The big day arrived. I was all set to break the 12 Hour and 24 Hour unicycle distance records. We had been watching the weather closely, and decided in the end to proceed. The forecast was for cloud, with light showers and ‘fresh Southerlies’. It turns out that ‘fresh’ means South/SE Winds at 30km/hr. Not ideal, but we thought it was doable.

We had a great support crew, with Arthur and Lynne Klap setting up, my mum turning up to help with the kids, and Anna taking the gazebos and supplies down to the Newlands Intermediate field.

Bruce from Barefootsports set up the timing mats and timing chips on the unicycle. He placed two mats and two chips to be doubly sure.

It was cold and breezy, but it wasn’t until I started riding that I realised just how windy it was. I had, in practice, ridden in 20+km/hr NW winds, which was ok. The SE wind was a different beast altogether, as it hit the least sheltered parts of the course. A unicycle is about as aerodynamic as a flying brick wall, but the problem is neither headwind nor tailwind, but the side wind. The SE kept pushing me off course, with 50km/hr gusts.

My game plan was to spin gently at 24-26km/hr for the first 4-6hrs, while using as little energy as possible. This would build a ‘safety buffer’ over the old record. My legs felt great, much better than during my 12 hour practice ride. What transpired was quite different. The first few hours were spent wrestling my unicycle at 22-24km/hr, while expending far more energy than I wanted to.

I considered abandoning and rescheduling at that point, but we had organised support crew, tents, portaloo and the timing to be there on the day. I’ll just ride on….

Here are the lap times for the 12hrs (slightly undercounts as multiplied by 390m instead of 390.76m):

https://events.barefootsport.co.nz/event/701/results/296321

Normally, on distance unicycle, little balance is required. All the effort is in propelling you forward while tucked into the aerobars. With the SE wind gusts, I had to take my hands off the aerobars, flail around like a beginner unicyclist, then re-accelerate once I regain control. I was blown off multiple times on the bottom corner of the circuit.

I held it together until 12hrs, when I crossed the line to beat the Guinness mark of 250km by a very skinny 2km margin. Yay! One world record down!

I still had my safety buffer- 12hrs remaining to do 202km. That vanished pretty quick. My average speed kept dropping. I stopped for dinner and to put on lights, but the night laps proved even more challenging. In practice, my lights were adequate. Not so if you are trying to keep in a straight line.

The forecast had been for the wind to die down to 20km/hr by 7pm. That extended to midnight, then 2am, and finally it wasn’t until late the next morning the wind finally slowed.

When I saw my average speed drop below 18.9km/hr (Sam’s average speed), I knew it wasn’t practical to push for the record. I had done 315km, and had over 7hrs left to ride past my old mark of 378.7km. After a half hour break, I got back on and did a painfully slow lap before calling it a day. It was blowing like crazy. We’ll do battle again next time!

Thank you to my wonderful support crew, all the people who came out to spectate (some of whom turned into support crew!), Newlands Intermediate School, Cuttriss Surveyors, Bruce from Barefootsports, and all my friends who helped or encouraged me. Most of all, thanks to my family for putting up with all this!