I celebrated by achieving one of my long standing unicycling goals: riding a Marathon distance “in one” with no UPDs or deliberate dismounts. In the event, I did just a shade over 27 miles before the first dismount.
2 hours 14 minutes to 26.5 miles.
A little bit of a warm down, meaning I did just over 29 miles in total.
All this on the 36, riding on public roads and contending with traffic, junctions and so on, with a short section of unmade part-flooded farm track near to the end.
Mapmyrun.com shows my average speeds for each separate mile: nothing below 10 mph, and the highest - about a quarter of the way through the ride - was 13.32 mph.
My previous best was 22.5 miles without a dismount on the 28 in 2 hours 15, but that was a good few years ago.
Are you going to give us a link then? Mainly curious what roads you used, as I’m interested in getting about a bit more on my 29er guni (I can go a bit faster than you on your 36er I think - at any rate I can manage 14mph for a mile on my regular route).
I think this is the link. I’m new to using Mapmyrun so I don’t know if it will work.
I live between Newark and Grantham in a village alongside the A1. In most directions we have at least 6 - 8 miles of country lanes before I have to cross or go on a main road. Not much by the way of hills, but it isn’t completely flat: gently undulating, and ideal for a 36" wheel.
There are also plenty of unmade tracks and bridleways, although at the moment most of them are mudbaths.
Really. I rode a full marathon distance without a dismount once, and that was some really painful crotch! You did it nearly as fast (I think I did 1:48 or so; the Unicon XIV race) but I didn’t hear you mention “severe crotch damage”.
And welcome to the big 5-0! I guess I’m 8 months older than you.
Sweet! Nice to see fellow geezers goin’ for it. I turned 53 a couple weeks ago and I’m just starting to get into distance riding after taking up uni at the beginning of last summer. I did this pretty lake loop twice this week (see pic) on my KH29. It takes me about 2 hours 45 minutes with a short coffee break at the midpoint. The funnest part is the hills! I just recently got to the point where I can do pretty much any hill in my area, and the feeling of liberation is tremendous! The road is MINE! muwahahahaha! Just wish there were more roadies in my meetup group; mostly they like to work on tricks, idling, and backward riding (zzzzzzz).
…still feel like I want more speed. Guess I better start shopping for a 36…
Hey 'Noob, my uncle lives on Mercer Island, I’ll give you a shout next time I’m out there. The ride around Mercer Island itself is also quite nice (but best done mid-day to avoid traffic), my recollection is that it’s about 11 miles or so.
Heh. Yeah. Did that one clockwise a couple weeks ago with one of the meetup d00ds. It was GREAT! That thing is a uni playground. Some of the twisties are seriously banked, tho. I think the full perimeter took us like an hour and a half on 29ers with a couple of unnecessary short breaks.
Definitely let me know if you do it! I’d love to hook on. Twirl the island, then coffee at Tully’s so I can pick your uni-brain!
