Gorges Ithaca Half Marathon 2025

What did I do between Boston and this race? It was just a 2-week break, so I knew it was important to strike a balance between effort and ease.

I worked 2 days of the short week after Boston’s Memorial Day weekend race. We then flew to Daytona Beach for a 4-day, 3-night beach vacation, just like Luke Combs’ catchy country song (though we paid for it outright instead of winning it on a radio station contest). Fun Fact: When I lived on Long Island, I once won tickets to Z100’s Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden after calling in while driving home from the fire service academy in Bethpage. Ah, youth.

Our beachside paradise

We enjoyed beach bikes, a run on the hard-packed sand, sunrise yoga, and a couple of efficient workout sessions in the hotel gym. Other than that, routine running took a backseat to a few fancy rum drinks by the hotel’s beachfront pool. It was an incredibly relaxing way to spend a few days. After returning home, I logged 16 miles across 4 runs, with half of that volume being a Black Diamond FLRC Challenge effort that felt like pure drudgery. I was happy to take the few days before the race mostly off, only stressing my muscles with Friday night BodyPump and Saturday morning hot yoga at YogOdyssey.

Saturday afternoon was filled with household chores and taking in a few Porchfest gigs. We spent race eve with a lovely Eggplant Parmesan dish Amy made, followed by watching George Clooney in his penultimate performance of Good Night, and Good Luck on Max, which was the first time a Broadway show has ever been broadcast live. It was an incredible performance, and was captured so well by the cameras.

With Amy near the start

We had a luxurious race morning since we live a half-mile from the start. We enjoyed our normal morning routine of waking at 5, enjoying Ka’Chava while doing the New York Times puzzles, and doing a few productive things before getting dressed to run. We left the house at 7:15, drove to the Middle School teacher parking lot (Amy’s a teacher, so we could park there) and walked up Whig Street with throngs of other runners toward the start on South Street. It was easy to make my way to the front of the queue since the start line was closed to runners until just minutes before Ian started making his pre-race announcements. I enjoyed some pre-race conversation with Tristan Lambert and Peter Frazier, and I missed a part of Ian’s preamble where he’d said something about “vibe” and “positive.” Peter and I laughed at that, saying that whatever it was, we could definitely rock a positive vibe as we got underway.

I toed the line with a half-dozen others and listened to the 3-2-1 countdown to the ram’s horn that sent us off, first through the streets of the Village of Trumansburg, then southward to Black Diamond and Ithaca. Peter and I set an irresponsible (for me) pace in the opening miles, though I did not care. I love that this race starts in my hometown, and the chance to run the open streets and a blistering pace was something I could never turn down. The course differed slightly from last year, omitting the climb up Old Main Street and instead turning right onto Union. This removed some elevation gain (whew!) and helped Ian move the finish line from the inlet by Island Health to further down into Cass Park, where there’d be more room to spread out the post-race crowd.

Setting a hot pace with Peter

I gave up some places as I walked the short hill up Cemetery Road past Mike’s Auto, and told Ofer Leshed as he biked by that I was being strategic. I felt there was no need to thrash my quads powering up the short hill, and would rather expend the energy keeping a solid pace downhill.

Cemetery Road

We had another sharp incline just before the turn onto Gorge Road, and I walked that one, too. I was feeling pretty good as I turned onto Black Diamond and began the long, shaded stretch toward Cass Park.

Cruising on Black Diamond

I carried water in my yellow Nathan handheld, and though I had a pack of Honey Stinger chews in my waist belt, I didn’t end up touching them the entire time. To be honest, I was a bit concerned in the back of my mind about another bio-emergency like Boston, since there’s scant opportunity to make a pit stop on this course after 8.7 miles. I guess there are the bathrooms just as you enter Cass from Black Diamond, but that would be quite a detour. I didn’t obsess over this, though, and just focused on keeping my head in the game and maintaining a consistent pace.

I struggled with not having too many visual markers along Black Diamond, as compared with road races and the myriad intersections you traverse. The crossings all look the same, but I was happy to see the power lines start just short of 2 miles from Cass. Now I knew what was left. Just under a mile of sidewalk running was all that separated me from the finish line as I left the comfortable shade of the Black Diamond Trail. This year’s finish was just across the wooden bridge that separates the waterfront trail from the broader lawn areas of Cass Park that flank the rink. I crossed the finish line in just under 1 hour and 28 minutes.

Fitnell Farms

In catching up with Peter, Tristan, and Kilian Weinberger (who passed me during my second walking stretch), they joked about how I helped a lot of people have great PRs on what is, due to the net elevation loss, a bona fide PR course. That irresponsible starting pace set them on a trajectory that they were pretty satisfied with. Hey, I’ll take it, and I have nothing but positive thoughts looking back on miles 1 through 13. The post-race vibe in the warm sun was so fun: smiling faces, cold water, lunch from Fitnell Farms, and a bus ride back to the start. I much preferred this year’s course to last year’s, and I give a huge thank you to Ian, Josh, and everyone else who volunteered their time to make this such a fantastic event! Also a huge thank to you Ron Heerkens Jr. of Goat Factory Media and Michael Lesher for the fantastic photos.

Walking to the buses to return to Trumansburg

By the Numbers

Time: 1:27:53
Age Group 50-59: 1/37
Overall: 21/757