Lands End John O'groats

[colinwe]

Hi, does anyone know what the official record is for the lands end john o'groats run is? I get either 14 days or twelve days but is there anywhere with the official time? Were these achieved on a standard ungeared 36? Also can anyone give links to other peoples attempts; in particular I'm looking for detailed routes.
Many thanks to all
Colin

[redwelly]

Hi Colin

If you're planning to do an attempt at this you'll need to register with www.guinnessworldrecords.com - they will then confirm the requirements and what their current record is.

They should say it stands at 12 days 1 hour and 59 minutes set by Oxford student Rob Ambrose in 2001. He rode a 911 mile long route and used a 36 inch ungeared unicycle with 110mm cranks, and had a few friends with bikes and a van for support. They raised funds for Hope for Children.

There is a day-by-day plan of their route here. Unfortunately their actual writeup seems to have fallen off the internet since it was written.

I also did the End to End on a unicycle in 2005, on a 36 inch ungeared unicycle, with three bike friends, and collected money for Tearfund. We did a longer route of 1061 miles, and took our time - 23 days.

There are masses of writeups around. If you want to plan a fast route then bike writeups are probably the place to start, as they tend to go for 80+ mile days. The current unicycle record averages around 75 miles/day.

It would be very cool to see this unicycle record improved - and it's a fun trip to do anyway! I think 2009 may be an interesting year for it - I hear there are at least a couple of other riders looking at breaking that record then...

Good luck

Sam

[colinwe]

Thanks, I'll look at the links you put. I'll be attempting it late July and have most of the back up in place; just organizing the charity bit.

[redwelly]

Cool. What sort of time are you planning to do it in?