The Long Beach marathon is having a 26 mi Bike Tour before the Long Beach Marathon on Sunday 10/17/2010.
I plan to go on my Coker. I had a good time last year at the LA Marathon tour last year. The crowds and the festivities are fun. It would be great to have a few unicyclists there (I will likely be going likely with my wife and kids who ride those 2 wheeled thangs).
The link is:
http://www.runlongbeach.com/participate/biketour
The link says:
“26.2 Mile Breathtaking Course
Ride the most breathtaking Marathon 26.2 mile Bike Tour in Southern California
Safe, scenic and fully closed course
The full 26.2 miles on the same course as the Marathon runners
New for 2010! The 26.2 Bike Tour will host it’s own Finish Line Festival!
The Marathon Bike Tour starting time will be 6:00 AM.”
If you sign up by tomorrow it is $35. After that $45.
I e-mailed the organizers and the said no problems with unicycles, just start at the back of the pack for “safety reasons”.
Hope to see some other unis there!
Looks like fun. They show it as a pretty flat course compared to the Boston Marathon. I’ll most likely be there.
I may give it a try. They start the bikes (and unicycles) at 6 AM. How long do we have to finish and get off the course?
Did you register as a bike or as a unicycle?
Scott
Yeah, the course is flaaaaaat, which is good or bad depending on your preferences. For some it may not be as much as a challenge as an experience.
It doesn’t say how long you have to finish the course. I assume it will be similar to the Acura LA Bike Tour, that if you don’t average about 8 or 9 mph they’ll guide you off of the course so that the runners don’t have stray bicyclers on the path. Runners appear to start at 7:00 am, which seems kind of quick, so maybe you need a faster paste than 8-9 mph (in the Acura LA Bike Tour the marathon started about 2 hours after the bikers, if I recall). Or, since there is kind of a 2-way road/loop configuration to the course, they just make your turn around if you are too slow.
And I registered as a bike, since there is no “other” or “unicycle” category. Bob Seagran of the Long Beach Marathon said
"You are more than welcome to ride unicycles. For your safety please
position yourself towards the back of the pack. We don’t allow the
tricycles because of the swinging back and forth required to propel them and
this creates safety issues for cyclists, especially on the somewhat narrow
bike path along the beach. See you in Oct. Bob ". So unicyclers should be good.
bump
If anyone is interested you can still register through Wed 10/13 at:
http://runlongbeach.com/about/26-2-bike-tour/
Let me know if you are going so I can keep my eyes peeled for other unicyclists.
Should be fun!