Gerald McKinley (post-race cleanup, as well); Adam Engst, Heather Cobb, and Bob Talda (finish line timing); Margaret Frank and her daughter Genevieve (post-race food pickup); Jami Landry and Paul Maza (course sweeping); Jan Vanek-Raphaelidis and Colin Buckley as the woodland monsters; and Gary McCheyne (coordinating equipment before and after). Huge thanks as well to Ryan Healy and his intrepid volunteer Wilderness Search & Rescue crew who you saw periodically on the course tracking your bib numbers.

Special thanks go to Alex and Michelle Gonzalez, who constructed many—and maintain all—of the trails Two Hollows Monster traverses. For more about the “International Loops,” see pages 22 and 23 of the Fall 2017 issue of the Finger Lakes Trail News (Fall 2017). While runners were watching out for the pink flags, they might not have noticed that the course covered the Main FLT (white blazes), Spanish Loop (orange), and Swedish Loop (blue) on the first out-and-back, and then, in order going out the second out-and-back (actually, down the down-and-up), the Spanish Loop (orange), Irvin’s Trail (blue), Spanish Loop (orange), Polito’s Path (red), Eric’s Path (yellow), Irvin’s Trail (blue), English Loop (red—the nasty little up amongst all that down), and Spanish Loop (orange) to the turnaround at the bottom—no wonder there were 684 flags and so many wrong-way signs! Even as the marathoners were still out there running, Alex was painting the yellow end-of-trail blazes on the brand new Ukrainian Loop Trail mentioned in the article. That trail has been 14 years in the making; he had as good a day in the woods as we all did!

Plan ahead and put the Two Hollows Monster Marathon on your 2024 race calendar on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend and tell your friends about it.

Happy trails from your RDs,
Nancy Kleinrock, Steve Shaum, and Steve Vanek

Forge the Gorge 2023 race results and photos

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Despite rain all day and threatening weather reports, we managed to catch a break and have no rain during the Forge the Gorge trail race on August 10. In the 3-mile short course, Eric Sambolec ran unchallenged with a winning time of 22:30. Second place overall went to Margo Lee in 26:33, with 10-year-old Ada McKinzey of Trumansburg running an impressive 27:26 for third. In the 8-mile race, Dan Timmerman cruised to victory in 57:26, cementing his Pebblehead lead in the 2023 Trail Circuit with his third win of the year. Casey Austin of Homer was second in 1:00:36, outpacing Brian Lee in 1:00:56. For the women, Amelia Kaufman joined Dan Timmerman at the top of the Pebblehead standings with her third win of the year in 1:09.18, followed by Nancy Kleinrock in 1:17:31 and Julie Barclay in 1:22:30.

Our youngest finisher was 7-year-old Remy McKinzey, and our oldest was 74-year-old Jim Miner, both in the 3-mile race. But the 8-mile distance didn’t scare off 11-year-old Mckenzie Leonard or 71-year-old Carl Franck! Full results for the 100 finishers and race photos are now available.

Big thanks to all the volunteers, including the timing crew headed by Adam Engst and supported by Bob Talda, Heather Cobb, and Jesse Koennecke. They operate like a well-oiled machine. Zsofia Franck marched up the north rim to direct runners to the Gorge Trail. Nancy Kleinrock and Steve Shaum expertly handled registration. Nate Lockett was on the course and helped with setup and breakdown. Emily Jones and her tribe of four youngsters managed the water station and entertained runners simultaneously. Sheila Squier assisted in all things setup and breakdown. Lastly, Mo Ramas came out of nowhere (actually Colorado) and was all over the course, first directing runners at Bridge 8 before sweeping the course a couple of times, picking up flags along the way. She came back from the trail in the dark with a headlamp on and still looking for things to help with! 

Thanks to all the runners and volunteers for helping make this an enjoyable and successful event!

First Trackapalooza Offers a Full-Slate Track Invitational

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Historically, FLRC track meets have had just a handful of individual running events, though we added some jumps and throws this year. With Trackapalooza, we wanted to offer a full slate of events so everyone could run the distances they prefer. To aid in that, we retained TAJ Timing to provide an FAT system that would capture times to the hundredth of a second to ensure accuracy, particularly in the sprints, where hand timing isn’t always ideal. Full results are now available on the FLRC website, along with a slew of fabulous race photos from Jamie Love.

Overall, we had 138 athletes compete in 307 events, and 6 teams showed up, including Auburn, the Groton Project Track Club, the GIAC Navigators, the Ithaca Youth Bureau, Just Blaze Track Club, and Watkins Glen.

5000m

We kicked the meet off with the 5000m, often a somewhat sleepy race. However, an Auburn team took it out hard, with Austin Ferrin (16:07) holding off teammate Owen Gasper (16:10) for the win. Kyleen Brady of Auburn took the win for the women, outpacing teammate Mary Alice Pineau, 18:54 to 19:40.

100m

Moving from long to short, we switched to the 100m next, the most popular event of the day, with 66 finishers. Justin Hargraves took advantage of the FAT to lay down a commanding win in 10.93 seconds, with Kyren Young second in 11.73. Mihaela Toader was the fastest woman in 12.55, with the Groton Project’s Mattison Lucey second in 13.14.

400m

Also popular was the 400m, where Gavin Hickey of Auburn bested the field in 54.79, with the Groton Project’s Ross Bush second in 56.67. Julaina Coleman of the Just Blaze Track Club from Buffalo led for the women in 73.81, beating Tabitha Oakes, who crossed in 79.24.

1 Mile

Normally one of our largest events, the mile warranted only two heats. 51-year-old Scott Weeks, coach of the Groton Project, won handily in 4:52 while running alone. Isaac Hendrickson of Watkins Glen came through next in 5:19. 41 -year-old Liz Hartman set a new PR with a win for the women in a speedy 5:44, cruising in ahead of second-place Shannon Oakes, who finished in 6:22.

4x200m Relay

Next up was the happy chaos of the 4x200m relay, where an unattached team sped to victory in 1:43.41, the second-fastest relay time in an FLRC meet this year (behind an Ithaca High School team that ran 1:42 indoors in January). The Groton Project’s A team was second in 1:47.53, and Auburn came in third under 2 minutes with a 1:58.47.

200m

Switching back to individual sprints with the 200m, Auburn’s Payton Hickey joined his brother with a podium place, winning in 23.93 seconds, just a hair in front of Kyren Young in 24.06 and Logan Manor in 24.07. Mihaela Toader took a break from her med school studies (seriously) for the 200m and took home her second win of the day in 25.72, ahead of second-place Julaina Coleman of Just Blaze in 30.83.

800m

The 800m provided an exciting finish with Charles McCurdy of Trumansburg just beating Carter Naginey of the Groton Project to the line, 2:07.99 to 2:08.37. The only woman in the race was 7-year-old Nadiia Urazgildiieva, who came through in 3:57.42.

400m Hurdles

Not many people signed up for the 400m hurdles, but they were tremendously fun to watch. In the men’s race, with 36-inch hurdles, Aidan Tierney just held off hard-charging Mik Kern for the win, 1:10.89 to 1:11.21. Then, in the women’s heat, with 30-inch hurdles, Mattison Lucey of the Groton Project ran an impressive 1:12.64, outpacing second-place Julia Hubbard’s 1:14.64. But the crowd favorite was tiny 9-year-old Lauren Belcher, who was running every other hurdle and had shorter training hurdles to match her size—she looked great flying over the training hurdles to finish in 1:47.02.

3000m

As the meet wound down, Liz Hartman dominated the 3000m, running another PR for the overall win in 11:36. 14-year-old Madigan White was second in 15:10.

4x400m Relay

In the final running event of the day, three Auburn teams and a Groton Project team lined up for the 4x400m relay. Auburn’s A team held off the Groton Project, 3:44.20 to 3:45.38, with the remaining Auburn teams coming through in 4:14.36 and 4:17.32.

Long Jump

The most popular of the field events was the long jump, with 48 athletes scoring. The longest jump of the day went to Jonathan McNamara, who cleared 21 feet 0.75 inches, well beyond Joseph McDonald Jr.’s second-place jump of 20-04.25. For the women, Lisi Hubbard jumped 15-06.50 to place first, followed by Julia Hubbard at 13-06.75.

Triple Jump

The hop-skip-and-jump triple jump attracted only experienced jumpers, with Justin Hargraves clearing 44-02.00 for the win, with Dafydd Williams placing second with a 38-11.00 jump. Julia Hubbard claimed her first-place spot with a jump of 31-10.00.

Discus

In the discus throw, Ryan Olesky threw a whopping 151-00.25, with Zach Elliott second with a throw of 142-01.50. The only woman competing was the Groton Project’s Janice Carter, who threw 109-04.50.

Shot Put

Zach Elliott took his revenge in the shot put, heaving the shot 44-11.50 to surpass Ryan Oleksy’s 39-02.00. Janice Carter proved she wasn’t worried about competition, throwing 23-11.50 to best Groton Project teammate Jennifer Jones, who threw 23-06.50.

TurboJav

In our soft-tipped javelin competition, 13-year-old Locke Apker of the Ithaca Youth Bureau threw 66-01 for the win, followed by Wesley Millspaugh, who threw 56-08 for second. 14-year-old Paceyn O’Grady Specht took the crown for the women with a throw of 38-01, besting 10-year-old teammate Natalie Blackmur’s throw of 24-06.

Thank You!

All these events required a lot of help. Huge thanks to Tonya Engst for spending many hours the day before preparing for the meet and then coordinating bib pickup and clothing sales, ably staffed by Julie Barclay and Molly Doruska. Gary McCheyne was also a huge help in renting a van and bringing FLRC tents, tables, sound system, and water to the meet. Kudos to Rich Bernstein, Patrick Boyle, Dave Kania, and Jesse Koenecke for managing the heats as smoothly as possible with early help from Laura Helmerick and late help from Katie Gannon. Former FLRC president Tom Rishel reprised his traditional role of starter in the hot sun. Sarah Giesy counted laps for the longer races, and Alan Lockett recorded bibs as needed. Shane Eversfield, Ruth Sproul, and Bob Swizdor helped with the jumps, which were ably run by Brett Shelton of the SOAR Running Club. SOAR’s Steve Wagner also helped coordinate the jumps and the TurboJav, and the Groton Project’s Scott Weeks brought extra hurdles and Groton Project volunteers to manage the throws. Thanks to everyone!

Finally, special thanks to:

  • Ithaca High School for making the track available
  • TAJ Timing for the FAT results
  • Ithaca XC Boosters, who provided concessions, including fresh-squeezed lemonade
  • Jamie Love for taking hundreds of race photos
  • Sean Nicholson and Joe Daley for sponsoring the race

Trackapalooza is our final track meet for 2023, but we hope to see you indoors in 2024! But we still have a few Trackapalooza racing singlets left—order online soon!

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FLRC’s June Meet a Rousing Success after Early Rain

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The weather was fickle for our June meet, being hot and sunny for setup before drenching us during registration and forcing a delay in starting the events. But everyone hung out with good cheer, the rain eventually passed, and we were able to hold the entire meet, with 109 runners completing 189 events. Full results are available on the FLRC website, and we have hundreds of meet photos in our public album from Tammy Walsky and Ruth Sproul—contribute yours too!

We kicked the meet off with nine heats of the 100m, culminating in Kyren Young’s win in 11.11 seconds, just nipping Aidan Tierney’s 11.23 and Dylan Sedorus’s 11.41. 12-year-old Selena Rollins of the SOAR Running Club took the win for the women in 14.26, just edging her 12-year-old sister Serenity Rollins in 14.28.

Our next event went from short to long, with 27 runners across three heats of the 1600m. After a slightly slow start, Seth Bywater took control of the race and ran unchallenged for the win in 4:45, though second and third came down to a sprint where Adrian Haws snuck ahead of Patrick Milano by 3 tenths of a second: 4:51 to 4:52. Liz Hartman ran a strong PR-tying 5:48 to place first for the women, followed by Kylee O’Hara in 6:15 and Kathleen Sullivan in 6:23.

We focused more on sprints this month to provide more events for kids, and the 200m gave Michael Durski the opportunity to block Kyren Young’s quest for a double sprint win. Durski ran 22.42 for the win, just ahead of Young’s 23.77, with Tristin Weeks of the Groton Project third in 24.30. The Groton Project fared better on the women’s side, with Matty Lucey laying down a 27.43 ahead of Kathleen Sullivan’s 30.65 and Selena Rollins’s 31.08 for SOAR.

In the final individual running event of the day, the 400m, Carter Naginey of the Groton Project enjoyed a commanding win in 52.73, followed by David Patterson in 55.65 and Groton teammate Ross Bush in 56.04. Running her first 400m since high school, Ronke Ilegbusi surprised everyone—including herself—by winning the women’s 400m in a blazing 64.72. Grad student and former Cornell runner Kate McCormick, who coached our Tuesday night kids workouts all winter in Barton, took second in 69.39, with Liz Hartman third in 74.31. 

Throughout the meet, Brett Shelton of the SOAR managed the long jump, with 24 athletes completing a jump. David Patterson hit the winning distance‚ 18 feet, 5 inches, on his first jump, and second-place Ross Bush came close on his second, leaping 18 feet. Third place went to Matthew Funicelli with a 17-foot, 7-inch jump. SOAR’s Selena Rollins claimed her second win for the day with a 10-foot, 1-inch jump, just in front of teammate Vanessa Topielec, who jumped 10 feet. Rasa Warren took third for the women, jumping 9 feet, 5 inches.

For the first time I can remember, we featured three throwing events, the shot put, discus, and TurboJav (a short, soft-tipped javelin), courtesy of Steve Wagner of SOAR and volunteers coordinated by Scott Weeks of the Groton Project. Wet conditions reduced participation, but Matthew Funicelli topped both the shot put with a toss of 51 feet, 5 inches (16-pound shot) and the discus with a throw up 146 feet, 5 inches (2-kilogram discus). Collin Karl was second in both with a shot put of 41 feet, 4 inches and a discus throw of 96 feet, 6 inches. Janice Carter of the Groton Project took the discus win for women with an 86-foot throw (1-kilogram discus), and she was second in the shot put with a 23-foot, 4-inch throw (8-pound shot), just behind winner and teammate Jennifer Jones, who threw 25 feet, 7 inches, also with an 8-pound shot. In the TurboJav, Travis Durfee distinguished himself with a 75-foot, 3-inch throw (450-gram TurboJav), just ahead of Benson Patterson’s 74-foot, 1-inch throw. 11-year-old Molly Doran of SOAR was the top woman with a throw of 28 feet (450-gram TurboJav), beating out 9-year-old Isla Durfee, who threw 24 feet, 4 inches with a 300-gram TurboJav.

The night’s final event was the 4x200m relay, where 13 teams ran across two heats. Five teams broke 2:00 this month, with the win going to an unattached team anchored by Aiden Tierney in 1:48, followed by a High Noon & Friends team in 1:49, a Groton Project team in 1:50, and a Watkins Glen team in 1:51.

Our volunteers deserve extra acclaim for their grace under pressure while dealing with the rain, wind, and delays. Carl Franck, Tonya Engst, Paula Kilts, and Shane Eversfield showed up early to set up. Carl served as head timer when he wasn’t running his heat of the 1600m. Tom Rishel was our starter, and Heather Cobb and Rich Bernstein managed the heats. Jesse Koenecke kept everything running smoothly in Meet Manager with help from Dave Kania, producing results in record time. Tonya Engst and Rebecca Lambert reprised their roles at the bib pickup table, recruited for the relays, and answered runner questions. Lansing track and XC star Trent Thibault was unflappable while recording bibs for the 1600m and relay, Alan Lockett handled backup timing, and Ammon Koenecke counted laps for the leaders. Our sprint timing team was Amy Dawson, Scott Dawson, Amalia Skilton, Ruth Sproul, Keith Eggleston, Ammon Koenecke, and Bob Swizdor. Thanks to you all!

FLRC’s next track event is Trackapalooza, our inaugural full-slate track invitational, coming up soon on July 22, and if you want to run, please register soon! If not, we need your help volunteering!

Skunk Cabbage Half Marathon Course Record Broken

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What an experience! I’ve directed and timed a lot of track meets and small races before, but never anything on the scale of Skunk Cabbage. It was enjoyably challenging to design, implement, and conduct what is effectively a choreographed performance by numerous volunteers. Together, we created a memorable event and enabled significant athletic achievements for hundreds of runners. Thank you, all!

Attendance continues to recover from the pandemic, with 704 registrants and 559 finishers—329 in the 10K and 230 in the half. That’s 30% higher than last year, when we couldn’t use Barton Hall, and public gatherings were still a little shaky.

Nevertheless, Skunk was still a big success, capped off by a new course record in the half marathon, set by Joe Whelan of Webster, NY, who ran a 1:06:51 to break Christian Thompson’s 2014 record by 45 seconds. That’s a 5:07 pace! Joe was running Skunk as a tune-up race for the Boston Marathon on April 17th, and we’ll be rooting for him in two weeks. Second place went to Ithaca’s Giovanni Grano in 1:08:52, with Sam Morse of Syracuse taking third in 1:09:07. 42-year-old Chip O’Hara of Auburn was the top masters (40-49) finisher in 1:13:24, and 58-year-old Mookey Kent of Conklin Forks ran a 1:31:37 to take home the top vets (50+) place.

In the women’s half marathon, Katie Rey of Syracuse won in 1:32:15, followed by sisters Jenny VanEtten (Ithaca) in 1:35:49 and Kati VanEtten (Palmyra) in 1:36:52. Their mother Karen VanEtten also came up from Montrose, PA to run the 10K, making it even more of a family affair. The masters and vets prizes went to local runners, with 45-year-old Melissa Weiner running 1:43:12 and 57-year-old Caitlin Loehr clocking an impressive 1:40:00.

In the 10K, Ithaca’s Chris Halsey dropped 19 seconds from his second place last year to win in 35:54, besting the 36:07 laid down by 19-year-old Cornell student Hunter Frias of Brooklyn. Ryuki Yamasaki of Ithaca took third in 36:32. 44-year-old Doug Turnbull of Ithaca ran a 40:28 to take home the masters prize, and 63-year-old Keith Eggleston of Groton was close behind him in 40:42 to win the vets prize.

In an amazing show of masters running, the top three places in the women’s 10K went to runners in their 40s. No one was surprised when 40-year-old Olympic Trials marathoner Chelsea Benson of Ithaca placed first for the women—and fourth overall—in a relaxed 36:50. Ithaca’s Liz Hartman, also 40, took advantage of some pacing help from MITHACAL MILERS workout companion Mark Walth to break her PR by over a minute, placing second in 42:32. Third place went to 46-year-old Debra Vertoske of Lancaster, NY in 45:07. The masters prize was won by 45-year-old Shannon Oakes of Horseheads for her 45:22, and 56-year-old Brenda Osovski of Candor took home the vets prize with a 47:34.

Full results are available on the FLRC site, and don’t miss RunSignup’s 10K and half marathon awards pages to see who took home the framed Skunkadelic album covers as their awards. Steve Gallow’s excellent photos will be available soon, but if you have any good ones, please upload them to our public album for all to enjoy, too (it’s easy from a phone or computer).

While there’s no room to thank every one of the 80+ volunteers who made Skunk possible, I want to call out my super volunteers. Marte Reps gets huge points for ordering and picking up the significant quantities of food that hundreds of runners consume, and Lauren Milano provided key setup and food replenishment coordination. Tonya Engst left no detail to chance—so many signs and sets of instructions!—while managing a large crew of registration and shirt-pickup volunteers. Tom Hartshorne coordinated the safety aspects of the race with multiple area agencies and set out all the cones to calm traffic in Ellis Hollow. Vinny Cappadora brought his years of race directing to bear in setting up and breaking down the course singlehandedly. Alan Lockett worked with the Tompkins County and Dryden transportation departments to close roads and provide barricades, and on race day, he trained course marshals. FLRC equipment manager Gary McCheyne schlepped all the gear we needed and managed the finish line audio. Finally, Joel Cisne was our utility infielder, helping connect with the Cornell Police, repainting mile markers, and setting up the finish line.

In terms of organizations, we appreciate the assistance we received from Cornell University Athletics, Cornell University Police, Dryden Ambulance, Girl Scout Troop 40855, the Ithaca Hash House Harriers, the Tompkins County Amateur Radio Association, the Tompkins County Dairy Princess Program, the Varna Volunteer Fire Company, Cornell Dairy, Gimme! Coffee, Ithaca Bakery, Ithaca Milk, Wegmans Food Markets, the Barton Hall facility staff, Finger Lakes Running Company, Happily Running, Leone Timing, Rentals To Go, and USA Racing. 

That’s a wrap for Skunk 2023, but if you’re looking for new inspiration for your spring and summer running, sign up for the FLRC Challenge. I’ve developed 10 new courses, and we’ll have our kickoff group run on April 15th.