Baby, We Were Born to Slog: Highlands Trail Fest 50-Mile

When I think of northern New Jersey three things come to mind—Springsteen, Sopranos, and a handful of mediocre sports franchises. After sliding and stumbling my way through a couple of state forests, I can confidently double the size of that listicle with three more items—rocks, rocks, and rocks. 

The inaugural Highlands Trail Festival follows the scenic Stonetown Circular Trail loop and then snakes its way through Norvin Green State Forest. Oh, and did I mention that it starts and ends at an old zoo that's been abandoned for almost 50 years? The Jungle Habitat — the race's staging area — is the site of a former Warner Brothers animal theme park that operated from 1972-76. The cracked asphalt roads and dirt paths that once formed the route for the park's safari tour now function as hiking and biking trails. The race's start/finish line sits next to the park's old entrance tunnel and follows the dilapidated safari path for the first and last mile. Sadly, the dude in the Bugs Bunny suit was not there to hand out water and food or, better yet, run the race in-costume and in-character.

2022 marked the inaugural year for Ian Golden's Red Newt Racing event. The concept is derived from Ian's Iron Mines 25k/50k — a one-off in 2019 due to permitting restrictions — and uses some of the same trails. The Highlands Trail Festival offers 25k, 50k, 50-mile, and 100k distances. Each race comprises the 16-mile Stonetown Circular Trail

2022 FLRC 100k Ultra Challenge

The FLRC Challenge was such a success in 2021 that the Finger Lakes Runners Club decided to bring it back in '22 with a brand new set of courses. Naturally, that meant the return of the FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge. And of course it meant I'd have to get down to business and tick this one off sometime over the summer. 

So what's the FLRC Challenge? In brief, it's a 4-month-long virtual race series comprising ten specific courses around Tompkins County. The courses range from 1 mile to 13.1 miles on various surfaces, including roads, track, rail trails, singletrack trails, and cross country trails. The main goal is to run each of the courses at least once during the 4 months the Challenge is open to be counted as a finisher. Various competitive elements, such as overall and age-graded scoring systems, are outlined on the Challenge Web page. The event includes a dynamic leaderboard that is updated in real time whenever someone logs an effort on any of the courses using a specified smartphone app.

The FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge involves running all ten courses, a total of 63.8 miles, within 24 hours. What makes it stand out from a normal 100k race is that the the 24-hour cutoff includes the time it takes to get from one course to the next. You can run the ten in whatever order you choose, allowing for maximum efficiency. At the start and finish of each course, there's a metal sign

FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge Redux

I'd originally hoped to give the 100K Ultra Challenge a second attempt on December 21st, the Winter Solstice. My first run was on the Summer Solstice, June 21st, exactly six months earlier. I figured running in minimum daylight would close out the FLRC Challenge with a degree of symmetry. Neither date has any special meaning to me. Both happened to meet my own criteria of possible days for an Ultra Challenge attempt—two consecutive days when I'm off from work and my kids are in daycare. Ultimately I chickened out on December 21st when I saw how cold it would be with the likelihood of light snow. It also meant I'd be done running for the year so I'd essentially be throwing in the towel in the Most Miles contest. I decided to put the run off until the 30th. I also considered a midnight start on December 31st so I could end the Ultra Challenge with the Waterfront 5k group run in the evening, but I didn't trust myself to stay awake while driving all night between courses. 

So what's the FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge? The rules and details are all on the race Web site. Basically, it involves completed ten specific virtual race courses in under 24 hours, with a cumulative distance of 65.3 miles. Run a course. Drive to the next. Repeat x 9. You can start whatever day and time you want and choose what order to run them. The courses vary in distance from 1 mile to a half marathon and include 4 singletrack trail courses and 6 on asphalt or rail trails. The Ultra Challenge is part of the FLRC Challenge, a larger, year-long virtual series organized by the Finger Lakes Runners Club. 

The weather actually looked pretty good for December 30th. Word around town was that the trail courses were super sloppy and slushy, but passable. I decided to knock them out first, in the daylight and on fresh legs, knowing if I could finish Frolic and Thom B