Nicole's story: Pedaler's Bash

BaseCamp athlete Nicole Gunton shared her experience at the 2025 Pedaler's Bash bike race in Arkansas.

Well, last week was the opposite of the previous week's race. I headed to Bentonville, Arkansas for the Pedaler’s Bash, which is a 48 mile cross country mountain bike race. I’ve done this one a couple times before, the trails are fun and it’s almost all single track which is always a positive for me. This is a very grassroots race, viewer numbers, but that tends to be a good thing with the sheer amount of single track and inability to pass in most areas.

Right from the start, I was dropped, which is not unusual for me. I struggled to catch back up to the last few folks and was able to pass a couple once we got into the more technical single track. However, I just didn’t feel like I had it, I couldn’t get myself to push as hard as I would’ve liked, and I struggled to dig up the motivation to chase. I tried to maintain my PMA and told myself to pace like 100 miler, treated as a training, race, even that was a struggle to get myself motivated for. The recent rains left the rock, slick, and several areas of peanut butter clay, slip, and slide. Always makes things interesting, but I really hate getting my race, bike, wet, especially knowing I have to pack it back up and fly home in a day.

I wasn’t last, but I was near the bottom of the result sheet. I wish I could say I had some revelations or takeaways from the day but honestly, I was just happy to finish. Some days are like that, move forward and put it in the past.