This is the furthest that I've ventured outside of Austin. Camp Eagle is located in a town called Rocksprings which is a little over three hours from home. (Rocksprings is about an hour and a half past Fredericksburg in the heart of Hill Country.) Camp Eagle is also a Christian-based adventure camp. The Holidaze Marathon is part of the TMBRA (Texas Mountain Bike Racing Association) Mountain Bike Marathon Championship Series. Camp Eagle hosts this event every year.
Well, I did not get a chance to ride out there before the race. If I had, then I may have considered setting my 29er up with a suspension fork. The course was relentless! It was very rocky and pretty technical in most sections. There were long, winding switchback climbs with fast descents. The full marathon (3 laps) covered a distance of 43 miles. Each lap had about 2000 ft of climbing. There were a lot of people that signed up for three laps and ended up quitting after two.
The dirt road out to Camp Eagle is eight miles long.
I spent Friday night in a screened cabin in the area above the main lodge. My R32 is pretty low to the ground, so I had to be careful getting up to the cabin. The AWD definitely helped though!
I felt at home once I saw my name on the door...
It got very cold on Friday night. Some people reported that the weather actually dropped into the 20's. I can verify this because the water that I had setup for coffee use was partially frozen when I woke up @ 6am!
It took my friend James and me just over six hours to finish the race. It honestly felt like my body had been rattled for six hours straight. We were glad when the race was over - and feel that it was quite an accomplishment. We ended up coming in 11/12th place out of 28 that were entered in our age group.
Part of the course ran parallel to a river that runs through the camp.
There are all sorts of adventure related activities along the river. I thought that my brother's kids and my daughter would have fun on this one when they are a little older. The water was crystal clear...
All in all it was a great time! I look forward to the next marathon event...and returning to Camp Eagle soon. (I was eating a PB&J in the 'feed zone' after the 1st lap in this picture...)
