Sweet 1600 Season Recap

One FLRC Challenge course that's kind of an outlier is the Sweet 1600 — 1600 meters (rounded to one mile) on any track with a verified distance. This allows Challenge precipitants to log Challenge runs when they are away from the Ithaca area, i.e. on vacation. 

After making more travel plans for the summer of '25 than I normally do, one of my Challenge sub-goals was to see how many different tracks I could log a Sweet 1600. I'm not much of a track runner and have never run track competitively, but this mission would make it a little more fun to run in quarter-mile circles from time to time. 

Most notably is the three-laps-per-mile track on the level 4 deck of the Disney Wonder cruise ship, which I ran many times during vacation in August. I logged my lifetime furthest-from-Ithaca run (Challenge effort or otherwise) on that track while docked in

I Ain’t Gonna Run On Harry’s Farm No More

This song largely wrote itself yesterday while I plodded through the North Country Half. I hiked a Sweetgum just before sunset today to end my 2025 Challenge. The lyrics don’t necessarily reflect my feelings about the course or the 1600.

“Harry’s Farm”
Words by P. Kresock, music by Bob Dylan

I ain’t gonna run on Harry’s farm no more
No I ain’t gonna run on Harry’s farm no more
I go up West Hill in the morning and try to run it fast
But polyurethane and rubber are easier than grass
It does nuthin’ to improve my age grade score
No I ain’t gonna run on Harry’s farm no more

I ain’t gonna run by Harry’s sweetgum no more
No I ain’t gonna run by Harry’s sweetgum no more
It’s a sweltering inferno, the sun a-blazin’ down,
You search for spots of shade, there ain’t none around
Pace feels sub six, watch reads seven twenty-four
No I ain’t gonna run by Harry’s sweetgum no more

[harmonica break followed by guitar solo]

I ain’t gonna log a sixteen hundred no more
No I ain’t gonna log a sixteen hundred no more
Track or trail or ship deck, it’s just repeating circles
Brain is numb and thoughts are null, I’m seein’ blue and purple
They say “sing while you slog” and I just get bored
I ain’t gonna log a sixteen hundred no more

I ain’t gonna run on Harry’s farm no more
No I ain’t gonna run on Harry’s farm no more
Well I tried my best just to get my mileage fix
But the Challenge, it’s all over ‘till April ‘26
Sweetgum circuits now won’t change the Leaderboard
No I ain’t gonna run on Harry’s farm no more

The sun sets on the 2025 FLRC Challenge