Nearly ideal weather conditions led to some very strong performances for most. The course was wonderful. A beautiful run up the gorge on a very gradual uphill, with a nice downhill after the turn-around. The minor variations they made, due to parts of the old course being submerged, did not have a significant impact on the overall feel. The terrain was a little sloppy in places, but the course was entirely runable, and much of it was what Karen calls “clean mud”. The large field of competitors resulted in an unusually high amount of displacement, driving up team scores. Pulsars Open Women, led by Aubrie Russell, known by her peers as Super Aubrie, defeated a very good Syracuse Track Club by 9 points. The last time Pulsars Open Women beat a complete Syracuse Track Club XC team was…drum roll please…NEVER. It hasn’t happened in the current iteration of the XC series. It was an epic victory!Hats off to our Open Women: Aubrie Russell, Karen Simmonds-Brady, Sarah Dawson, Rachel Stowell, Cynthia Malek, Amy Hodson, and Sue White. Way to go ladies!

Going into the race, there was a two-way tie for second place in the series, between Syracuse Track Club and Pulsars Open Women. The ladies’ victory over STC on Sunday moved Pulsars into second place by a single point. GO PULSARS!!! Finger Lakes Runners Club currently has a firm grip on first place in the series. Having lost only one race this year, due to an incomplete team, they’re just very very good. However, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place will likely all be determined on Championship Day, at FLCC. In this division, a very small number of points currently separates Pulsars, Syracuse Track Club, and Buffalo Checkers Athletic Club. I am entirely confident it’s going to be extremely close.Stermer ran out of his tree. There were only two guys between him and (honorary Pulsar) Chip Ohara. Whatever he is doing with his training plan, it’s paying off for him late in the season, right when you generally want it to. He led our Open Men to a nice 4th place finish, ahead of Syracuse Track Club’s B team, High Noon’s B team, Greater Buffalo Track Club’s A team, and incomplete Roadkill A and GVH A!

Our Open Men are currently ranked 4th in the series, with Greater Buffalo Track Club, GVH, and Roadkill not far behind. This is a really good season for us, racing against very competitive teams from major metropolitan areas. Some of our best runners are from rural towns of less than 2000 people. Greg Stowell, our 2nd Open Man (on loan from the Masters squad on this day) says he didn’t have his best race, but still finished scoring only 21 points. If we can recruit enough people to field Masters squads at every race, we can have Greg back with us old guys. Chris Mason wasn’t sure if he’d be able to make it to Ithaca on Sunday. I was really excited when I spotted him before the race. He ran as our third man, scoring only 29 points in a large field. Jeff Whiting continues to put in consistent performances. Today he was our 4th Open Man, ending up only a couple of places behind Mason in the team scoring. Thankfully, we had Greg Haberlau with us on Sunday. He was our 5th man and it was great to see him again. Brian House, perhaps feeling a little under the weather, was sixth man on our Open team Sunday, displacing scoring members of Syracuse Track Club B, High Noon B, and more importantly Greater Buffalo Track Club.

With many of our faster runners on the Open team Sunday, expectations for our Masters Men were not great. However, the team led by the second fastest Mason, placed 5th, which still made them eligible for valuable series standing points. Gary has been a wonderful addition to the team this year. Our Masters Men are currently one point ahead of Greater Buffalo Track Club, going into the final race of the season. As our third man, Bruce Brown had a really good race. He’s one of the runners who has managed to shine during a global pandemic. Grover was our 4th man at Taughannock. He defeated Roadkill’s 5th man, but their top runners kept the team score too low for us to seize a victory. Johnny Dazzles rounded out this squad, only trailing Roadkill’s 5th man by one point.

Next up is an 8K at Fingerlakes Community College on Sunday, November 7th at 11:00 AM. It’s a challenging course with a tough hill. Sisyphus had to roll a huge boulder uphill, we do not.

-Don Bob