BaseCamp group coaching member Amy Fowler shared her experience at the 2024 Bald Eagle Gravel Grinder in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania.
Today team Basecamp members Allie Pope Burger, Nancy Mizak, and myself tackled the Bald Eagle Gravel Grinder in Spring Mills, PA. There was a lot of SAILing going on in the first race of the season. I had one goal, to improve my time from last year. I ended up finishing 20+ mins slower. While this was very disappointing, this race has a lot of challenges. First was the weather, we were expecting partly sunny with a high of 70°. Instead we had full sun and a high of 82°! I cramped twice, one I had to walk out and the other I was able to pedal out, but this slowed me down quite a bit. With the first climb starting within the first half mile, my legs decided they had enough and never came around. Every pedal stroke uphill felt like a fight. That being said, I did get a number of PRs and I tried a few changes in my race setup. Some worked, some didn't. I kept moving forward, went hard where I could, and ended up on the podium. Overall, I felt like crap all day but it was great being back racing. Hopefully the next race will go better.
