Nicole's story: Rattling MTB Marathon

BaseCamp athlete Nicole Gunton shared her experience at the 2025 Rattling MTB Marathon in Pennsylvania.

Last weekend I went east for some #eastcoastrocks as my something new race for the year (Stateside).

I love traveling to new places and checking out new terrain, and racing is a very convenient way to explore trails without having to pull out a map every intersection.

At the Rattling MTB Marathon race, I didn't set any expectations for myself, only go as fast as I can and have as much fun as possible. I was pleasantly surprised with the second place in my age group, and I got incredibly lucky to get behind a local racer that knew the trails and rode perfect lines through some tricky rock gardens so I didn’t have to think about my lines quite so much. Fortunately she was in a different category (the young ladies, as I was in the old ladies), so we were able to push each other through the whole race without worrying so much about passing each other. I let her go in front of me on every single track section because she just knew the trails better; I could've pulled ahead on some of the road sections, but being behind her and being able to follow the lines was much more valuable than trying to get ahead of someone that wasn’t even in my competition group.

Super fun trails!

Another highlight of the race was meeting [BaseCampers] Doug Rusho and Maia Paris, I love meeting the Basecamp family all over the world!