Tommy Godwin: 75,065 miles in a year

Godwin passed Nicholson's record on the October 26, 1939, with two months and five days to spare. Bennett achieved this distance nearly a month later, then climbed off his bike and answered the call to war. Godwin was allowed to continue, and on December 31, 1939 he'd racked up a massive 75,065 miles.

But Tommy wasn't content to settle with that - he continued riding until May 14, 1940, setting the record for the time taken to 100,000 miles - within 500 days.

Godwin's achievement was legendary beyond cycling fans. He met royalty, appeared on television, was interviewed by Richard Dimbleby for radio, and lent his image to advertising posters. The ride had taken its toll, though; Godwin required a period of rehabilitation to learn to walk normally and uncurl his hands. Yet within weeks he was serving his country in the RAF.

via cyclingweekly.co.uk

Quite simply put the ultimate feet in endurance cycling. While the current big records like round the world attempts stand at 160 or so days for about 18k miles Godwin did 75k in 365 days. A nearly incomprehensible 200+ miles a day. With mileage often in access of 300 miles a day. Rain, sleet or snow, in brittain, with only one day off for the entiire year.

stand-up paddling 300 miles

A Hawaiian man completed what is believed to be the first ever crossing from the Big Island to Kauai on a stand-up paddleboard. It took five days alone at sea on his surfboard to cross the 300 miles of open ocean. He survived on dried foods and freshwater strapped to his board and slept on an inflatable mat that he’d tie to the top of it, occasionally getting awoken when a wave flipped his board and mat. He was treated for infected blisters on his feet, but was otherwise in remarkable condition. He wasn’t even sore - the hardest part, he said, was the mental anguish of spending five nights floating in the middle of the ocean on a surfboard.

via thegoat.backcountry.com

Another reminder that there are endless opportunities to push the boundries of human endurance in wild and wonderful ways.

'Marathon Man' completes 365 marathons in 365 days

This past weekend, 49-year-old Stefaan Engels of Belgium completed his 365th marathon, in 365 consecutive days. That's right, he ran a marathon a day for an entire year. Engels speaks to host Melissa Block.

via npr.org

Trans Wisconsin! 550 miles of ultra-endurance mountain biking goodness

It's official! The 550 mile Trans Wisonsin has been announced, registration is open, and I've already emailed my registration! See you there!

The midwest's first multi-day, self-supported mountain bike race! These types of events have been popular for several years in the west. It's time we begin to develop this form of mountain bike racing here.

Registration is open! Race day start is June 18th, 2010. To enter you need only to send an e-mail with your name, age, and address as the only information needed.

For more specific information on the race, check out the race details page.

TransWisconsin will follow the 550 mile Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail from Wisconsin's southern border with Illinois to the northern most tip of the Bayfield Penninsula, finishing on the shores of Lake Superior.

Along the route riders will travel through the distinct geographical regions of Wisconsin and towns settled by trappers, farmers, and fisherman. The trail will vary between gravel road, two-track, ATV trail, singletrack, and an unfortunate bit of pavement.

If you've been dreaming of an Ultra Race here in the Midwest, look no further!

TransWisconsin

Disclaimer: this event has been organized by my brother Joe!! Thanks Joe! You rock!

Jill Homer, 'Bicycling beast'

Nice little article about Jill Homer on the Juneau Empire website (where Jill's an editor) about her race down the Tour Divide. She officially beat the old record by four days.

As mentioned here before, I'm a huge fan of her blog.

Some choice quotes:

"One of the great things about putting in a good, hard day on the road or trail is that supreme feeling of tiredness you get right afterward - those rare moments when you curl up on the couch with a cold can of Diet Pepsi and let your fatigue wrap around you in a blanket of calm satisfaction," she said.

and

"Against the advice of most fast GDR and Tour Divide veterans, my race strategy is to have no strategy. I have a few tentative goals for the first couple nights, but my plan is to be completely flexible."

Bicycling beast - Juneau Empire

Conquering the Divide

The local paper published an article on the front page of today's sports section on my brother Joe.

"Conquering the Divide, MonroeNews.com

Yvon Le Caer, a different kind of endurance cycling

After a career in traditional cycle racing in the 1980's Yvon Le Caer turned to new goals on the open seas.

Sadly after his successes crossing the Florida Straight (Florida to the Bahamas, 1981) and the English Channel (1985) he was hit by a hit and run driver in Florida in 1986 permanently halting his cycling pursuits.

A great overview with some impressive press clippings here are on his site here. Yvon Le Caer

BTW, a great quote from his website.

"The world is a better place to live in because it
contains people who will give up ease and security
to do what they themselves believe worth doing.
They do the useless, brave, noble, the divinely foolish
and the very wisest things that are done by man.
And what they prove to themselves and to others is that man
is no mere creature of his habits, no mere automaton in his routine,
but that in the dust in which he is made, there is also fire
lighted now and then by great winds from the sky."

Quote [Author unknown] sent to Yvon by an American enthusiast
in the context of "Operation Gulf Stream."

Congrats Jill!

A quick update on the Great Divide Race / Tour.

Jill Homer made it in Monday, July 6th which gives her a time 24 days, 7 hours and 24 minutes which I believe sets a new womens record.

Congrats Jill!

Jill's call in on MTBCast.

(mp3)

From Jill's own blog:

I rolled as close to the Mexican border as the gate would let me at 5:24 p.m. Monday, July 6, to finish the 2,700-ish miles of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in 24 days, 7 hours and 24 minutes. My parents drove down from Salt Lake City to meet me at the border, so even though the guard station was closed, I didn't have to finish alone. What an incredible experience. Feels strange to not have to pedal any more. Feels even stranger to be wearing clothes that I didn't just wash in the shower. I'm happy, healthy and still feeling strong. Despite a few mechanicals, minor injury and weather setbacks, I still kept my goal of finishing within 25 days, and still feel like I could go out again tomorrow if I needed to. Glad I don't have to, though. I took 731 pictures. More to come soon, I'm sure.

Great Divide Finished

My brother got in to Antelope Wells New Mexico last night thus finishing the Tour Divide from Banff to Mexico.

His time was 21 days, 10 hours, 34 minutes.

Below is a picture of him (far left) with some of the other finishers that came in yesterday. Sorry I don't have all their names.

Ride The Divide, Unofficial Trailer

The bellow trailer was just posted to youtube within the last 24 hours.

It's for "Ride the Divide", a documentary on the race down the Great Divide by Mike Dion. It appears to include footage from this years Tour Divide.


Ride The Divide, unofficial trailer on youtube

More videos are on Mike's website, the official website and blog are at ridethedividemovie.com

Matthew Lee wins the 2009 Tour Divide

From: Matthew Lee First Racer to Reach the Mexico Border at Antelope Wells

On Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 9:45am, Matthew Lee became the first `09 Tour Divide racer to reach at the Antelope Wells border crossing. This makes back-to-back TD victories for Matthew, 4 Divide racing wins overall and his 6th finish.

His elapsed time of 17 days, 23 hours & 45 min. fell just short of his `07 Full route record (17d:21h:10m). Given this year's consistently bad weather, poor route conditions and additional 34 miles through the Flathead, it is an impressive finish. Matt described his final day as a "total slog," complete with unexpected storms and sloppy mud. He even lost an hour after going back for lost eyewear in the desert north of Separ.

Inspite of Matthew falling short of the overall record, four racers remain on record pace in the face of the continued inclement conditions. Chris Plesko is poised to break the singlespeed record and Jill Homer is still on pace to take the female record sometime in the next week. We also look forward to Jay & Tracey Petervary establishing a tandem record tonight. Deanna Adams, who seems to steadily make here way down the Rockies, can also establish a record for fixed-gear bikes is she finishes.

Kurt Refsnider (blog is only about 10 miles from finishing second as I'm writing this post (July 1st, 1am EST). I expect he'll post at least one more final message to his call in audio updates at MTBcast.com

Jay and Tracey Petervary are riding tandem about 10 miles behind Kurt and should finish this morning as well. tTheir audio updates are on the Tour Divide blog where there are also links to some of the best pictures of the 2009 tour divide. (A must see.)

Chris Plesko (audio updates) should come in third if all goes well not long after Jay and Tracey. He's an interesting story because he's doing the whole race on a single speed!

My brother Joe was riding with Kurt and Chris for much of the race until he broke his derailuer and deraulluer arm. This cost him 24 hours while a new derailluer was overnighted to him and then he swapped out his frame to a new one which was mailed ahead to a shop in Colorado.

He is currently racing with (I used the term "with" loosely) a group of about eight people (including Steve Wilkinson, Blaine Nester, Erik Lobeck, Canon Shockley, John Fettis, Leightwon White and Alan Goldsmith) that has dubbed themselves "the pelaton" that will be duking it out for fourth place in the next couple days. So many riders riding together this late in the Tour Divide is unusual. His audio updates can be found on MTBcast.

The interactive leaderboard give a good overview of where everyone is at currently on the route. The field was huge this year including 42 riders. Keep in mind many of the markers are from people who've dropped out for various reasons.

A big congratulations! to all who have participated and are still participating!

Patrick Leigh Fermor: The man who walked

Catching up on Alastair Humphreys blog I was inspired to do a little reading up on Patrick Leigh Fermor and stumbled upon one of the best news paper articles I've read in a long time. It's long, well written and chuck full of interesting facts and details.

Patrick Leigh Fermor: The man who walked - Telegraph: "Patrick Leigh Fermor: The man who walked"

There is a great overview on Fermor on wikipedia, a good introduction, but most of the details come from the article anyway.

Sir Patrick 'Paddy' Michael Leigh Fermor DSO OBE (born 11 February 1915, London) is a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Battle of Crete during World War II. He is famous for his travel writing and is widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer".

His books

• The Traveller's Tree (1950)
• The Violins of Saint-Jacques (1953)
• A Time to Keep Silence (1957)
• Mani - Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (1958)
• Roumeli (1966)
• A Time of Gifts (1977)
• Between the Woods and the Water (1986)
• Three Letters from the Andes (1991)
• Words of Mercury (2003) edited by Artemis Cooper

The Thames Ring 250, the UK's longest non-stop running race

Via: Alastair Humphreys – The UK’s longest ever non-stop running race, the Thames Ring 250

The UK’s longest ever non-stop running race is the Thames Ring 250. 250 miles, to be completed within 100 hours. Nearly ten marathons in four-and-a-bit days…
In wonderfully understated British style, the Thames Ring doesn’t even have a website. You can see the route map here and some photos here from this magnificently understated, yet heroic challenge.
I went along to the start of the race in the unlikely surroundings of Streatley Village Hall in Berkshire. Here’s a 90-second video of what I found.

Bicycle Dreams Trailer

"Bicycle Dreams is the true story of the Race Across America, a 3000-mile bike race that challenges riders to pedal across the country in just ten days."

Nough' said.

Via Urban Velo