Well, another 24 hour race over.
Ryan Atkins is Bionic.
Beau Hoover will be schoolin’ Ryan Atkins someday.
I almost got hit by lightning.
I need a new Coker wheel.
A big campfire with many members of this forum we got to meet.
I’m gonna do it solo next year.
Shamus was reaquainted with his breakfast burritos shortly into his lap.
Here’s a picture of Checkernuts: (More to follow)
Re: 24 Hr Race
Ouch
Good luck for next year 
We just made it home from Toronto after a FANTASTIC weekend and race. I’ll post photos and a writeup sometime later today. Suffice to say for now that Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous is the best 24 hour race I’ve done and hangin’ with the guys from Toronto is awesome.
—Nathan
And look at the organizer’s homepage!
a 24 hour race wow! now that sounds like fun
They now have the first batch of photos up and the results. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Team Cyclops I actually beat a bike team in the “Men’s Teams” category! Here are the results.
—Nathan
That’s a really cool picture. I like it also because right after that I was ahead of Nathan for approx 5 mins.
It was a great weekend - especially as we had so many people from out of town thanks to everyone for coming. Hopefully we can make it an annual event. Here are some photos that we took http://community.webshots.com/album/146276462DsfxSj
Jeff
Trip report and Photos
Thursday morning, the 3 of us plus Bronson Silva and Bruce Bundy headed off to Toronto from California. By 11:30pm, we arrived safely at the Groves’ house to find the Boston crew (Ben, Joey and TheDan) with Ryan Atkins, in fine spirits. We had a 3 hour time advantage on them, but we all stayed up until 1:30 or 2am snacking, watching Jeff’s video footage.
We had no plans for Friday other than to head to the race venue in the late afternoon. So the day was spent checking out the neighborhood, playing pool, juggling, frisbee in the park, etc. Jeff picked up Andy and Irene in the afternoon, and we all met out at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre by early evening. After checking in, some of us had time for a partial test-lap - we rode 1/4 of the course before it got dark. I was encouraged as it was mostly all singletrack and was generally smooth and rideable. We met the members of Team One (from London, ON and thereabouts), then headed off for dinner nearby. We ate at a fine establishment serving “Chinese and Canadian Food”. It was a great meal but no one ordered poutine so I couldn’t see if this famous food is really real. The LifeStyles race is catered (I guess because Rich and Famous people don’t do their own cooking) but we stocked up massively at a 24 hour supermarket. Back at the cabins, we started a great campfire and roasted marshmallows and told lies until 2am.
After breakfast, we set up tarps and prepared our unicycles for the ride. It was drizzling a bit and the weather forecast for the weekend was not very encouraging. At noon, the long anticipated race began.
Brian, Ryan and myself were the first riders and the “Modified Le Mans Start” went like this. You lay your bike/uni down upside down. Then back a ways, helmets are put on the ground, then everyone backs up a bit more and exactly at 12 noon, everyone goes for the helmets, the bikes, and then the starting line. With only 22 teams plus 17 solo riders, crowding was no problem. I kept to the back with some of the solo bike riders - the mellowest start I’ve ever seen. The course starts out level and slightly up on a fireroad, then heads up a singletrack into the forest. After a while I caught Brian and rode with him. We had a downhill back to the start, then a long climb up a sandy fireroad. There was a checkpoint at the top, and from there, the remaining 70% of the course was mostly all singletrack. There are log obstacles, a skinny little bridge that I only rode on one lap, a teeter totter that I think only Brian rode, and a “log bridge” that is basically a bunch of small logs horizontally placed on a steep downhill. I rode it the first time, but after the rain it was slippery. We rode through pine forests, a couple of very steep uphills that I jogged every time, then a final descent called “The 45”, basically a narrow trough that goes straight down and looks very slippery (but was ok except during the downpour). At the bottom, there was maybe 1km of flat riding, including some sort of nasty grass, back to the start/finish. The first lap went well: Ryan 54:07, Nathan 1:01:46 and Brian 1:02:20.
On we went, each team fielding their next rider. By the time Bruce came in and I took off on my second lap, it was 5:51pm. I went out and the rain started at about 5:52. It increased as I rode until it was pouring by the time I was halfway through. By this time the leaves were no longer stopping it and the course was really wet. I was starting to slip and slide towards the end and had to slow down a little but still managed 1:02:21. At the finish line, Carl was dry under the tent and I was sure that the lightening flashes I’d seen meant that my lap was invalid. But no, the race was still on, so Carl (and Jeff) took off and were instantly soaked to the skin. Right about then was when the lightening started to get serious and the race was halted. Carl and Jeff were called in after completing the first quarter of the course. Brian was out in the middle of the course at this time and was actually nearly hit by lightening. And he was riding his Coker! It was the only lap any of us did on Coker and the “45” section at the end was an epic for him - pouring water everywhere! He certainly got his money’s worth. Luckily for him, his lap was counted even though he finished slightly after 7pm when the race was called (good time too: 1:08).
A new start time of 8pm was given and we all hunkered down to stay dry. At 8pm it was still howling so it was rescheduled for 9pm. Before 9pm, the weather cleared and the sun briefly came out, so at 9, another start was held, with Carl and Jeff, damply heading out to redo the section of the course they had already done. The course had also been shortened for safety - down to around 11km. So the scoring was done in two parts: Race 1 and 2.
It was pretty dark by 9pm so these laps were dark and it didn’t get light in the sky until 5:20am or so, but riders needed lights until 6:30 under the trees. After Carl made it in, Beau headed out for his second lap, his first time riding offroad at night. He was using my HID light and said, “The dark didn’t hinder me at all.” In fact his time on that first night lap was faster than his previous day time lap (althoguh the course was shorter). Still there weren’t many faster night laps than his 1:10, and none were done on a 20"! So it went all night, with people sleeping when possible, although for me, it was pretty much not possible - I slept one hour one time. On that first night lap Beau’s seat flatted so I rebuilt that in time for him to ride again. Megumi and I looked at Beau sleeping peacefully on his bunk, after riding his heart out on two laps and wondered what time of “Champion Child Abuser” award we would get, but we woke him up at 3:40am and he was ready to go in time to crank out a second night lap. Amazing. I actually really enjoyed my night lap too. Although it was very misty, the HID punched enough light through that I only had to guess once and a while. I rode as fast as I could and finished in 1:06.
After Beau finished his second night lap, it was getting brighter every minute and soon we were back to much easier daytime riding. And a bonus that no one expected: the course got better! The mud mixed with the sand to produce wet dirt that actually gave great traction. As the morning went on, it got better and better and some of our last laps were the fastest. I managed a 55:14 for my last lap which was basically riding the 29er (152mm cranks) all out. Team Cyclops II rotated Ryan back in for a final lap and he went all out to set a course record. We took over the checkpoint and watched him go by twice, absolutely flying. He started something like 15 minutes behind Beau and caught up before the end, finishing in an amazing 45:40 (29er with 158mm cranks). Beau had the honor of being the last unicyclist on the course and got an amazing ovation as he crossed the line at 11:48:03. A bike had gone out with 39 minutes to go and made it by a couple of minutes, but there were no near misses to laugh at.
After packing up our gear, there was an awards ceremony. No medals for the unicyclists, but Team Cyclops II was 4th in the mixed category with 20 laps and Team Cyclops I beat a bike team with 18 laps. We were given an honorable mention and lots of cheers. Then lunch and we headed off to visit Darren Bedford’s unicycle showroom. He has a lot of unicycle stuff there, and a LOT of other interesting stuff too. If you are ever in Toronto, make it a point to visit him. You might even get him to sell you something useful like a couple of us did. We spent quite a while there, then headed back to the Groves’ house for a fantastic barbeque and evening of fun. You would think that with only a few hours of sleep (and more hours of hard riding), that we would crash early. But no, we were out playing foosball, pool, and walking through torrential rainstorms until we ended up back at the house, ordering pizzas at 1am. Fantastic day.
Monday, we had booked an hour at the local WhirlyBall Court. I had never heard of this great sport before, but if you ever get a chance to play, DO IT. I didn’t have my camera but used Pete and Maggie’s to get some shots - basically it’s lacrosse with lightweight scoops and balls, played on bumper cars. Great stuff.
Afterwards, more fun was had until we had to go to the airport and head home. We made it to Los Gatos by 1:45am which was 4:45am Toronto time, and amazingly, I couldn’t sleep. I guess I still had too much adrenalin from such a great weekend. So I read for 2 hours!
The combination of the beautiful course, with the right balance of technical vs non and plenty of climbing but nothing too long, plus the fantastic attitudes of the organizers and other racers made this my favorite 24 hour event. Having 15 riders on unicycle made it such a fun social event that I was practically wishing it was a 48 hour race. My training was such that I never felt a thing in my legs, during or after, and really had a blast cranking around the course. It was a learning experience for me as prior to this race, I had done one 6.8km lap in New Zealand plus a 10km ride in California on a 29er. I think the 29" wheel with 152mm cranks is a great 24 hour machine for courses that are a little too much for a Coker. This course is Cokerable, but I question whether it is worth it. The extra weight and lack of steerability are pretty big drawbacks.
Finally I want to thank everyone who helped us so much to have such a great time. Pete and Maggie Groves the most, plus Carl Hoyer and Brian Mackenzie for pulling it all off, and the organizers of the race - they’ve got a great thing going.
Let’s be Rich and Famous again next year, eh?
—Nathan
That last one was so long that I couldn’t include this info on the teams and the course.
The teams were:
Brian MacKenzie
Richard Aschenbrenner
Shamus Rask
Mike Carol
Sal Gionfriddo
Carl Hoyer (Ontario)
Nathan Hoover (California)
Beau Hoover (California)
Bronson Silva (California)
Bruce Bundy (California)
Irene Genelin (Washington/Minnesota)
Andy Cotter (Minnesota)
Jeff Groves (Ontario)
Ryan Atkins (Ontario)
Ben Plotkin-Swing (Boston)
Course Details
Length - 12.5km
Starting elevation 257m
Highest elevation 316m
Max slope climbed 21%
Average slope = 5%
Total climbing per lap = 256m or 840 feet
Brian please correct me if I got any of those names wrong.
Also I should thank Joey Cohn for getting up in the middle of the night (well, it only took a couple of people to force him out of bed!) and ride a lap for us when Carl was ill. It was great Carl improved and was able to crank a last lap for us too in 1:03.
—Nathan
Thanks for the Write up Nathan.
No Sal, it was Andrew Walden
more pics:
Speaking of 24 hour races, not to take up or thread jack, but I figure some of you may be intersted. August 27th-28th here in minneapolis there’s a 24 hour race just 45 minutes away. I’m thinking of/probably will doing 24 hours of Afton. At least, I plan on trying. http://www.24hoursofafton.org/ Lemme know via PM or email if your interested. Again, sorry for the threadjacking.
I also have some pics at LUC’s gallery
filter by album 24 hr race
beau hoover is the kid I always hoped that I would have.
congrats to nathan and megumi!!!
i love that kid.
those of you that don’t know him, will and you can quote me on it.
Re: Trip report and Photos
Wow- that sounds so epic! Well done everyone:p
Thanks Gizmo! (more pics)
