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

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

Tough Trail Challenge 2024

Lindsay-Parsons

I’d made very tentative plans to have a July 4th go at the Tough Trail Challenge. My body felt pretty awful running a Lakefront Loop yesterday afternoon, so I wasn’t sure I’d even feel like running at all today despite having the day off for July 4th. I packed my gear and clothes the night before anyhow, just to be ready.

Turns out I woke up wired at 3 a.m. chomping at the bit to get running. I made it down to the Lindsay Parsons Preserve to scan the sign at 4:01. Dry trails made the headlamp run a lot easier this time compared to my run here for the Ultra Challenge 100k in April the same time of day.

I’ve run the route enough to navigate it without RunGo but didn’t trust myself to spot all those sneaky turns in the dark. Everything was smooth sailing and I finished the 4.5 miles in a reasonable time given the lack of sunlight. I don’t recall spotting any wildlife in the glow on this normally critter-dense course. The bullfrogs though were out in full force for an all night party in the pond.

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

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

The FLRC 100k Ultra Challenge

Late last year when in-person races were still in flux due to COVID-19, the Finger Lakes Runners Club put together a unique virtual race series with a competitive element. The FLRC Challenge is a year-long event that involves running 10 specified race courses in the Ithaca area. Some of these are courses from in-person races and others are popular non-race routes, with distances ranging from one mile to the half marathon. Some cover asphalt, some are gravel rail trails, and others are on singletrack trails. There's flat, hilly, and everything in between. Anyone who completes all 10 is considered a finisher and earns a medal. Competition for each individual course is scored based on fastest overall time, fastest average, and most completions, with additional series-wide scoring aspects. There's a lot to it, and rather than explain it all myself you can get the rundown on the event Web site. 

One element of the FLRC Challenge is the ultra version. The total distance for all 10 courses is advertised as 65.3 miles—a little over 100k. The Ultra Challenge involves completing all 10 in a 24-hour period. You can run the routes in any order you want, but

A Personal Best 50k Time Trial

Training has been going well for the past seven months. In the midst of the pandemic and my first year raising twins, things really started to click back in September. At the time most races had been cancelled, so I started running all the Ithaca area trail race courses and popular trail routes at race effort. The consistent, quality mileage carried over through the winter in the form of tempo runs and steady state runs on rail trails and roads. With no Beast of Burden to train for this winter, I kept the mileage lower than I did in previous years—50 to 65 miles per week for most weeks. In a few weeks it was lower due to inclement weather, being homebound with sick kids, or both. But the consistency was there, and it paid off. 

Once race director Adam Engst began opening courses for the recently launched FLRC Challenge virtual race, I gained extra motivation to run hard on the race's road courses while waiting for the sloppy, snowy trails to dry out. Tempo intervals and fartlek runs on the Challenge's Pseudo Skunk half marathon course, marathon-pace efforts on the 10-mile Black Diamond Trail course, and so on, kept the fitness gains coming all the way into April. When our local trails finally thawed and dried enough to run

Pseudo Skunk Mini "Race" Report

Tuesday afternoon marked my debut at the 2021 FLRC Challenge and Pseudo Skunk 13.1. I carried my phone and used the RunGo App to follow the half marathon route along Ithaca's backroads and get familiar with the course. Snowy shoulders made it tricky to dodge traffic and move forward at the same time, but I tend to enjoy running Ithaca's backroads throughout the winter and have gotten used to it. Much obliged to race director Adam Engst for putting that Turkey Hill mini climb in the second mile (instead of mile 10 like in the actual HM race), but curse him for the grind up Ellis Hollow starting around mile 9. Notable scenery included that new looking, bright red phone booth in someone's front yard near the corner of Ellis Hollow and Hunt Hill, and a car parked in the middle of the damn road on Ellis Hollow where people drive 50+ mph around blind curves. The RunGo voice cues lagged by 10-15 seconds, but were 100% accurate and made it super easy to follow the route without thinking about it much.

I had such a blast running the Pseudo Skunk on Tuesday that I went back again on Wednesday for another go. I had a few hours to kill after work and before picking up the kids from daycare and couldn't think of anything better to do. With temps in the low 50s, most of the snow, ice, and slush had melted off the shoulder of the roads, so the running was much easier and more