If you miss running cross-country from high school, or you want to experience competing on a team where everyone counts, join us!
(Thank you to Scott and Amy Dawson for making the above video.)
For decades, club runners have competed together in the Pete Glavin XC Series, a series of five cross-country races that take place in the fall in locations across upstate New York.
Teams compete in U19 (ages 18 and under), Open (20–39), Masters (40–49), Vets (50–59), Super Vets (60 and over), and Ultra Vets (70+) categories.
You can run in all the races, some of the races, or just one.
When & Where
- Sunday, September 22, 2024: 5K at Bassett Park in Williamsville (Buffalo)
- Sunday, October 6, 2024: 6K at Everest Park (Auburn)
- Sunday, October 20, 2024: 6K at Taughannock Falls State Park (our home race—run it!)
- Sunday, November 3, 2024: 8K FLCC Finger Lakes Community College (Canandaigua)
- Sunday, November 10, 2024: 8K at Center Park in Fairport (this side of Rochester)
Races generally start at 11 AM, which provides enough time for travel and warmup.
We typically carpool to races, and carpooling can be a great way to get to know your teammates! Carpools leave from the southwest corner of Cornell’s B-Lot by the Vet School. We may be able to coordinate pickups and mini-carpools for people who live en route to a race or far from Cornell.
Join
To join the team for 2024, follow these steps:
Step 1: Register for at least one race
As you register, when you are asked if you would like to join or create an age group team, select Yes. On the next screen, choose a team as follows:
- If you are age 18 or under, pick FLRC U19.
- If you are age 19+ and competing on the Women’s team, pick FLRC and your age group.
- If you are age 19+ and competing on the Men’s team, pick High Noon and your age group.
Pick the A team if possible, but don’t worry if only B or C are available; Adam or Tonya will put you on the right team for the race later. The signup will offer a discount if you have a USATF number; if you don’t know what this is, you don’t have one.
Once you know your forum “handle,” tell Adam (@adamengst on the forum, or ace@tidbits.com in email) or Tonya (@tonyaengst on the forum or tonya@tidbits.com in email) that you want to be added to the PGXC group on the forum. This is how you’ll get coordinating information about each race and the team parties.
Step 3: Fill in the Roster Sheet
Fill in your row on the roster spreadsheet (FLRC or High Noon), indicating which races you plan to run. This step is essential for team success, since Adam and Tonya have to submit accurate team rosters to the PGXC organizers for each race. If you don’t have a row, make yourself one in the correct age group or ask your age-group captain, or Adam or Tonya, for help.
Step 4: Get in Touch
If you are new to PGXC or to Ithaca, contact Adam or Tonya to introduce yourself (see #2 above). We’d love to find out how you heard about PGXC, if you’ve run cross-country before, and so forth. You can introduce yourself to you team captain, too—see below.
2024 Team Captains
Team captains are are listed here with their FLRC Forum names.
- FLRC U19: TBD
- FLRC Open Women: Molly Doruska @mdoruska3
- FLRC Masters Women: Jessica Daily @maplejh
- FLRC Vets Women: Julie Barclay @julie19
- FLRC Super Vets/Ultra Vets Women: Sandy Gregorich @Sandy
- High Noon Open Men: Mik Kern @Mikhail_Kern
- High Noon Masters Men: Tristan Lambert @Tristan_Lambert
- High Noon Vets Men: Jesse Koenecke @jtk1
- High Noon Super Vets/Ultra Vets Men: Charlie Fay and Carl Franck @CharlieF @cfranck
More Info
Courses are generally grassy fields with rolling hills. Cross-country is faster and easier than trail running, and the distances are quite short, from 5K to 8K. Starting in 2019, men and women run the same distances! But it’s also tougher than road races, and the footing can be wet, muddy, and slippery—some runners like to wear spikes. Light trail shoes can also work well.
Depending on the age category, teams can be either 8 runners with 5 scoring, or 5 runners with 3 scoring. Non-scoring runners displace other teams’ runners and are thus still key. If we have enough runners in an age group, we’ll field multiple teams.
Scoring is simple. Every runner (separated for men and women) earns points for their place—1 point for first place, 2 points for second place, and so on. The places of all of a team’s scoring runners are added up, and the team with the lowest score wins. There are individual and team awards for each race and for the series overall.
You can’t run on a team for people who are a category older than you (for example, a 30-year-old Open runner can’t run with the Masters team), but you can “run down” on a team with people who are younger (a 55-year-old Vet can run with the Masters team). We set up the teams for each race based on who is coming.
Although there are five races, you do not have to run all the races. However, to be eligible for individual series awards, you must run at least two races, including the championship race (and realistically, you need four races to be competitive). To be eligible to score for a team in the championship race, you must run at least one race earlier in the series.
For even more info about these races and cross-country in general, consult Tonya’s FLRC PGXC FAQ.