That race you’re planning sounds cool though - you should really finish it off with a decent swim, I mean you guys have warm sea water, nice beaches and decent waves there - you could just pick two points (a pier or something) a decent distance apart, like 1km or half a mile or whatever, race on unicycles down to the first one, then swim to the final point. Obviously check with someone local about tides or anything dangerous about the beach. The great thing about finishing with a swim, is that lycra cycling shorts (and cycling tops if you’re a wuss about cold water) are usually okay to swim in as long as you don’t have to ride afterwards (if you do jump in salt water with cycling shorts on, expect chafage if you go riding again before you change clothes!). It wouldn’t really be a triathlon without swimming.
I have a bunch of plans sort of relating to this.
One is a uni / swimming / uni race, unicycle followed by a decent swim, (at least a mile or so, say across a lake / down a fun section of river or something) followed by more unicycling. Now the catch is, that you have to tow the unicycle on the swim. You could even just do a race with several proper river crossings - so you had to go in and out of the water multiple times.
It would be uniquely unicycling, you couldn’t do the same on a bike race because bikes are a nightmare to swim with, whereas the uni floats nicely and only has a couple of sets of bearings to worry about destroying. I guess one could organise a running race like this, although the only running race I’ve seen with swim sections interspersed it was 200m at most and boring flat water.
I’ve done a lot of cycling & wild swimming, and usually cycle out to wherever I swim, but the hassle is always that you have to get back up river to the bike once you finish the swim, whereas in this situation you could take the mode of transport with you.
I also have a plan for a big unsupported challenge triathlon type event, going down the river Thames - I’ve worked out rough transition points. Although I was considering that to be more a bike thing - as it’s 10-70-20 miles swim, bike, run (probably mostly walk in my case!) , and I don’t think I could do that with a big unicycle ride in the middle section.
Oh yeah, one other thing I have thought up is a sprint race in a place where I swim. It is 900m of easy riding, followed by a 600m swim, and a 450m barefoot run (on lovely soft grass - I’ve done it loads of times). It’d be a super fast race, and I’d encourage people to do it entirely in swimming gear plus a pair of cycling shoes for the first leg. The swim is fast flowing and has a rapids section half way round too, where you have to head river right or get scuttled on shallow rocks, which would add a bit of excitement, and where you get out is up a steep bank which is often slippy, which adds to the joy. It’d be like a triathlon, except very short and sharp, and not requiring so much expensive gear (wetsuits etc.) or hard training.
Joe
Btw, Cholla would be a good trail to run up!
