Hello all, my brother is competing in the London (UK) marathon on the 23rd, I’m going to get down there and ride to meet him at various points around the course as he runs. I was wondering if anyone else fancied the jaunt round london, I’m only on a 24" Muni so it’s not going to be that quick (unless anyone can lend me a coker). I’ve not worked out the route yet but it will short cut significantly the course, there’s no way i can beat my brother over 26 miles on a 24"! It’s going to be a fairly early start as he’s starting 45 minutes ahead of the main pack, so if anyone’s interested let me know!
Have you been in town on Marathon day before? Just that several million people descending on London tends to make it a little crowded, it takes about an hour to just get across Greenwich on foot, let alone to get from one bit of the course to another. It really does get insanely crowded anywhere near the course.
How comes he’s starting before the main pack, is he a super fast person or something?
Joe
No to be honest i havent been in town on marathon day, i was hoping to cut across the back streets away from the course rather than ride along it, and just come back close to the course at certain points. Im sure the crowding will be an issue though, thanks for your advice. Yeah he’s never raced marathon before but he’s in with the elite group, they actually start in a different place to the rest so hopefully i’ll be able to get closer to him at the start.
I’d have to say leave the Uni behind. As Joe said it’ll be ridiculously busy just about everywhere. Should you want to take public transport they may not let you take the uni…
Well, I have to say you were all wrong. The uni went on a bus, tube and train just fine and it was easy to get through the crowds, although I admit they may have been thinner because it was raining. However while riding along the pavement this happened. Bugger. Luckily i had my muni rucksack so i strapped it on and carried it for the rest of the day.
Man that’s cool that you got through the crowds and unicycled on!
But that’s seriously uncool what happened to your rim. Just riding along the pavement? Is that the sidewall coming off? How old is it? Any chance of warranty getting you a replacement?
I see it’s one of those dodgy Kris Holm rims so it’s maybe not too shocking that it failed.
T.
Yep, im sending the hub spokes and nipples to Roger at UDC and he has offered to build a new wheel with them ASAP and free of charge and ship it back to me, impecable customer service as always. I was riding on a moderate hill, with the brakes on, and it just went with a bang and threw me off. The rim peeled the way the others did around the groove. The worst thing was that I was trying to get to the next section before my brother so I had to run for over a mile with it on my shoulder to beat him to it.
But the real point of all this is that my brother came 816th in 2:55:49 
Good old Roger!
Bad old Kris Holm.
I would get it rebuilt with a different rim.
Thats a really good time for your brother tho!
T.