Throughout the afternoon and evening on Tuesday cyclists with Warrior Ride 2012 pedaled across Southwest Colorado, passing through Durango, on their journey from Oceanside, Calif., to New York City’s Sept. 11 memorial.

“These men have paid for this trip themselves and have taken their vacation days to raise awareness and to ‘continue their mission,’” Catherine Shelley, a spokeswoman for the ride, wrote in an email.

The ride supports two charities: the Travis Manion Foundation and the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.

Travis Manion was a Marine who was killed in Iraq in 2007. Coincidentally, he served there with Eric Greitens, whose book The Heart and the Fist is Fort Lewis College’s Common Reading Experience this year. Greitens, whose organization The Mission Continues partners with the Manion foundation, will give a talk, open to the public, at 7 p.m. Thursday at the FLC Concert Hall.

Meanwhile, the Warrior Ride cyclists are pushing on through Colorado, hopefully avoiding the rain.

To learn more, go to http://911heroesrun.com/warriorride

Herald Staff