Good morning,
Yesterday I took a half day vacation and rode 100.02 miles on my 36" unicycle! I
rode 64 miles at one location and then drove my car to another location and
finished the 100 miles. I started the ride at 12:50pm on 3/1 and finished at
1:00am on 3/2. The ride included 9hrs 29mins and 13secs of pedaling. I averaged
10.5mph and hit a max speed of 16.6mph.
My pre-ride goal was 70 miles,but as I got close to this I told myself that 70
was just a number(why not 100?) I thought about quitting at many points during
the late stages of this ride, but the closer I got to 100 the more I seemed
determined to keep going.
The ride was exclusively on well-maintained bike paths with few turns and even
fewer hills. I heard many car horns and got many stares and smiles from people
using the trails. I drank at least 2 gallons of water and ate beef
jerky,chips,dried pineapple and peanuts on the ride.
I felt a lot of pain in the 40 to 50 mile zone which came back strongly after 70
miles and got progressively worse until the end. Not only my legs, but my
neck,shoulders,arms,feet and hands were sore when I got through. The last 20
miles I “stood” with both hands on the seat and more than normal weight on the
pedals. I also gave up on freemounting after missing the entire pedal with my
“weak” foot and falling hard on my butt. After that, I just used posts and poles
to prop myself back up and go. I took many short breaks and two 15 minute breaks
and one 20 minute break while driving my car from location one to location two.
My feeling of achievement was clouded by my dissapointment in pushing myself
this hard to finish. At least I feal better after a few hours sleep, but my legs
are still VERY stiff. The only witness to the number of miles I went was my new
CAT EYE cyclecomputer calibrated at 284 cm. and verified at 3 seperate locations
by “known measured miles”.
I don’t think I even want to touch a unicycle for a couple of days.
-Mark
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