Office 2010 Product Key blog unicyclist-reinvents-

Bruce Dawson reveals that he can go just as much, or farther, on one wheel. He commutes 15 miles a day to work and recently finished a 500-mile team unicycle relay race across Nova Scotia.
By Jennifer Warnick
July 3,Office 2010, 2008
A lot about Bruce Dawson’s life can be explained with numbers, starting with the number 1. That’s how many wheels Dawson,Windows 7 Home Premium, a software design engineer in the Games group, uses to commute almost eight miles each way to work on an Avondale Road bike path in Redmond.
He averages 12 to 14 miles per hour (19 to 23 kilometers per hour) on his unicycle. On a recent training ride in Fremont, he achieved speeds of 16 to 17 mph (26 to 27 km/h). When pedaling to work or on the Sammamish and Burke Gilman bike trails, he routinely passes bicycles. “Anybody out for a casual ride is likely to be passed,” Dawson said. “It’s kind of a cruel pleasure I allow myself.”
Then there’s the number 500. That’s how many miles (805 km) Dawson and two other teammates rode in the course of five days in Ride the Lobster, a recent unicycle relay race in Nova Scotia.
There’s also the number 5. That’s how many unicycles Dawson owns, including 1 with gears—a new technology for unicycles.
Then there’s the number 18. That’s how old Dawson was when he learned to ride. At age 16, Dawson learned to juggle after being given beanbags and an instruction booklet for his birthday. Two years later, he decided to learn to unicycle, because he thought it went well with his juggling talent. He loved the challenge. “It makes simple things difficult,” Dawson said. “There’re all sorts of different skills you can work on—riding backwards, on one foot, faster,Windows 7 64 Bit, and longer. It’s actually a very inefficient way to travel. You never get to rest, you always have to be pedaling,Office 2010 Product Key, because that’s how you’re maintaining your balance. You can never stop or slow down, and you can never coast—even on the down hills.”
Dawson unicycled on and off throughout the years but didn’t really get serious about it until he attended a unicycle convention in North Bend in 2002. He met people from all over the world, as well as local enthusiasts. He heard about long-distance unicycling and mountain unicycling. Most importantly, his daughters were inspired by what they saw. They told their dad that they wanted to learn. “They did indeed learn, and that turned unicycling into a family activity, so I started spending more time doing it,” Dawson said. “I've been to many unicycle club practice sessions with my daughters and ridden in many parades with them.”
While the family lived in London for 14 months in 2006 and 2007, Dawson and his daughters even joined a unicycle hockey team, the Lunis, and played in several tournaments. His daughters Sarah and Maria, now 12 and 14, are still riding, and Dawson has become a serious long-distance rider. In 2005, Dawson did the hardest thing he’s ever done by riding his unicycle 204 miles in the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP) to “prove to myself that I was neither old nor mature.”
When Dawson heard about the five-day, 500-mile (805-km) unicycle relay race across Nova Scotia in June, the first of its kind, he knew he couldn’t miss it. He asked local rider Jeff Sloan to join him, as well as Bellingham rider Joe Myers. All three men regularly commute to work by unicycle. His three-rider team, the Puget Sounders, competed against the best unicycle riders in the world. Dawson’s team also ended up being the oldest in the race, with a combined age of 144. The youngest team was all teenagers, with a combined age of 43.
Dawson and his team averaged 12.5 mph (20 km/h) on the 500-mile ride through Nova Scotia over rolling, forested hills and through some “demoralizing” downpours that soaked the riders, making them shivering cold. “The people were incredibly friendly and welcoming,Windows 7 Key,” he said. “There were school children waiting by the side of the road cheering, and we would ride by and high five them. Some small communities had bagpipers, food, and half the town waiting there for the riders to go by. I wish we’d had more time to stop and enjoy this, because we were always racing on to the next place.”
Normally when unicyclists fall, they land on their feet. But on the last day of his race, 1 of his three teammates fell and broke his leg. “That meant only two of us,” Dawson said.
For the last day, Dawson would ride 20 minutes and pass the baton to his teammate before jumping into the van to eat a banana, half of an energy bar, Fig Newtons, power gel, and then drive ahead of the teammate. He would leave the keys on the dashboard, getting his unicycle unpacked and ready by the time his teammate showed up 20 minutes later to pass the baton back. “You were always eating, driving, or riding, and sometimes two at the same time,” Dawson said.
After the race was over, the men—who had refrained from imbibing for weeks in preparation for the race—drank, swapped stories, and kicked up their heels with the fastest unicyclists from all over the world. Dawson’s team finished 18th out of 35. He said the race’s top riders were reaching speeds between 26 and 28 mph (42 and 45 km/h).
“Even though it was a race, it was absolutely amazing how supportive everyone was of the other teams. Whether it was parts, tools, something you needed fixed, a shoulder to get on—they would help you out,” he said. “It was a competition, but it was the most sportsmanlike competition I’ve ever seen. Everyone was best friends as well as competitors.”
Find more information at Ride the Lobster, and read about Dawson’s experience riding STP on a unicycle.