BaseCamp athlete Shannon Scanlon shared her experience at the 2025 Croatan Buck Fifty event in Cedar Point, North Carolina.
Croatan was a “C” race with a chance to focus on process goals and see if I had the ability to race a full 100-mile distance.
The 2-lap race allowed me to assess how to pace and what areas would be my limiters. The first lap I lost the lead group when we hit the single track do sand and fallen trees, but was able to work my way into the chase group. We settled into a good tempo pace, with 6/7 rotating pulls but about 15/20 total in the group (4 women). I was the only woman to really take any pulls, but was able to control the pace; stayed in tempo zone and didn’t blow myself up. It also allowed me to pick my position when getting back in line and not putting myself too far at the back of the pack.
Heading out on the second lap the group was smaller now w/7 riders and only one other woman, which I believe to be my biggest competition. (Turns out I was right, Denise Esposito, the former 50+ winner.) I positioned myself at the front and took the pull leading into the single track, which was the trickiest part of the course. As the wind kicked up more blew off the back and it was down to the four.
Upon reflection, my race mistake was being 3rd in line heading into the single track. I should have gotten to the front before hitting that section on the return back. I would have had to burn matches fighting the wind, but that would have put me at advantage since the single track was my limiter. Two of us were now in the chase after the 50+ first place woman and first place male with about 6 miles to go. We rotated pulls, but fighting the wind my legs were toast. I had a stronger pull than the guy I was with but he gave me time to rest some but pulls. Took 2nd in age; she got me by 3 mins.
The podium wasn't my focus; however, you never really go into a race without that in the back of your mind. I was able to meet 2 of my process goals - only spent 1:37 mins in the pit to make my nutrition swap and managed about 70g of carbs per hour. I failed on one process goals of staying with the lead women, but found out later that was to my advantage because there was a big crash in the group.
Lessons learned:
Know your limiters on the course; first train for them and then position yourself to succeed despite them.
Carbs are king; make them a priority to fuel regularly throughout the race. A combination of liquid and gels worked best for me. I should have put nutrition in the hydration pack vs bottles would have gotten closer to the 80g target.
Watch your competition: Denise didn’t take many pulls, only pulled through, so even though I didn’t burn matches on my pulls, I could have caused fatigue that limited me at the end.
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