The Scoop On Mike Kloser

Primal Quest may still be nearly a year away (333 days actually, but who's counting?) but that doesn't mean that the pre-race hype can't begin early. It seems that the PQ staff wants to give us reasons to visit their website regularly, providing updates and insights into the race and adventure racing in general.

Today they've posted a new article entitled The Scoop: Mike Kloser which is a very nice profile of one of the greatest adventure racer to ever lace up trail running shoes. Kloser is the captain of Team Nike, the adventure racing goliath that has a penchant for dominating nearly any race they enter. How good is Kloser? Check out this list of accomplishments quoted from the article:

4 time Adventure Racing World Champion, World Mountain Bike Champion, World Long Distance Orienteering Champion, 3 time Eco-Challenge Champion, 4 time Primal Quest Champion, Multi National Adventure Racing Series Champion, National Winter Triathlon Champion, 8 time Steamboat Pentathlon Champion, 3 time Teva Games Champion, 2 time Iditabike Champion, Mt. Taylor Quadrathlon Champion, Moab 24 Hour Champion, 3 time Elk Mountain Traverse Champion, Ultra 100 Mountain Bike Champion, 2 time America’s Uphill Champion, Dearborn Mogul Skiing Champion, Jackson Hole Open Mogul Skiing Champion, Inducted into Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, Everest Award Winner, Competitor Magazine Adventure Athlete of the Year.

PQ CEO Don Mann calls Kloser "the most intense and toughest guy" he's ever met, and that's saying something coming from a guy like Mann. The article also reveals that Kloser broke a finger during a training run leading up to the Adventure Racing World Championship in Scotland a few months back. But instead of dropping out of the race due to the compound fracture, he competed with "Two screws, reattached tendons and a bandage" holding everything in place. How did Nike do? Well, they still won of course!

I have a lot of respect for Mike, and not just because we come from the same hometown. He's been a very tough competitor in mountain biking and adventure racing for years, and he doesn't seem to be slowing down now. We'll have to wait 333 days to see if Nike can win their fifth straight Primal Quest, but one thing is for sure. They won't go down without a fight.

Thanks to Check Point Zero for the heads up on this one.