Dennis's story: Unbound
BaseCamp athlete Dennis Wojcik shared his experience at the 2026 Unbound gravel bike race in Kansas.
Woke up at 0530 to prepare for a 0630 departure from our VRBO. Nice staying with Tracy, John, Beth, Nancy, and Natalie. Ate overnight oats with dried fruit and some local honey. Standard fare. Had everything staged and ready to go without any real pressure. I didn't focus on weather like others, since there was nothing I could do about it. Think that was a good relief.
The drive to Emporia was just over an hour, without any events. We found good parking and got ready for some warmups. I did get warmups in going up and down the streets. It started to rain, so I had to watch it in a few places.
I got to the starting line about 20 minutes before scheduled start. They held the juniors an extra 15 minutes due to weather (lightning), but fortunately we were not overly delayed. I lined up in the 4th row, which was a good move.
There was a well-enforced neutral start for the first 3.3 miles. Was still fast and densely populated, but not too bad up front. Only a few wild moves to watch for. At 3.3 it opened up when we hit the gravel. I stayed with the lead group (large group) until mile 10. I was burning a lot of matches and didn't think I could hold on at that rate. I was able to find other groups, so did the group hopping.
At mile 15+ we hit the MMR mud fest. I was able to ride the narrow ridge for a while until too many people started to hike a bike. I slung it cyclocross style and walked. I did put it down a couple times to try to get going but had a few failed attempts. I did get to a point where I could remount, so I just hopped on and rode. My shoes were caked with mud, but I didn't want to take time to pick them out. Because the mud was so thick, it held my shoes in place so I could just pedal, so I did. I gained a lot of places doing that, as others were picking out their cleats. I did scrape the shoes periodically on the pedals to clean them, and after a while I could clip in. Yea!
Around mile 20, the 25-mile course merged with our course. It gave me many rabbits to chase, which was helpful. I always had someone to hunt down and drive things. I was picking up a lot of mud, as it was still raining and wet.
At 30 miles I got held up by a train. Boo. It was relatively fast but felt like forever. Not sure if it cost me any places, but the rest was good. ;-) I did take a mud face picture there.
Of course right after that, I cramped bad; first in my hamstrings, then in my quads. I couldn't really stand, and I couldn't really drive from the glutes, so I moved forward on the saddle and went with the quads. I was able to control it to some degree, but it did slow me down. I started to just slug everything I had down (mixed with a little mud) and was able to hold off the worst to the end.
The final run in was on the shakeout rides, so a bit familiar. It rained at the end, which kind of felt good (cooler) and was cleaning off the mud. I made it through the tunnel and up the Highland hill but couldn't stand. It was a power run to the finish. There was a guy to chase down, and I did at the finish.
Overall gun time was 2:54:18 at 16.87 mph. Put me 51 out of 958 over all; 44 out of 628 men and 5 out of 154 in the 60-69 age group.
Mud pit Hike a Bike ~ 7:00 minutes
Wait for train ~1:10 minutes (not so sure it was a bad thing as I needed a break ;-)
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