The 24 Hour Round the Clock race over Memorial weekend takes place in Riverside State Park, and it was HOT this year. Unlike most of Spokane's Memorial Day weather- which are drizzly and cool- this one was dusty hot, upping the difficulty for riders to stay hydrated. A short run up the mountain starts off the first lap of the 24 hour race to space out the riders, then hopping on their bikes they are off on a 15 mile loop of crazy terrain riding as fast as they can. Mike was on a five man team, the Columbia-High Mountain Road Marmots. They rode a total of twenty laps- each rode four laps, one lap about every four and a half hours; not much time to hydrate, eat, clean your bike and your body, and rest somewhere in the middle of it all. It was grueling- but they did finished proudly and with minimal injury. They were consistent with their times- in fact one team member kept his same time of 1 hour 7 minutes for each lap including the night laps- impressive. Thanks to Columbia Sports Wear they had a great wardrobe of riding gear and looked fantastic as a team. Thanks Columbia!
Mike was too tired to reach up all the way and hit the bell at the finish line. The question now is will he do this again next year? I think we'll wait a few days for that question.
Cheers to the team! Such great effort and team support on all counts- good job Marmots!
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