Saturday, April 05, 2008

18,400 miles in 195 days

This may be old news to some but it's new to me.
While perusing the May issue of Men's Journal, I came across an article about 25 year old Mark Beaumont and was blown away by his record setting jaunt around the world.....on a bike.
He set out from Paris last summer and rolled back into town 195 days later...almost three months....THREE...MONTHS...... faster than the previous record.

He took one rest day every two weeks. Lost 14 pounds. Grew a beard. Slept in police stations for protection in Pakistan. Got knocked from his bike by a scooter, a donkey, and old lady driving her car(in Louisiana). Says he couldn't find anything healthy to eat in the American South (gravy pours into water bottles...) and struggled there (here) because of it.

But the thing that amazes me, as an endurance athlete, is this. While carrying 200 lbs, (yep...200...pounds) of gear on his bike, he covered 100 miles DAILY. A freaking century every day....carrying 200 lbs. That is just crazy strong. CRAY.......Z.

The fact that much of the distance covered HAD to have been mountainous, makes this feat even more mind boggling.

Mark's journey is truly amazing and inspiring.



5 Comments:

Blogger Jade Lady said...

First time I heard of this! What an amazing feat! Thanks for sharing this story!

12:56 PM  
Blogger Wes said...

Somebody forgot to mention grits, gravy, and fried chicken. Poor froggie... Still impressive though!!

1:44 PM  
Blogger Judi said...

Too cool. Did you see the article in RW last month called Endurance Junkie? Some guy ran across the Sahara desert - ran 45 miles a day for 100 days straight. Oh, and he was an x-crack head.

2:06 PM  
Blogger TJ said...

Judi ~ I did read about that guy. His was an amazing turn around.

3:04 PM  
Blogger ShirleyPerly said...

Wow!!! Next time I think I'm having a tough ride I will have to think of him!

12:30 PM  

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