Shannon's story: Poolesville Road Race

BaseCamp athlete Shannon Scanlon shared her experience at the 2025 Poolesville Road Race (MABRA championships) in Maryland.

Last Saturday was my 1st official road race; thanks to Nathan Goates for encouraging me to give it a shot. Race report: I had to line up slightly towards the back with the Masters field since we started together with the Pro Cat 1,2,3 groups. I also wanted to keep my focus on those in my field, particular Desiree, who I thought was my competition for the podium. We rolled out together in neutral start and then the race was on. The group stayed together even through the mile & half gravel section; however, once we hit the first hill someone attacked at the front. The group split and I was caught behind Desiree' who turns out, her limiter was climbing. I got gapped and tried to burn matches to catch the group. Ended up regrouping with 2 other women and we traded pulls to finish the 1st lap.

Heading into the 2nd lap we could still see the lead group. At that point it was only 2 of us. We were working together to catch, but after a couple rotations I ended up being all by myself and didn't have any more matches to burn. I just figured at that point continue to ride tempo/high zone 2 and keep looking back to make sure I wasn't overtaken. I was hoping someone would drop off the lead group that I could work with. Toward the end of the 2nd lap I did come upon someone who turned about to be the 2nd place winner but she wasn't able to hold my pace.

I ended up finishing the last 3 laps completely alone. I kept my sights behind to make sure no one was going to over-take me. At this point I believed everyone in my field was behind me and if I just kept my pace I would take the top step. I didn't realize there was a cutoff and the other women in my field had been pulled, not making the time-limit.

Lesson learned: I should have started to move up after the neutral roll-out sooner and focus on staying with the lead group instead of worrying about Desiree. I figured there would be an attack on that hill but thought it wouldn't happen until a later lap, I should have been ready anyway.

What went right: nutrition seemed to work other than I did need an additional bottle of water. I took in 84g/hr bwt Monolith and Beta gels, but was looking for just water after a couple laps. I would have had stomach issues without it, especially once the sun came out. So happy Den Scanlon had that bottle for me in the feed zone at lap 4 and was there cheering me on.