You Ever Seen a Truck Pull, Bro?
Bishop’s Mike Reed organizes first-ever High Sierra Strongman Classic
Mike Reed, the organizer of Bishop’s first-ever High Sierra Strongman Classic, says he wants the inaugural event to be so impressive that “people can’t even wrap their heads around it.”
Specifically, he says, he loves watching people who’ve never seen a Strongman event before witness a truck pull—a man seated in a 900-pound loader tire will pull a 25,000-pound box truck about 65 feet.
“A couple of these heavyweight guys will probably pull this truck pretty fast. I know a guy that will probably do it in about 30 seconds.”
So yeah, wrap your head around that.
Reed, who moved to Bishop with his wife Corinne two years ago, has been competing in Strongman competitions for almost a decade, minus a year off due to a torn bicep (apparently these injuries are pretty common).
“I’m very passionate about this,” says Mike. “And I have an extremely supportive wife. She’s dealt with this for the last eight years, traveling across the country and chasing our kids around while I’m competing at strongman shows” (the couple have three boys—1, 4 and 7).
“My wife’s a trooper,” he says with a laugh.
She knew what she was getting into. “I actually proposed to Corinne at a Strongman contest,” says Mike. “I dragged her seven hours from where we lived [the couple met in Port Angeles, Washington] through a snowstorm. We got snowed in in eastern Washington on Valentine’s Day, two days before her birthday. She was not very happy. I think the proposal helped … well I hope it did anyway!”
Well, she said yes, didn’t she?
“Well, I did in front of 100 people and I knew she was too nice to say no. So it was kind of entrapment!”
Corinne’s parents are Aaron and Mary Ann Schat, and they’re (almost) as supportive as Corinne—the event will be held in the Schat’s Roadhouse parking lot.
“They were the ones who pushed me to get the thing going, because I wanted to do it. But I don’t even think they realize the magnitude of what it takes to put this on.”
