Muni Race April 29 (Northern California)

I'm new to these forums, so I hope I'm posting in the right place.
Anyway, I just got a notification from active.com about a mountain bike
race in Northern California this weekend--the 'Shasta Lemurian'
(http://www.shastalemurian.org) at Whiskeytown Lake just outside
Redding. Anyway, since my teenage son has lately been joining my friend
Gary and I on our bi-weekly muni rides here in Chico, I asked both of
them if they were interested in entering, and then found out from the
organizer that not only were munis allowed (on the short course only),
but if we could round up 5 riders (total) we'd have our own class in
the race. So, I figured I'd put the word out and see if anybody else
was interested.

This'll be my first time to muni at a MTB event (I've raced on my b*ke
at such things), so we'll see how things go. I suspect , given the
results from last year, that my cohorts and I won't end up in the dead
last position--some riders took quite a bit over 2 hours last year, and
I'm guessing we'll be in well under that mark. The course, which I've
ridden as part of a triathlon, is a four-mile fire-road climb with some
too-steep-for-me-to-ride sections (I had to push my MTB in the
triathlong a couple times), followed by a four-mile singletrack
downhill that was a blast to bomb down. It should be a lot of fun, and
it'd be great to be joined by some other NorCal muniers!


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pkittle
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Dang, this sounds like fun. I've always wanted to ride the Shasta
Lemurian, but I have to work this weekend.


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phlegm
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Hey, sounds like Peter Kittle! Still got to come up there sometime and
do a ride of your Chico trails someday...

The race this Saturday sounds like a fun one, but unfortunately I'll be
on a plane at that time.


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johnfoss

John Foss
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
-----------------------------------------------

"The worst thing you can do on a unicycle when you land is stop dead."
-- Kris Holm, world's expert on high-consequence unicycling
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Well, the race was today! It turned out to be only the three of us--my
friend Gary, my 15-year old son Drew, and me--on unis. The course was
tougher than I'd remembered, and it took us a little longer than we'd
anticipated, too--I think our official time (we all crossed the line
together!) was 2:06 for a little over 8 miles. So, we're no speed
demons, but we decided on the way to the event that we were just going
to stick together and have a good time, and that's what we did. This
was Drew's first real race event (Gary's a long-time marathoner, and
I've done a few things here and there), and we wanted to make sure he
didn't feel abandoned or anything. Not that we would've been a whole
lot faster anyway ...

At any rate, the course was a 4.25 mile fire-road climb that had some
pretty steep sections, followed by a 4-mile single-track descent
(interrupted a couple of times by uphills--one cruelly long and
steep--on fire roads. There were a few spectacular sections of steep,
loose, rooty trail that were hardly rideable; Gary made a number of
valiant attempts to master some of these, and I tried a couple as
well--but neither of us cleaned any of the big sections, and had to
settle for some walking. Nobody had any spectacular falls, but we did
successfully ford the trailside creek four of six times.

The biggest disappointment, I suppose, is that, within the final
half-mile, we were caught by two bicyclists who'd completed the 20-mile
route. We were really hoping to make it in before that happened! But
when we made it into the finish area, I think we had probably the best
set of cheers heard all day! People were excited to see us start the
race, and even more psyched that we made it through. Lots of hearty
congratulations were handed out to us, which made us feel good about
coming. It's funny, but I think the MTB community is actually more
respectful of muniers than most other groups--probably because they
know how tough it is to ride the trails on two wheels. Anyway, the race
organizer came over and took pictures of us and chatted, which was
cool, too.

Actually, the only thing that definitely *wasn't* cool was the weather.
After the coolest, wettest spring in many years, we seem to have
suddenly changed to summer. It was 93 (f) as we drove through town on
our way home, and felt bloody hot even at the 9:00 am start. I
definitely needed the Endurolyte capsules today to keep my electrolytes
in balance--I was more than a little sweaty!

All in all, it was a great experience for all of us. I'm hopeful that
we'll make a return trip next year, and that we'll have enough muniers
to make our own class!

--Peter

PS: John, we'll all be happy to give you a big Chico welcome anytime
you want to head north!


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pkittle
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I wish I would have read this sooner, I would have definetely been
there. I just rode out at Folsom Lake Saturday


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Daytripper63
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