Red bull mountain Mayhem = a 24 hour endurance MTB race.
Team Muni = 5 unicyclists who entered the Red Bull Mayhem. Roger Davies, Leo White, Miark. Paul Selwood and Sarah Miller
We did it, Team Muni survived the Red Bull, they said we were mad, they said we must be in some other shorter race, they said "good on yer mate" as they overtook us. Just about all of them (1795 other riders) said that last one.
After last year's 24 minute race at the RB mayhem, sarah plotted with Paul to get a unicycle team in the main race. Following a tip off from Chipps that the forms were out, we phoned up some other likely characters and put a team together. Making our entry as nondescript as possible and neglecting to mention the word unicycle we sent our entry off early and waited, and waited. Finally came the confirmation, we were in, the organisers hadn't rumbled us yet.
Weeks later a phone call out of the blue, Pat Adams the race organiser was on the line accusing me of pulling the wool over his eyes, the hawk eyed Mrs Adams had spotted my name on the form and remembered I was a unicyclist. Thankfully Pat laughed, called us mad and said that the cheque had been banked and he wouldn't chuck us out. PHEW.
June 23rd finally rolled around, team Muni meet up for the first time in 3 months at the Campsite on the friday evening. We did our inspection lap, other riders started to question the lack of second wheel. Saturday 2pm and the start of the Mayhem, we send our best runner out to do the first lap, he brezzes back in after doing the 10 mile lap in about 1 hour 20 min. Now the unicycles are really getting noticed, the event commentators are curious about us. The TV crew covering the event have started filming us as one of their featured teams. As the afternoon rolls on we each get our first taste of racing on this course, 10 miles of short uphills, sharp desents, twisting single track, gravel tracks, field edges even tarmac, this course has every thing. We even cross the Motorway twice and cruelest of all have to ride up and round the campsite before the home stretch with a wicked hill climb just after the last tent.
We are all riding Cokers for these early laps, the big wheel rolls easily over the lumpy ground, but the single track is tough and we have to jog or walk chunks of it. As dusk gathers Team Muni switch to smaller wheels, Roger had the lap into dusk, then at 10.30 I started my night lap, hopeing my lights would hold out on me trying to use them only when needed. I came a cropper early on with a fall on gravel that holed my leggings and my knee, but it was dark and I didn't look to closely. I had chosen to use the smaller 26 inch wheel at night thinking it would be easier to get on after falls. It was, but the smaller wheel was badly affected by the lumpy fields and falls became more frequent. I was also a lot slower, the night lap took me 2 hours... The single track descents were less scary than on the big wheel but clearly a lot slower.
The next two riders in the team also had to cope in the dark, while I went and tryed to get a couple of hours kip. Waking at Dawn as Paul finished his lap. By this time, 4.30 am the lack of sleep was taking its toll, Paul was leaning against the car trying to eat, but not wanting to. Drinking litres of water and still feeling dehydrated, sick of malt loaf and energy drink. Leo had hit the bonk on his night lap, I was lieing in my tent unable to sleep, Miark was juggling to keep himself warm, we were in a bad way.
Daylight helped. I started my third lap at 7am ish, haveing chosen to use the 26inch wheel again, my knee hurt, I was tired and not at all certain I'd be able to freemount the big wheel on the rough ground. With hind-sight I made the wrong choice, this lap was even slower than my night lap. Following a couple of stupid falls on easy ground I realised I was headed for the bonk and stopped to force another cereal bar down. Energy levels re-set I managed to enjoy the single track ride, riding most of it and haveing a great time, but I was sooo slow.
The other guys on the team managed to pull off rather beter times than I for their third laps. Paul achieved his best lap time with 1 hour 20 min, but he could hardly breathe after he finished it. Our final rider on the course was Miark. He was sent out with intructions to Lurk as none of us wanted to ride another lap. Miark managed to get a good place in the scrum across the line at 2.01pm.
How did we do? Well, we don't really know yet. We managed 15 laps in 24hrs 1min, we suspect we came last but its not certain. At mid-day there was another team on the same number of laps as us only ten minutes ahead, its possible that Paul and Miark managed better times than that other team to claw our way off the bottom. We await the results with interest.
In conclusion, 24 hour endurance racing against two wheeled MTBs is hard work on a unicycle. But you guessed that, didn't you?
sarah
PS - we've since found out the results. There were 2 teams below us in the Mixed class and 3 who did fewer laps in the Sport Mens class. We're well chuffed with that!