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

2023 Ultra Challenge #1

Just like last year, the decision to start the run at night was last minute. This way if I had to be home at 2:30 p.m. to watch the kids for two hours I wouldn't have to drive home, go back out in the late afternoon, and possibly contend with thunderstorms in the evening. I could just focus on running one course and then the next without any detours or distractions. 

I also vowed not to repeat a few major mistakes from my 2022 Ultra Challenge: 

1. Do not attempt to run the longest trail course in the dark, even if it's one of the first courses you do.

2. Make sure to have a functioning Lightning cable in the car to charge your iPhone so you don't have to knock on the race director's door after running 50 miles and beg for a spare one because you rely on RunGo for the final course. 

Getting Lime Hollow done in daylight was imperative. I'm not over familiar with Lime Hollow Nature Preserve's convoluted network of short, twisty trails. There are plenty of opportunities to take wrong turns, especially in the dark. I also wasn't sure if I'd get busted by the cops or a ranger if someone spotted my car in the lot at some ungodly hour. The course is a 30-minute drive

Hash House Hundred 100k Fat Ass

There's no question the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the ultrarunning world. I'll acknowledge that, when looking at the big picture, race cancellations, physical distancing guidelines, and wearing a face covering while running are all minor inconveniences. There's no need to say any more about the pandemic here, except that hardly anyone was surprised on July 19 when the Twisted Branch 100k race director announced his race would be cancelled this year. And to be sure, he made the right call. The race would lose its luster and all the things that make it special if forced to adhere to precautionary measures required by state and local governments. The competitive and social aspects of Twisted Branch would be largely absent if a limited field size, wave starts, and elimination of pre- and post-race festivities were required to hold the race. 

I spent most of the summer running reduced mileage and struggling to find the time and energy to get out the door at all. I had no doubt about completing Twisted Branch within the 20-hour time limit, but the run would have been a struggle. When Pete Dady, a fellow Finger Lakes Runners Club trail race RD, invited me via Strava comment to his 100k fat ass run, I was naturally drawn in. The run was the weekend following the cancelled Twisted date. My wife was agreeable to letting me run it while she took care of the babies since she'd previously agreed to watch them while I ran Twisted.

The fat ass run, which Pete D tentatively titled the Hash House Hundred, is a single 100-ish kilometer loop through several state forests and many tracts of privately owned land, comprising a total of only three trails—the main Finger Lakes Trail, the Finger Lakes Trail Onondaga Branch, and the Link Trail. According to Pete, an Upstate New York trail map connoisseur an expert on all things FLT, this is the only area within the Finger Lakes Trail system where such a large trail loop exists. The terrain varies in

No. Sleep. Till Hammondsport! — Twisted Branch 2018

I. Naples

Now in its fourth year, the Twisted Branch 100k Trail Race is one of the more challenging ultras in New York and the northeast. The point-to-point course follows the Finger Lakes Trail's Bristol Branch from Naples down to Mitchellsville, then heads east along the main FLT before finishing at Champlin Beach in Hammondsport. The singletrack trails are somewhat remote and technical, serving up a healthy dose of rolling hills and steep climbs as the course twists its way through various state, county, and privately owned lands. The race also packs a punch with 11,000 feet of elevation gain and a 1,500-foot net loss.

I'd been hoping to run this race for the past few years, but other commitments meant I had to put it on hold. The point-to-point format on terrain similar to the FLT in the Ithaca area really appealed to my tastes. I finally committed to it early in the year when I signed up for all three races in the inaugural Empire State Triad Series. This series is comprised of Many on the Genny (40 miles) and the Cayuga Trails 50, with Twisted Branch as the 100k+ grand finale, measuring long at nearly 65 miles. The buildup in distance throughout the summer seemed like a logical thing to do. My main focus was a good performance at Twisted Branch since it's the only race in the Triad I hadn't previously run.

The pre-race logistics were different than anything I'd been through before. Because of the 4 a.m. start, the shuttle buses from the finish line to the start run the night before the race. That meant arriving at the finish line in Hammondsport on Friday

Green Lakes 2015

Ah, the Green Lakes Endurance Runs. Back for another round, I decided to give the 100K a go as my final training run for Virgil Crest. That meant double the pleasure and double the fun I had during the 50K last year and the year before. (Race report from 2014.) My main goals for the 100K (62 miles) were to make sure some of my new gear is in working order for a race situation, to further dial in my nutrition, and to spend a long day on my feet. The tricky part was to remember that I'd need enough left in the tank to recover adequately during my three week taper between Green Lakes and Virgil. The common "I have no goal time" statement of course was always a lie. In the back of my head, I thought a sub 12 hour finish seemed reasonable, but I had to remember it was low on the priority list. I was telling people I wanted to finish before 7:00 pm when the park's swimming area closes so I could cool down in the water immediately afterward. A chance to hop in the lake meant breaking 13 hours.

Race Summary

 

The course is a loop of mostly flat trails, about half of which is exposed to the sun when the trails deviate from the woods for a few extended stretches. The loop is repeated eight times for the 100K, with access to a drop bag at the start/finish area.

Midway through lap 7. Photo: Tom Garby

In brief, the 100K went pretty well. It didn't really hit me until a few miles into the race that today would be my longest run ever by a full twelve miles. I was forced to push that thought aside and focus on pacing to avoid starting out too fast and burning out in the second half.

I got worried as I started feeling the first bits of fatigue around mile 20. I thought I could easily breeze through the first 50K before experiencing any signs of slowing, but to no avail. Laps three and four weren't terrible, but felt like more of an effort than I was hoping for. I made it through the first half in about 5:30 - not a bad split to go sub 12:00, but I already knew this time was not in the cards today.

Laps five and six were a struggle. I managed to keep moving in part because of all the 50K runners still on the course that I was able to converse with. This helped to take my mind off the pain and the monotony of such a repetitive course. On lap seven, my friend Tom, who was out for a long training run on the trails, kept running into me at different points and told me to keep moving because I was looking strong. I knew it wasn't true, but hey - sometimes those little