Coffee First, Then the World: One Woman's Record-Breaking Pedal Around the Planet

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While I’m a fan of dreaming big and wild, I have come to realise that true contentment for me is actually found on the journey to the start line.” There were hours upon hours of Audio diaries from my trip that my Mum and her husband Donald set about transcribing – a laborious job that will probably give my mum nightmares for ever more! This provided an amazing framework to get me started. The physical benefits of training are easy to measure, but it’s only in times of resistance that you will see the resilience you have built up mentally to adverse situations.” Let's talk about her lodging for a moment. I was so incredibly nervous for her safety because she was sleeping outdoors alone most of the time and vulnerable to the elements and wildlife that stalked around at night. She carries on through it all. Nothing seems to affect her when she’s dealt an uninspiring view, has plane booking nightmares, or has to miss meals by cycling throughout the night, topping off with calories from the food scraps in her bike bag. Her encounter with a bear was truly terrifying, and I was pleased when she attached a significant number of noisemakers to her bike to let any would-be animals know she was barreling down the road. She is a bonified wonder woman! In fact, move aside Diana Princess; we have a new sheriff in town, and her name is Jenny Graham.

So etwas kann befreiend sein, aber es macht es auch schwierig, wieder ins normale Leben einzutauchen. Auch das erzählt Jenny Graham. Für sie ist ihre Reise noch lange nicht vorbei, als sie daheim angekommen ist. Das ist es, was mir an ihrem Buch so gut gefallen hat. Es geht nicht nur ums Radfahren, sondern auch das, was es mit und aus ihr gemacht hat. Wahrscheinlich sehen die meisten nur den Rekord, aber hier erfährt man auch viel über die Person, die auf dem Rad sitzt. Und darüber, dass der Titel des Buchs wirklich Programm ist: ohne Kaffee funktioniert Jenny Graham nur schlecht. I have read many incredible accounts of super-human endurance, especially by bike. And Jenny Graham's is the best I have read.Graham helpfully bookmarks each day's ride with total time/kilometers on the bike, start/end points and her sleeping venue. Unbelievably, she often camped roadside, sheltering in bus stops, roadway pipes, culverts, or (gross!) in concrete-floored public restrooms. I found myself internally cheering the days she noted motel, hotel or a "warm showers" family for her time off the bike. I cycle. I've done a few long distance rides. John O'Groats to Lands End, Aberystwyth to Lowestoft coast to coast. But the idea of cycling around the world, solo and unsupported is hard to appreciate. Not only the logistics and planning required, the fundraising and sponsorship to enable the project to get off the ground, but the mental attitude to force yourself to continue day after day for months on end spinning the pedals. As your body craves sleep, as fatigue and exhaustion drain you mentally as well as physically.

countries, 124 days and 18,000 miles. This is the story of one woman's solo lap of the planet by bike.** In the end I found the process somewhat therapeutic. I combined the memories with reflection, looked up the facts and replayed my words from the time to create a fuller picture of what I experienced. It was such a personal story and one that held a lot of emotion, so I struggled to find a writing pattern that worked for more than a couple of weeks at a time. In 2018, amateur cyclist Jenny Graham left family and friends behind in Scotland to become the fastest woman to cycle around the world. Alone and unsupported, she crossed the finish line at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin four months later, smashing the female record by nearly three weeks.Her inspiring story swerves from terrifying near collisions on the Russian roads and weather extremes in the southern hemisphere to the beauty of the Mongolian landscape and exhilarating wildlife encounters in North America.