Looks good and well thought out. Only thing I noticed was a typo in the intermediate downhill “riders can do only one of the two Uphill races”
I am going to have to see if I can make it to this, It would be a shame to miss it.
I’m wondering, will there be any super technical DH races? Like, not a 2 minute thing, but a hole hour long or longer type for technical ride?
I’ve made some changes fixing the typo and some other minor things.
As for the DH, it looks like it will be about 200m. So unless you are really having a bad day and going slow, it shouldn’t take an hour. Maybe we can extend it somewhat but most likely not by much. The 13 mile race might be more what you are looking for as that it ends at a lower elevation then the start. I was told it is slightly downhill most of the way.
Link to the (updated rules) - http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgpr7dfb_28d6hk4ddp
Link to Nationals map page. If you zoom in to where the races are, you can get a good idea where the MUni events will be held.
http://www.naucc08.com/maps.html
-Andy
Looks great Andy! This NAUCC is shaping up to be a really big MUni and “newer” events festival! Unfortunately I may miss some of the earliest events due to the flights we booked but hey, it’ll be a busy summer. 
Here’s a couple of followup rules questions:
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On the cross country events, riders must walk and may not pass mounted riders. Missing is the form any penalty may take. Though it may be impossible to observe riders over a whole course (esp. the long one) there will be witnesses here and there and the chosen penalty should be known to all riders.
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The “three steps” rule will need to be thought out in detail. Example: I’m standing next to my unicycle after a dismount. I step once with my right, then left, then right foot. From that second right foot step, does this mark the point at which I must mount, or can I stand on that right foot and jump on the uni in front of me? This should be worked out with an easy way for riders to understand (and implement) so all are on the same page in the event.
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Also on the three steps thing, “If the rider falls and and takes mulitple steps to run out of the fall, the rider may go back to where their unicycle is at and start counting from there.” If that’s the case, I’m going to darn well hold onto my unicycle as best I can, and stumble a lot. I think this should be changed to returning to the point of dismount and starting the three steps from there. Yes this can really suck on a downhill but may be the only fair way to work it. The incentive then is to not fall on the downhills! (In the 1999 MUni race at the Snoqualmie Pass, I fell off on a steep downhill section that went straight down the slope. I fell off and ended up going about 30 meters just trying to stop. Then I had to run back up the hill to get the unicycle! Still it was a fun race, and probably the only time I’ll have been able to be 2nd to Kris Holm in a dirt race)
In addition, now we need info about the courses. The two main areas that need coverage are elevations and terrain. What’s the approximate start and end elevations on the various courses, how much climbing and descent in between, and how “easy or hard” is the terrain? This is vital information to help the non-local riders prepare.
Thanks for helping the SD folks put all this together! When I’m not racing or taking pictures, I hope I can help you guys set up and run the events.
John, thanks for the feedback. I updated the document with your suggestions.
Quick summary on the changes:
- I added some wordage on what happens if people violate the non-riding rules. I know it is hard to enforce but having something gives us some recourse if someone abuses it.
- Updated the Techincal Cross Country so that the person has to back to where they dismounted before taking the three steps.
-Andy
I dont think that the marathon cross country should count for the overall score. Im fairly sure that a lot less people will do it. I, for example, dont plan on doing that one because then i would be too tired for other competitions. Long distances seem less atractive to many riders too. Im also assuming that the marathon cross country track will be a lot less technical, making it to be judged possibly too much on stamina, like another 10k as opposed to muni skill. Just a thought.
Is stamina not important for MUni?
I probably wont be there but to me stamina is a huge part of MUni. If all MUni was was doing very short technical sections it would be natural trials.
I don’t think I will compete in the Muni Marathon either, although I plan on doing my best in everything else!
Yeah, part of muni is definitely stamina. 13 miles though, is very long though. Im not messing up my other competitions to race for 13 miles… Though i may end up doing that if it ends up being included in the overall score, depending on when it is and how tired i am already. I dont think that it should be considered in the overall score though. Even very serious municyclists would hesitate on going on this ride, since its a different aspect of the sport completely. Im all for the actual competition taking place however, i would gladly take part myself if that were the only competition, but i just dont see a good reason for it to factor into the overall score.
I agree with you, in terms of not needing an overall award at all. But Andy already knows this. Overall awards take away from the accomplishments of the individual events. However, if you’re going to do an overall award, it should include everything in the category because the idea is to recognize the most rounded rider. Otherwise, in this case it would just be a “who can ride biggest” award.
I sure hope it will be, otherwise I’ll never survive! 
That is perfectly fine. You are not Aspenmike afterall, but Aspenmike is not you either. There are people out there who are dying to try a race like this. It’s interesting, though, how the MUni stuff is happening first in the convention, with Freestyle at the end. Though the danger of injury exists for Freestyle competitors, I believe this is the better order of “build” to the events. Freestyle should be last, as the event that takes the most work to be good at. Freestyle competitors (like everyone else) just have to decide which events are most important to them, and which ones they might prefer to avoid if they don’t want to risk injury. Or they can enter those events and not ride so hard, which many riders have done in past conventions.
That remains to be seen. I had never participated in a full marathon race in 27 years of unicycling, until they had one at Unicon XIII. I thought it was awesome, even though I was not a contender in the race. I think this race will be awesome as well, a whole new area for us.
I still don’t expect to be a contender in this 13-mile race, but if I do Ride The Lobster in June I hope to be able to stay in the top ten. Except for all the other entrants who will have just completed Ride The Lobster as well… 
My 2 cents…I definetely think that the cross country should be included in the overall muni award. I love long epic muni rides as well as short technical downhills. Overall muni champ should be someone that can do the short technical stuff, the long endurance rides, uphill, downhill, etc. bascially is the best at doing it all!
13 miles isn’t a long muni ride, even in hilly technical terrain. Our night ride that we do here is 10 miles of pretty constant up and down riding, and that’s just a weekday evening ride. I’d expect any good muni rider to be able to ride 13 miles without killing themselves. I’ve run muni weekends where the shortest rides were longer than that.
Joe
I’m looking forward to this convention a lot. It will be our first Nationals since 2001 in Toronto! Can’t wait for the Marathon XC race - bring your Cokers!
—Nathan
man i cant wait to sess with everybody again. but hopefully they wont all be doing flat:/
Its long if you plan to do EVERY single other competition. I’m talking freestyle, street, trials, track, 10k and pretty much all MUNI too. I like to do a bit of everything, and i want to have a chance at the overall MUNI score, but I don’t want to jeopardize all my other competitions.
Edit: and I think this applies to many others
and forrest, yeah it’ll be great sessing with you and the rest of the guys again.
I will try for the overall muni thing without the XC marathon. Hopefully I’ll do well enough in everything else to make up for it…
13 miles may not be long for a muni ride, but it is pretty long if you race it competitively.
Haha, I’m definitely not competing with a 24" against cokers!
I plan on competing in everything else except the 10k and maybe a couple of the freestyle events and track events.
Check the rules. There are two classes in the marathon (just like the 10km race at Unicon). In this case, in order for the unlimited marathon to count for the overall Muni title, there must be at least 10 riders in male/female in unlimited.
Here are the rules: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgpr7dfb_28d6hk4ddp
And unlimited includes 29ers. But you can compete in the normal race using a 26" - you are not restricted to 24". I think a 26x3 Gazz is over 28" in diameter - as long as it’s less than 29" it would be legal in the normal race.
For racing 13 miles of XC, I would much prefer to do it on a 29er or 36" cycle. I hope lots of people think the same!
—Nathan
Thanks for all the comments. It does help me in the rule/event process.
In case you haven’t heard, they just got the online registration for NAUCC 2008 up. That means you don’t have to, print out the form, sharpen the #2 pencil and remember to mail it, just to go to Nationals.
Nationals Web Site
Nationals Online Reg Form
Price goes up by $10 on April 5 so to save yourself some money register before that date.
-Andy
A sensible rule to allow “appropriate” unicycles in that race while not putting a majority of riders at a disadvantage. You can’t limit it using the normal wheel sizes, because MUnis mostly have 26" diameter tires, more or less.
If it hasn’t been done already, I urge the organizers to be aware they should establish a specific diameter as the cutoff point between 28.9" and 29-UP. The IUF has established 75cm (about 29.5") as the maximum size for 700c racing, but for this we need a minimum size. I don’t have a number to offer, as it should be based on real-world sizes of 29" tires to make sure the minimum size doesn’t lock out anyone with a “real” 29" or 700c tire.
And I’m sure the question of gearing will be raised. Because these are “side” rules they don’t mention this specifically so it needs to be clarified. My assumption would be that anything with gears must be in the umlimited class, as the high gear puts it into an equivalently larger wheel size. What about a giraffe with something like a 28:27 ratio? Okay, if it’s a giraffe it should be in the unlimited class as well. That’s what I would do, if only to discourage casual giraffe use in a 13-mile MUni race. 
But the increasing availability of geared unicycles suggests that someday we’ll have to measure “wheel size” by rollout or something similar…
Nathan’s comment about the Coker also reminds us that competitors need to know what the courses are like so they can decide what cycles to bring. Do we want to Coker that race, or use something smaller/lighter? Please let us know the course details ASAP (elevation, climb, terrain, etc.).