Viking Course Overview

The new Viking course map is now out on Penntrack.com if you want to check it out for yourself. The course is at the civic center where I played soccer and baseball as a kid and swings right on the outskirts of Tyler State Park, so luckily I’ve had a lot of experience with the area to bring you this little course preview.

http://cache.milesplit.com/user_files/44854/76372/sharp_course2013.pdf

Viking is set up around a community center sports complex. You’ll be starting on soccer fields inside of a basin and within the first 100m or so you’ll be hitting a very steep, hill that is about 50m long. This will be the only hill on the course other than very slight increases or decreases throughout the course. Then you will be heading out towards a road area that surrounds the field complex. I can’t tell if you will be running on the pavement or on the outside of the fields. Either way this course passes a lot of roads so smaller spikes or flats will probably give you the best bet. Since it’s fairly flat having bit spikes won’t give you much of an advantage anyway. 

About 800m into the race (where the 2^nd mile marker is)you should be rolling on very flat surfaces. Once you hit Richboro-Newtown road about 1400m into the race you will have a slight uphill until the 1 mile mark. The turn after the first mile should get you rolling as it is a very slight decrease down until the paved portion of the course where you will be crossing a bridge. After the paved part of the race you’ll hit a slight uphill through corn fields (there is an opening about 10m wide, so there will be space to pass) onto a 90 right turn that is slightly uphill as well. As you can see by the course map there are some very sharp turns which will slow the course just a bit. I’m not sure how paved the grass will be which could lead to tight racing spaces for good position, so I’d recommend getting out fairly hard to ensure you’re in a nice spot. Since the course is flat everyone will be rolling. 

As you head up and around you’re hitting the same loop once again, which means more of the same flat course area. The footing may not be great, but it still is a very fast course, but one thing to note this year is that Viking is a full 3.1 mile race, unlike the past few years where it as about 2.9 miles. I’d expect the winner to be down around 16 minutes even though it’s early in the season, the course is that flat. If it rains before the race that hill at the beginning could be really tough and could cause some falls, but other than that you won’t find much in your way.

That’s all for now Folks! Look for a top 10 races of the year preview coming up along with another Journal within the next two days.

--ForrestCRN