Marathon riding - what's it all about?

The eleventh season of the MTB marathon events is here – how time flies when you are having fun! If you are a regular to these events or you have followed them over the last few years, it is more than likely that you have heard the story of how this all started once or twice before. I believe it was at some point in the summer of 1999 when John and I were chatting at one of the National Point Series events about events. The question came up if we could run a marathon type mountain bike event, which were already the main kind of the event in main land Europe. With his ‘lets do it and think about the potential problems later’ attitude he say ‘Yes. Let’s do it’. Less than a year later and after lots of more thinking about the details and the potential problems we gathered more than 800 riders at the Royal Welsh showground and ran the first marathon over the hills surrounding Johns hometown, Builth Wells. From there it snowballed into a series of now five events covering (almost) the whole country.

2010 will see a continuation of our proven concept with the addition of 1 new location in Wales, 2 Exposure Light Big Night Out (night marathons), and a new location in England. We will also continue with the Road Sportive series which will be run at three of the five 2010 events. Further to this we are working on turning the 2nd round of the Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon Series into a mini cycle festival. Besides the MTB Marathon it will host the Road sportive, off-road criteriums and a selection of other events. This will turn our events even more into a cycling festival, hopefully offering something for everyone (no matter what sort of riding you prefer) and will offer lots of reasons to make a proper weekend of it with your family and friends.
Please go to www.roadsportives.co.uk for further details and entry facilities of the Road Sportive Series 2010.

What is going to happen in 2010 and how it is going to happen:
• The Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathons are non-competitive events with no winner and no looser. All rounds have mass starts with all course lengths starting at the same time behind a pace car
• Every rider has to register either on the Saturday or the Sunday morning where you get the detailed briefing for the ride, vouchers and your number board
(The number board has to be fixed on the handlebars and has to be clearly readable when passing checkpoints and the finish line)
• The start of the rides is on the Sunday morning where a final verbal briefing will be held. As the ride goes over public roads every rider has to obey the Highway Code at all time – this is extremely important as you might ride towards a Land Rover or tractor even on remote off-road sections

The courses are fully marked so no map, compass or navigation skills are required. Around the course our energy food sponsor High5 will be present with energy drinks, food and water. Alongside the energy backup, the mechanics will be out there trying to help everybody with any technical problems. The feeding stations are normally between 15-20km apart but should not be understood as the sole source of food and drink. Check out the 17 Commandments and the FAQ section for some useful information regarding eating, drinking and the general running of the events.

We have four different courses at each event to choose from:

1. Mini Marathon which with its approximately 25km course, is specifically set out for families and beginners

2. Short course, approximately 50km long

3. Medium course, approximately 75km long

4. Long course, approximately 100km long.

With a selection of distances at five different events you will find the perfect setup to progress from the Mini or the short course all the way to the long course in one year. A tough job but possible!

Camping and parking facilities are available at all UK events and are included in the entry fee, so if you fancy making a proper weekend out of it come along on Friday and stay all the way to Monday morning. Facilities like showers and toilets are going to be available over the whole weekend.

Once you’ve managed to complete your ride and come over the finish line, make sure you don’t just race past the commentator and the timing crew and miss out on your unique finisher present or on your chance of getting one of the many spot prizes that we will give away.
As always we will have bike cleaning facilities near the finish line where you can clean your bike for your next outing or simply your drive home

To find out where the 2010 marathons are happening, visit the events page

Where is it going to happen:
The 2010 Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon Series is going back to some of the locations of previous years as well as adding new ones to the line-up.
Three events will be held in Wales, one event will take place in Scotland and one event will take place in England. Please see the homepage and the ‘Event page’ for the complete rundown of where and when the events are going to take place.
Another event that has made its mark over the years and we are happy to welcome it once again into the Merida Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon Series is the (as far as we aware) only night marathon – the EXPOSURE LIGHTS BIG NIGHT OUT (ELBNO). For the last four years the ELBNO has launched the new season and will do so once more in 2010. The night marathon as the name suggest follows the same concept as the ‘normal’ marathon while being simply run at night. Around 300 riders have taken up this unique challenge each year and enjoyed the fascination that is night riding.

The ELBNO is followed by the ‘Spring Marathon’ on the following day. It allows the hard-core riders out there to have two rides in one weekend.
NB: As always one final word of warning after this brief introduction to mountain bike marathon riding - our events are not for enthusiasts only. The shorter courses are put together with novice riders in mind with the difficulty of terrain increasing with the length of course.
If you feel that you could do with some extra technical riding tips join one of the CycleActive classes on the Saturday and try to put your newly learned skills into practice the following day.