2025 Tough Trail Challenge

August 31st, 2025. I had a day to myself today while Hayley visited her family in Syracuse with the kids. Labor Day holiday tomorrow, not many chores to do at home, so the question is: what Challenge courses am I fitting in on the penultimate day of the 2025 FLRC Challenge?

I considered a few possibilities — hamster-wheeling on the Groton High School track for 8 or 9 hours to try to nab that Sweet 1600 sign from Patrick Milano; slogging through some absurd quantity of Varna humps on the road to win the Triple Hump sign; keeping it short and going for best average at Cayuga Cliffs; or making amends for my opening day Tough Tarmac DNF on April 19th.

2025 Tough Tarmac Challenge

Fathers Day 2025. My wife and kids rewarded me with plenty of running time so I decided to take care of the FLRC Challenge Tough Tarmac 50k — all five of the 2025 Challenge's road courses, totaling 28.4 miles. The event title is a little deceiving. Besides being three miles short of 50k, three courses are on asphalt, one on a track of my choice, and one on a crushed gravel rail trail. 

Lakefront Loops 5k 

Stop one on the Father’s Day Tough Tarmac Challenge brought me to Cass Park for an easy 5k. I slept poorly and started later than planned. Instead of starting with the Black Diamond Trail by headlamp I ran the Lakefront Loop first to make sure I’d be out of the way before the Peter De Mott Peace Trot organizers started setting up to host 500 people at their 5k. Cass was pleasantly

2025 FLRC Challenge 100k

Another year, another season of churning out miles on each of the ten FLRC Challenge courses. What is the FLRC Challenge? I've written about this before, and full details are on the event web page, but in brief the Challenge is this:

Run any of 10 specified routes in the Ithaca, New York area during the dates the Challenge is open (April 19th through September 1st for 2025.) Run the course on your own and log your times in the Webscorer app. Complete all ten during the during of the event to be considered a finisher. Complete all ten in a consecutive 24-hour period and document your runs to be counted as a 100k Ultra Challenge finisher. The cumulative distance of all ten is roughly 100k, with a variety of surfaces and elevation profiles. The 24-hour clock continues while driving between courses and taking breaks to rest and fuel. More info.

2025 marks the fifth year of the FLRC Challenge. This post recaps my 100k experience, my seventh attempt (and hopefully seventh finish) over the five years.

The first day of the 2025 Challenge was a no go for the 100k. We had too much going on at home and I couldn’t dedicate a whole Saturday to it. Instead I went with my backup plan — attempting the Tough Trail Challenge (all five trail courses) starting at

Satan's Sidewalk 150

 

Satan’s Sidewalk 66.6-Hour — the hellish big brother to the Dreadmill 48-Hour. The event is a fixed-time virtual race where runners tick off as many miles as they can or care to, all on a treadmill, in 66.6 hours. The rules are essentially the same as the Dreadmill 48, requiring time-stamped photo documentation to verify completed mileage. Satan’s Sidewalk also has a 66.6K option for those not interested in going the distance, plus an Outdoor Folly option for those without treadmill access and those without the level of stupidity required to run in place for 2 days, 18 hours, and 36 minutes. 

My goal for the Satan’s Sidewalk 66.6-Hour was 150 dreadmill miles. I wasn’t able to hit the distance at the Dreadmill 48 in December and wanted to give it another shot with the extra 18.6 hours. I still had to manage kids and chores during breaks, but less so than during Dreadmill. At any rate, this time I didn’t have to manhandle a queen mattress from bedroom to garage while the clock was