Doug's story: Rattling MTB Marathon

BaseCamp athlete Doug Rusho shared his experience at the 2025 Rattling MTB Marathon in Pennsylvania.

Rattling is aptly named, a 50k mtb race in Central PA, some longish climbs, some gravel, and A LOT of rocks. I did this race in 2021 right after my 1st Basecamp. I have been trying to get back since and finally made it this past weekend.

I tried to prepare for this event from memory (conveniently forgot how hard it actually is), of course winter BaseCamp, and took advantage of the coaching consult BaseCamp option with Tim Cusick. Tim, thank you for the coaching expertise, and you were right on all accounts. The specific training rides helped, and yes, it was too late, I did not start soon enough.

We did not get off to a great start on the rocks, as on Friday, day before I left, I was hiking Murphy and attempted to bound across a creek, hopping onto a basketball sized boulder in the middle. The rock rolled, and I went face down in the creek. Murphy just stared at me as if to say, "Dude, just wade across, dumb human." Luckily strength training paid off, saved the upper body by landing in a plank, and only lightly scuffed my knees.

4 hour drive out to the course on Saturday. Once off the highways, super fun twisty roads through the hills and into the forest. Then got to gravel my Subaru, into the middle of the course to session a harder rock garden section I remembered from the last time. Found my option lines and rode them successfully. Ran into a teammate who was overlanding on course doing similar recon, and chatted a bit.

Drove an hour back south to my Air BNB, described as a "tiny home in rural PA, luxury camping." No running water, porta potty, and a pump outdoor shower. The shower enclosure was sketch, it was dark, no lights, and definitely a scene from a horror movie, we skipped shower. A strange large pavilion, with a stage, church pews, and tables. I made a fire, foam rolled, and meditated.

Inside, the tiny house, simple, clean and a tv almost as wide as the bed. Prepped my fuel/hydration, off to bed, solid nights sleep. Awoke to beautiful sunshine, a little brisk, and I started tuning in to my strategy. "I must control the opening gravel climb, went way too hard last time and paid dearly later. 325 watts is the target, 17 minutes…no matter what…"

Arrived to a parking lot bustling with activity. Got my number, changed into our local team kit and BaseCamp knee warmers. I then was approached and met BaseCamper Nicole Gunton! She recognized the knee warmers. We chatted and discussed the course as it was her 1st time. I did my functional warmup complete with kettlebell activations, core prep, and active stretching. On the bike standard warmup using the opening climb and hopped onto some single track to get the skills primed.

Temps are up and perfect, ready to go. For the 50K option just two classes, open, and 45+ which is me. Last time they left a 5 minute stagger between the two, since there is about 100 riders in each group. Riders started to accumulate near the start and I rolled over in the middle. The announcer called riders to the line, EVERYONE. Mass start…F%^K. I am now sitting in around 80th. Nicole was nearby and was like, "You should probably move up." I managed two rows further without being rude. Unlike about 20 others who decided to bushwhack around the mass of racers and move up by starting off course and angling their bikes into the pack from the bushes and sticks surrounding the gravel road, nice.

Despite this, I was calm, "all gravel climb, 17 minutes, lots of time, stay with the plan." And so the race begins. Not 15 seconds in, some rider on the far right dives completely across the pack all the way to the left, taking a pack of riders down with him. Narrowly avoided that. Was pedaling smoothly, shifting gears, no big lunges or accelerations. Weaving around people and slowly moving up. Riders would blow by (probably caught in the crash), "pay no mind." I was feeling good, breathing controlled, focused, smooth. Things are opened up, safe to glance at the meter, feels like I should be right around my target of 325 watts. Let's check, 6 minutes in, average power 370 watts. Noooooo!!!! Ride by feel? No bueno. Start backing way off, watching the meter like a hawk. Finish out the climb in 15 minutes, final average 339 watts, oh boy.

Get into some single track, get into hyper calm mode to recoup the overkill. Flat to straight line higher speed descending, held up a bit by some riders, but using the time to recover and lower chances of a flat. We hit a short gravel climb that I did not remember, and a line of 5 guys blow by. "Let 'em go, ride your race." Then back into single track. I had totally forgot this section is about 15 minutes long, false flat down and narrow. A few rock gardens, trees and bushes near the single track, very hard to pass. I caught up to the 5 guys led by a rider in a green jersey, we will call him "green guy." He was not single track savvy, not slow, but within a minute we were in a train of about 15 riders. He would not move, and the racer on 2nd wheel did not seem anxious to get around, either. Super frustrating, knowing I could easily go much faster, and this is my strength and a fun part! I also heard some yelling from the back that the female leader was here (translation: she can ride this faster than you) and we should let her through, of course no one budged.

Eventually, one by one I made it to the green guy, passed, and finally got up to speed and broke away. Unfortunately that lasted about 3 minutes, and we hit the 2nd major 17-minute gravel climb. Of course, minutes later green guy rides by, as I expected. A minute after that another train of racers motor through with the leading female in a old school BaseCamp kit! Perplexed, I was running through names. It was not Nicole, Sharon, Shannon? Maybe I will catch her later and and ask (NOPE!).

I am mixing it up on the climb with a few people and rode part of this yesterday. I pull away, setting up perfectly for the single track and technical rock garden section I had practiced yesterday. I catch and pass green guy just before the crux of the gardens, sweet. I launch into the 1st feature of rocks, and my handlebars rotate downward, causing me to almost crash. What? Quickly jam them back up, wheelie over the next rock step, down they go. Pullover, get out the tool, the bolts are half loose. Green guy passes me again. Really? Just rode this yesterday, no issues. Apparently the "rattling" must have backed them out. Note to self, re-thread lock faceplate bolts.

Back in the game, pass green guy quickly, and I am now a little over 1 hour into the race and alone, which is typical of most of my races. That's okay, boring, but now pace and patience is completely in my control, long way to go.

Now for the rest of the race it is mostly single track and a barrage of smaller rock garden sections. This is really hard to describe, but imagine riding into a steady headwind of 15 mph riding tempo. Then you get hit with a 30 mph wind gust, which stops you in your tracks unless you muscle over the cranks or down shift. On the trail, these 30mph wind gusts are every 1-4 seconds 20, 50, 100 times in a given section.

Instead of a smooth push backward on your torso, it is a jack hammer coming up through the wheels, compressing your elbows, jamming your shoulders and chest, and constantly trying to knock you backwards. You can't downshift or you stop, or worse fall over. You can’t pedal smoothly; you have to hit back, but at the right time, right amount, low cadence, and sometimes half stroke and ratchet. Pushing on the bars, pulling on the bars, hips back, hips forward, bike lean left, lean right, steer, find the next line, there is no line, crap, jab, jab, jab. This constant bully is punching you, impeding progress, over an over.

Then silence. Nothing. Smooth trail, speed picks up, feel the breeze, ahhh. For 1 minute, then another section. Then nothing, then another round of jackhammering. This goes on for the next 2 hours. Sometimes minutes go by of peace and free speed, and sometimes just seconds around the next bend. It is painstakingly, arduous full body torture.

Despite extensive strength endurance work on my triceps preceding this race, by 90 minutes in, my triceps were gone. Burning constantly, could hardly hold myself up. On the positive, that same work on my posterior core worked beautifully, no issues. Oh yeah, in the meantime you are slamming 80 grams of carbs an hour of Maurten drink mix, which has the consistency of snot. The marketing says it is easy on your stomach. Hmm, right now my stomach is the equivalent of the paint shaker mixer at Home Depot.

At 2:15, I was toast, wheels had fallen off. Pure survival mode now. "Be positive, breathe, embrace the challenge." One of my goals was to avoid cramping. So far none, which was already 45 minutes further into the race than in 2021, yay! I had been alone for some time, and then I sensed a rider, looked back, yup, green guy. Let him by, shook my head. What can I do, he has the legs, I don’t.

One 20ish-minute climb to go. It is the same single track I was stuck in early in the race, only backwards. Not very steep, a few rocks, and previously was not an issue, hardly even felt like a climb, or so I remember. Not quite the case, deep in the box, I could hardly get out of my lowest gear. I crawled along and heard "rider up." I immediately pulled over and rolled through some bushes. He passed, I started to move back, "ohh another." Okay, bushwhacked some more, he passed, I started back in, I was yelled at "more riders!" A paceline of 7 went by. I was not in the mood, and snapped. "You got to frickin' call it out!" One apology, and they rolled away.

Topping out the climb on gravel, another rider went by, he knew I was hurting. "You got this, man," he said encouragingly. I looked over, it was the third place single speeder on a hardtail, 1 gear (translation: on that setup, his race is at least 3 times harder than mine). I appreciated the support, and at the same time had to make light of the irony, and returned with, "Do I, though?" He laughed and rolled away.

Two sections left, the piece de resistance and the jump off descent. Once you top out the climb, there is one final challenge. A flat trail that puts not only a few bigger technical rock garden sections in (because let's have them ride something super technical when they are gassed) but also the toughest, meanest, and longest of the smaller jackhammer sections.

The big stuff is early, and I managed to ride it clean somehow with gear two breathing and a lot of groaning (see video). Then the cramps started, 1st the bottom of my left foot, then both hammys and inner thighs. I squirmed, yelped, went big gear low cadence (cramp tip) and managed to keep moving forward every so slowly. Positive self talk was limited, mostly bad words, and "how fu3$king long is this trail!"

Finally reached the jump off over look, which normally would be salvation. I took a quick glance, but both legs were still seizing. From here it is a two mile, wide open non-technical descent to the finish. Cramps subsided early in the descent, and I managed to pass both 3rd and 2nd place single speeders in the process…what an accomplishment. 🤣

At the finish chatted with my teammate Matt and found the mystery BaseCamper and introduced myself. She is recently added BaseCamp coach Maia Paris. She is a regular here, broke 3 hours (10 minutes faster than me) and won the women's open class convincingly, Badass. I also found out through her BaseCamp description she was a seasoned military helicopter pilot, double badass. On top of that, Nicole Gunton was second in the women’s 45+ class. BaseCamp ladies rule.

Despite having recovery food/drink ready, that was not happening, water only. Results were online but no cell service, probably best at this point. Packed up and headed out, started the post race analysis. I also had two process goals on the the way home. 1.) Must eat at Perkins, I love their potato pancakes, no Perkins in NY anymore. 2.) Get fireworks at the border. Bigger and better in PA, and much more fun to blow up than your legs. Goals accomplished.

It was quite the weekend. As a whole, a worthy adventure. Lots of small victories and process goals achieved. 11 minutes slower than 2021, 17th out of 70 vs 1st. But I was 8 pounds lighter between bike and body, FTP 15 watts higher, competition much better, 4 years younger. Minor mechanical, stuck in a single track train, and horrible early pacing. That all tracks for the day.

Finishing this race at all is pretty massive if you are pushing it. And I am absolutely feeling good about that. However, the overarching theme is the race beat me down, got the best of me. Lots of learning points to revisit if/when I return and attempt it again. It was great to meet BaseCampers in person, always exhilarating to ride unfamiliar trails. And the weather was spectacular. With everything going on in the world today, I am grateful for the ability and opportunity to experience all of this.