Hi everybody!
Next year I’ll be again in Dusseldorf by the end of april. really happy for that!!!
And I’ve been trying to participate on any regular marathons here in brasil for the past 6 months, and it’s almost impossible. usually they say it’s not allowed, I could hurt someone and stuff like that.
And I’ve heard that the Prague Marathon allows unicyclists to run. Does anybody know if that’s true?
Is there a list of “unicycle friendly” marathons around the world???
I ran the Prague Marathon few years ago. At least then there was no unicyclist participating. Dusseldorf is the only unicycle marathon that I’m aware of. That’s why I might do it again some day.
tuomas
3 years ago I participated in the “3 ciudades patagonicas” in Chubut, Argentina.
It was a very nice marathon, but I don’t know if this marathon is still available.
We were 2 unicyclists.
In the Lincoln Marathon, you can participate as a course monitor with a bike or uni. You wouldn’t get a bib number but you can ride in it for free!
Forgive a n00b question, but why on earth would a unicyclist even want to ride a runners’ course during a race? I’d feel like I was crashing someone else’s party, and if I was a competing runner, I’d want to know why the hell these one-wheelers were mixing in. Depending on wheel size and individual ability, there can be a huge discrepancy between a competitive runner’s pace and a unicyclist’s cruising speed.
A couple weeks ago, while doing one of my longer rides, I got detoured by the Seattle Marathon. The officials told me I was welcome to use the jogging path at the side of the road, but that the road itself was closed to all but the footrace participants. I had no problem with this, because I was aware that most of these people had probably trained for a long time for this race…this was their big day, and the last thing I’d want to do was create a rolling hazard or impede someone’s progress by darting around in the pack–especially as race results are often decided in fractions of a second. Just curious… 
Many marathons have a separate group for wheelchairs, that starts at a different time. It might be possible to join one of those groups, but again you would first have to convince most organizers that you’re serious, won’t fall all over the place, etc. And then it’s still up to them to decide whether they want you, or are able to risk the liability due to it being a different vehicle than what might be covered by their insurance.
It’s their event; their rules.
I recommend gathering together more road-oriented unicyclists and creating your own marathons and rides, then if all of that is working maybe you can convince future marathon organizers to let you in as a group. Also talk to bike race organizers. Their insurance is more likely to cover you, at least…
Hello,
John is right with the wheelchair group at marathons. Some years ago when Duesseldorf marathon started to allow unicyclists I also asked organisers of other marathons if I could start. I was allowed to start at Mittelrhein marathon (I think 2005) and Frankfurt marathon (2004, 2nd biggest marathon in Germany). In both cases it was very helpful to have joined in Nightskate events (Tuesday Night Skate in Frankfurt). It´s great fun, the speed is right for road unicyclists and if you tell a marathon organiser that you are familiar with such events it´s easier to join. Both marathons are also for inline skaters and have a wheelchair/handbike group and I was the only unicaclist. I started in the handbike group. I also was allowed to start in a pure inlineskate race (Guetersloh city classics 2003?) where I set my personal best marathon time (1:41:15 if I remember correctly).
I think without the information that I am very familiar with big skate events the organisers wouldn´t have allowed me to join their marathons.
By the way: competing in the public part (100km) of the Amstel Gold bike race near Maastricht in the Netherlands was no problem at all from the organisers.
In all cases I had to pay the normal fee for participants and appeared somewhere in the results (either as handbiker or as skater, depending in which starter group I was placed).
Frank