Den's story: Croatan Buck Fifty

BaseCamp athlete Den Scanlon shared his experience at the 2025 Croatan Buck Fifty event in Cedar Point, North Carolina.

I don’t set expectations for most events anymore since time has imposed uncertainty upon knowing which Den is going to show up on a day. It is a fact of aging that annoys me more than I’d like to admit -- and motivates me to keep training.

Saturday at the Croatan Buck, it was a good day. The last block of training was less successful than the previous ones this year due to work interference (that pesky work!), so I was doubly concerned of how I would feel. I’d had a pretty good block of endurance the previous weekend but missed Wednesday and Thursday of last week.

Still, I got a good mid-pack start with about 150 or so folks and rolled out feeling OK and holding the main group. That went on for the first several racing miles until a couple of turns where other racers who had not practiced Tim Cusick 's cornering drills slowed and let gaps open. To tell the truth I didn’t expect to stay with the leads but losing them that way was a bit aggravating. Anyway, I settled into a tempo pace and picked up a few other stragglers to form a group out to about mile 25 when we were picked up by a larger group. From about mile 25 to 40ish I able to help to push the pace and that group thinned considerably. After mile 40 a group of about seven picked us up and they were rolling very well -- and not looking for pulls all that much. 😄 Their pace burned off all but one other from my original group and most of their group. That lasted until the end of the first loop at mile 62.

In retrospect, I would skip any stop on this event if I were to enter again. This time, I made a 1–2-minute pit stop to change bottles and lap two was on. 48 miles more as an out and back. Mostly on my own as the group melted away at the pit stop.

I started slower and think I must have neglected a feed on the run in from lap 1 since I was struggling a bit to get power and HR to elevate for about the first 8-10 miles. Fortunately, I’d slammed a bunch of gels and drinks on the roll out from the pit so things started working better as I went. The big issue on this lap was headwinds. They were variable on the way out and quite stiff on the way back, which, working alone, slowed me considerably.

One bright point was seeing Shannon roll past heading back toward the finish with a strong group and looking comfortable IN THE DRAFT!

After the turn around it was a slog into wind for about 7-8 miles until I joined two others who came up and who were willing to share the pulls into some of the worst of the headwinds. I lost them with about six miles left but kept pushing and felt like I finished strong but spent.

What worked:

• The Lauf.

• My revised bike position courtesy of MyVeloFit and some valuable wisdom gleaned from Brian Hammond. His advice on hand position alleviated an ongoing left-hand numbness I’ve been struggling to understand for quite a while.

• My feed plan courtesy of Hexis -- although eating 9788 calories in a day was a challenge -- I mostly rose to that occasion. 🤪

• BaseCamp winter group coaching. This. Otherwise finishing as I did would have been improbable. And

• The pre-race process and openers. Thank goodness SOMEONE in our household watches ALL of Tim’s and Namrita’s videos and absorbs their lessons. Thank you Shannon Scanlon for sharing and all you do.

The Result: 6th of 17 in 60+ and 1st and only of 150 entrants at 70+ if they’d had such a category. That also would have been good for 11th among the fifty entrants to the 50+ field and also 11th among the forty+ field.

PLUS: My best 90-minute power since at least 2021.