Krista Griesacker Memorial Recon--- John is fastest

So there we were, no scheisse, knee deep in bug spray and humidity on our reconnaissance of the 50 mile Krista Griesacker Memorial race at Hawk Mountain, PA. Another great venue put on by our favorite Adventure Racing folks... GOALS.


Let me tell you something: that mountain may not be very tall, but 1500 feet of elevation change in less than a mile hurts. It really hurts. It hurt my legs, my lungs, and my ego. So, we climbed it only once, figuring we will have to climb it a few times on race day. And the best part about climbing is the descent. I maxed out at 32.4 MPH and John (Team Captain) maxed out at 32.5 (of course). We took this as a Legolas / Gimli competition and yes, I was the elf.

The idea of spending some time on the mountain before the race makes sense from a 'certain point of view'. In addition to riding up the mountain and around some of the trails, we took a look at the river…this time of year, it’s really more of an overblown trickle…in fact it is entirely possible that the water level of the VERY [sic] Little Schukyl (emphasis mine) could see significant positive change if a few folks upstream chose race day to wash their car.

We also got a chance to look at some of the cool unique terrain on this course. Carol, John and I were hopping around (rock scramble) the talus. These very big rocks were totally cool. Cool, in the vernacular, of course, since the actual temperature of the rock field was somewhere between the average for the 4th and 5th rings of the Inferno as a result of the giant barbeque-esque effect created by the Honda Civic sized rocks soaking up the summer sunlight all day and radiating the heat straight up. ("You know in the Carribian, they have these black rocks that you can go see and they call the site Hell, but they charge you admission..." )

Its not just about the mountain terrain, we will negotiate an obstacle course as well. It seems there is a ranger school here. (no, not my beloved RANGER school) The Civil Air Patrol and the PA State Parks and Recreation maintain a camp and training facility on the mountain. Check out these obstacles, looks like a pretty nice 90-120 foot rappel tower!

We will let you know how the race goes… it is 5 AUG, all 12 hours/50 miles of it!