Ep. 42 - Mark McGraw, GranGravel 500 (unofficial) Winner
Bikes or Death
Patrick Farnsworth
4.8 • 563 Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2020
⏱️ 116 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On March 19th at 5:00am Mark McGraw lined up at the start line of the "unofficial" GranGravel 500 Race along with two others. The official race was cancelled due to COVID-19, but that didn't stop these guys from lining up to take on the course, the elements, and potential resupply closures at key points. The forecast called for lots of rain that would make many of the roads unrideable. Despite that Mark still was able to finish in 66 hours (2 days, 18 hours).
When he was only 80 miles from the finish I drove out to snap some pictures and cheer him on, by this time he was the last man standing and it was raining. However, I was happy to see that his spirits were high and his legs still pushing strong.
I'm bummed that I wasn't able to participate this year, but it was a joy to get to chat with Mark about his race. I learned some things that I hope I get to put into action next year.
The GranGravel 500 was created by Billy Rice. It starts and finishes in Bryan, TX (my hometown) and takes you through 500 miles of East Texas gravel, through two National Forest, and by countless country churches and cemeteries. Maybe next year I'll see you at the start line?!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, all you cool cats and kittens. |
| 0:02.4 | Welcome to the Bikes or Death podcast. |
| 0:04.3 | My name is Patrick, and I'm your host. |
| 0:06.7 | And today, we're talking with Mark McGraw, who was the first and only finisher of this year's Grand Gravel 500. |
| 0:14.4 | This is a race that I was slated to participate in, but with the coronavirus, it got shut down. |
| 0:20.8 | So the official race didn't happen, but a the coronavirus, it got shut down. |
| 0:28.7 | So the official race didn't happen, but a few people did line up to do an unofficial go at the race. |
| 0:34.3 | It was a bummer not to be able to participate, but it was great to be able to chat with Mark about his accomplishments this year. So congrats to Mark and thank you for taking the time to |
| 0:39.2 | chat with me. I have a couple announcements for you. First, I'm running a coronavirus sale over on |
| 0:46.7 | Bikes for Debt.com. If you go to the store there, everything is 19% off from now until the end of the pandemic, however long it lasts. |
| 0:56.8 | Whether it's a year, two years, rest for lives, who knows. |
| 1:00.2 | All you got to do is head over there, load up your cart with all the goodies, and use the |
| 1:04.8 | promo code C19 at checkout and watch those dollars fade away. |
| 1:12.1 | And lastly, if you'll take a moment to head over to iTunes and rate and review the show, |
| 1:16.5 | it is greatly appreciated. |
| 1:18.5 | As always, thank you, thank you, thank you. |
| 1:21.5 | And you know what? |
| 1:23.5 | Let's just cut it out right now and get right to the show. |
| 1:25.9 | Right to it. |
| 1:26.5 | Right now. |
| 1:26.9 | Let's do it. |
| 1:27.6 | Let's go. You load up now and get right to the show. Right to it, right now. Let's do it. Let's go. |
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