Natalie's story: Gravel National Championships

BaseCamp athlete Natalie Barron shared her experience at the 2025 Gravel National Championships bike race in Minnesota.

Gravel Nationals race report (the self-described adventure cyclist confronts anxiety and self doubt….again).

Overall I had a great time biking in the Driftless region. It was a fun adventure, and I was really happy to get to stand on the podium, to face my fears, and even if they were not conquered, they have been beaten back a little more.

I also want to thank the entire BaseCamp community and especially Jill Gass for helping me prepare and for always helping me to stay positive.

Special thanks to Menachem Brodie, who is some kind of strength training magician who completely solved my shoulder/arm pain and has seriously tamed my back pain. The fear of that pain returning is finally starting to fade away.

I went into this event with a very successful training block. Unfortunately, anxiety and self-doubt once I got a look at the course profile and pre-rode a few sections quietly chipped away my confidence, and as Joe Pomeroy mentioned, by race eve, I was doubting I could even make it to the finish. Race day continues to feel chaotic and a little intimidating. Perfectionism and fear of failure again led to the safety of under-performance and later some regret because I see that I could have pushed more.

I've been using process goals, and that has been helpful. The goals were: 1. stay with the group to the first climb 2. continue moving forward 3. control my breathing 4. Maintain the hydration/nutrition plan 5. finish in 5 hours 45 minutes or less.

Outcome: 4 of 5. I finished in 6 hours 2 minutes -- this was objectively not a great time, but I'm going to keep moving forward and yes, I am looking forward to the next adventures, including winter training and Mallorca camp!

I hope everyone conquered some limitations this year or at least chipped away at a few. It is a victory to try something a little intimidating and maybe a little out of reach.