Photo: Howie Stern
Michael McKnight continued his record-setting ways this past weekend at the Tahoe 200, a 205.5-mile race that circumnavigates Lake Tahoe via the Tahoe Rim Trail. Just five weeks after his
course-record win at the Bigfoot 200, a roughly 200-mile race in the state of Washington, rabbit’s McKnight won again at the Tahoe 200 this past Sunday in 50 hours, 56 minutes and 22 seconds, setting the counter-clockwise course record.
But the course-record win didn’t come easy.
“From the moment the race started and I felt how heavy my legs were from Bigfoot, I knew this was gonna be a battle,”
said McKnight.
During the two-plus days of racing, McKnight experienced more than just tired legs. Despite vivid hallucinations, nose bleeds and a faulty headlamp, McKnight persevered against a starting field of roughly 250 runners to cross the finish line more than three hours faster than his closest competitor.
In 2017, just two years ago, McKnight set the fastest combined time for the Triple Crown of 200s, a three-race summer series of 200ish-mile race from August to October. This year, McKnight has found another gear and elevated his performances.
After improving his Bigfoot 200 time by nearly 18 hours last month, McKnight bettered his Tahoe 200 time by nearly 17 hours this past weekend. With one race left to go in this year’s Triple Crown series, McKnight has a 35-hour lead on his previous best combined time of 205 hours, 4 minutes and 18 seconds. He’ll take that lead into the third and final Triple Crown race next month at the Moab 240, a roughly 238-mile race in Utah. During his 2017 record-setting Triple Crown run, McKnight finished the Moab 240 in 68 hours. If McKnight can complete the race this year in less than 103 hours, he’ll successfully establish a new record for the Triple Crown of 200s. Based on his significant improvement in the form of two course-record wins so far this summer, McKnight seems destined to continue his record-setting ways next month.
Follow along from October 11th to 15th as McKnight completes his 2019 Triple Crown journey at the Moab 240.