Buck Ridge Burn 1/2, the trail challenge that chose me

Furnace found at the start/finish area.

Race flyer

On my way to my car after finishing a 10-mile race on April 2, I quickly glanced over a table filled with race brochures. In less than 30 seconds, the flyer for this race jumped out. Race date agreed with my calendar and I thought "hmmm, this could be a good practice race for my April 16 half, and 25K trail in May."


I quickly did my due diligence when I got home and looked for answers to the following:

Registration area.

1. where is the race
2. what time
3. registration fee?
4. elevation map, how difficult is it?
5. time limit to finish the race?
6. parking?

Of everything I found, the following concerned me the most: 

1. Two-hour drive to the location
2. 700-foot climb after 5 miles
3. 4-hour time limit

With further research, I found an awesome recap by Ian Kraynak of twofeetfromanywhere.com complete with a video of the course. I really appreciated the video, but not the mud. I'm a trail newbie and still squeamish about some things.

One of the many water crossings.  

In addition, I haven't been following a plan and this week, my training was limited to 6 miles on Tuesday and 4.5 miles on Friday. 

So what finally made me decide to join it? I couldn't find any good excuse not to. With a 9 am race start, the 2-hour drive was doable. About the elevation, I'll never know if I can do it unless I try, right? About the time limit, if I ever get picked up by the clean up crew, that would make a great blog post. 

The course was absolutely gorgeous. No mile markers but lots of flags to mark the course. I'm directionally impaired so I still got lost. Good thing there were runners behind me who were smart not to follow me. Instead, they called my attention to the missed turn.

A rocky descent.

Pink flags lined the ground while pink ribbons were tied to various branches about 4 feet above ground. I found the flags much more helpful because I don't usually look up when I'm trying to focus on what I'm stepping on.

The 700-ft climb was actually easier than the descent. With more trail races, I will master descending a rocky downhill path more effectively. Today, I walked, A LOT!

Reward after the monster climb.

I recommend this race to all my friends who love a good challenge. It's cheap and dirty, just the way I like it. For $55, I got a beautiful long sleeve Sport Tek shirt, experienced a butt burning workout, 4 aid stations that provided a good array of drinks and food, easy race day registration, satisfying post-race buffet, and live band music. No finisher's medal - no biggie. All my medals are tucked in my closed, and my most challenging races don't give medals.

Got home to something better than a medal. A delicious array of cheese and bread, arranged by my 11-year old son. 

Thank you to the organizers of the 6th Buck Ridge Burn held on April 10, 2015 at the Pine Grove State Park, Gardner, Pennsylvania.

This race called me and I'm happy I heeded. What challenges you?

The monster climb begins.

Are those flags in the right place?

One of 4 aid stations/

Gender specific shirts

Sandwiches and salads.