The Papakaio 8 Hour returned for the first time in two years on Saturday.
The eight-hour mountain-bike challenge doubles as the main fundraiser for Papakaio School.
There were different loops on the course for different age groups and the objective for everyone was to do as many loops as they could in eight hours.
The school was "thrilled to bits" with how it went, principal Damian Brown said.
"We were just absolutely over the moon with the way that everything turned out. It couldn’t have gone better."
"The weather was great — we had lots of people there.
"Everything went right for us. It was fantastic."
The success of the day was made "even sweeter" after last year’s event was cancelled due to wet weather, he said.
Nearly 200 riders entered and everyone involved had a great day, Mr Brown said.
"The feedback that we’ve got from the public was just fantastic.
"The people who haven’t been before, according to them, they’ll definitely come back."
He hopes to increase advertising for the challenge in future to draw in crowds from outside North Otago.
"We had a lady from Cromwell, and she said she couldn’t believe how good the event was.
"She’s going to come back next year ... she reckons she’ll get another 20 riders with her."
While they did not know how much money was raised just yet, they were "well on the way" to having enough to fund a teacher aide for each classroom at the school, he said.
He felt "very blessed" to have had such great support.
"There was dozens and dozens of people outside of the committee that came together to make this work.
"I’ve got a lot of exhausted people today because, even though it’s an eight-hour race, it’s probably an eight-month mission," Mr Brown said.
