The Blue Butterfly Fund's Unbelievably Inaptly Named
Rocktober Challenge MTB Marathon
brought to you by visitPA.com and the visitPA.com MTB Team
With help from Pennsylvania’s DCNR
Saturday May 17, 2008
RB Winter State Park and Bald Eagle State Forest
! All races start at 8:00am. Pre-race meeting at the start at 7:45am. The course is one big 3 leaf clover shaped loop. The start/finish also serves as our two resupply checkpoints. You will be able to leave whatever food and hydration supplies you need at the checkpoint. We will have water, gatorade, and food (fig bars, bananas, etc) at the checkpoint area for you. You must be your own technical support.
If you have a MASS number plate -- bring it! [ Printable Flyer - pdf]
The History of the Rocktober Challenge
This is an event that is dear to me and one that I have attempted to establish in the mid-Atlantic racing community on several occasions. As it is located a bit out of the way it has been difficult to establish, but with the increased interest in marathon and endurance racing events (something we tried in one of the first iterations of this event with a 100K race in the mid-90’s and were perhaps a little ahead of our time) I saw an opportunity to try again.
I'm passionate about this event because I think the riding at RB Winter and in Bald Eagle is some of the best anywhere in the country. It is hard and technical and remote enough that it isn't overused and that makes for spectacular riding. This is also the site of one of the first events I ever promoted - the original Rocktober Challenge took place in 1995, was actually in October, and was part of the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conferences schedule as it was run by the mountain bike team at Bucknell U in Lewisburg, PA.
The original Rocktober Challenge was an XC event (with 11, 18 and 26 or so mile courses) and lasted three seasons or so. During this time the event moved into September with the moniker "so what if it's in September" as its first step in the increasing inaptness of the event title. If you’re wondering why we kept the “Rocktober” part just come on by this May and give it a whirl, we bet you’ll figure that one out all on your own.
As college teams ebb and flow with complete turnover off all members in four years the event needed some direction and was absorbed for two seasons by Team Harrisburg as the Team Harrisburg Great Adventure and was run on slightly different XC courses showcasing the breadth of trails located in just this one tract of the Bald Eagle Forest. The event faded due mostly to the fact that the course is where it is and everyone trying to promote it lived two hours away.
A year or two later I found myself living in Bellefonte, PA and attempted to revive the event as a mountain bike marathon. I like to think I was ahead of the curve on this idea since the event drew less than 20 racers and it seemed that many people were put off by the idea of a 60 mile mtb race at that time (this was about the time that the Wilderness 101 was reborn and 100 milers started to pick up steam as well). Plus I ran into a problem of some young Amish rebels playing havoc with the course and basically seeing every single participant miss an important turn. I can't say this experience left me motivated to continue promoting the event and so it sat dormant for 5ish years.
2007 saw the next phase in the life of the Rocktober Challenge by moving the event further from October and increasing the inaptitude of the name (this is really the number one focus of the event – something we believe we nailed in 2008) and bringing the event under the MASS umbrella. The 2007 race saw 60 or so competitors take on the Challenge with everyone giving the course rave “dang that was hard,” “I’m freakin’ whooped,” and “Man, it was rocky” reviews.
