Support Chris Marris, the flying cyclist, as he sets out to break the Guinness World Record for the ‘Fastest time to cycle trans-Australia from Perth to Sydney (male)’ while raising money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The ride, scheduled for late August 2010, aims to raise over $15,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The current record, set in October 2006, stands at 8 days, 10 hours and 57 minutes, held by Australian, Richard Vollebregt.
Chris aims to make the crossing in under 8 days, about 10% faster than the current record.
The attempt will see Chris make the 4,000km journey across Australia on a road bicycle, calling on every muscle in his body and every ounce of determination in the process. He will be physically cycling for more than 20 hours per day, for up to eight days straight. Sleep will be a luxury for Chris, as he travels some 550km per day – the equivalent of Paris to Amsterdam or Perth to Coolgardie.
As I start getting back on the bike and riding, I pleased to promote the below up-coming cycling event for the MS society of WA. The event, to be held on October 31, will be casual and will suit those use to cycling in events, and those who normally only ride very casually.
To register, click here. Hope to see you all there.
As many of you know, I recently set off on an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the ‘Fastest time to cycle trans-Australia from Perth to Sydney (male)’. The attempt was raising money and awareness for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
When I say cycle, I do mean on a bike with no motor, but in this instance I do wish I had paddles. Reason? During the eight days of the scheduled attempt, which started August 29, we had 180mm of rain fall on us with it raining every day. This is despite the weather forecast when we left saying “chance of showers”.
While we pushed through the showers/rain on the first two days, which saw 5 and 9 mm fall respectively, the rain intensified on the third day with a staggering 39.8mm in Eucla. The monthly average for September is half that (21.6mm).
The rain didn’t deter us during the day, although it did make it incredibly difficult to stay dry even with wet weather clothing and multiple clothes changes, which doesn’t help with chafing.
What did cause us problems, and ultimately resulted in the attempt being stopped, was the lack of visibility once it turned night time. As we rolled into Madura in the evening, not only was it raining heavy but it was also foggy. Visibility went down to around just 50 meters.
While I had a much needed food break in Madura, with warm food (I had just cycled about 14 hours in the rain), my support crew met to discuss the situation. While it would have been a tough decision for them to make, it was also a fairly logical one too. The attempt had to be stopped on the grounds of safety; no record was worth someone being injured or killed by a truck that couldn’t see you until it was literally on top of you.
Perhaps tougher, given that I had spent around 1,500 hours of training and planning for the attempt, was the person, my brother, that had to tell me what the crew had decided. I was gutted but knew deep down inside me that it was the right decision.
At about that point I hit the pillow and slept.
Some of the numbers up until that point were:
- Had cycled around 1,250km in a bit over 60 hours
- Had just 3 hours and 11 minutes sleep in total
- Was, before the heavy rain hit, about 6 hours ahead of world record time at the ¼ mark (1,000km)
- Had eaten around 2.5 weeks worth of food, and had still lost around 3kg (not fluid loss)
- Had zero tire punctures
When I woke, the rain was still falling and the realization this attempt had passed sunk in. While I was obviously disappointed (as you can see from my post below) I had to take comfort in the fact that, as farmers know all too well, the weather is the one thing out of our control, and that the attempt had been successful in every other regard.
In terms of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, I had raised some $15,000 and spoken to literally thousands of people about what the RFDS does; I am the fastest person ever to cycle from Perth to the point where I stopped; not only had I stretched my own limits, but those of my crew and many other people touched by the attempt; and I had a once in a life time experience.
At some stage I will need to make the decision as to whether I will attempt the record again. Whilst I would obviously love to, I have to decide whether I can commit another year of my life to training and planning, along with the funds that go with such an attempt. I figure that before I make this decision, I’ll allow my body to recover from this attempt (with the help of Perth Integrated Health Clinic, it looks like it will take around 6 weeks), let the memories of the physical pain of being on a bike for so long subside, and most importantly, get married on the family farm next weekend.
In concluding, I would like to thank everyone who offered their support over my journey and made donations to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. I would also like to acknowledge my support crew Glen Marris, Harry McNally, Richard Patenall, Ashley Bennett, Scott Sutton, Holly Walton, and Chris and Linda Pearson, and sponsors Eyres – www.safetyoptics.com, Perth Integrated Health Clinic, Garland Cycleworks, Ravensdown, Kott Gunning Lawyers, Wheatbelt Office and Business Machines, Telstra Country Wide, WAFarmers, Giant, 2XU, Leisurelife Centre, Cannington Motorcycles, EmbroidMe Perth CBD, Super Advice and Sign-a-rama Burswood, for giving me the chance at the record.
PS: Perhaps I should go for a ride through the wheatbelt to see if I can bring about some more of that rain which is much needed for our farmers.
It is with my greatest sadness that I advise that last night the decision was made to stop this world record attempt at the fastest time to cycle trans-Australia by bicycle.
The decision was made by the entire support crew and was unanimous, and was largely based on the attempts number one rule (as set by me) – that being that health and safety is our first goal (the attempts 115 page manual had just this written on the first page). Whilst obviously gutted by the outcome, I fully respect their decision.
As we were entering our 4th day of the attempt and soon the half way point, while still on world record time, we were faced with continued rainfall. It had already rained the first night, the second morning, and almost the entire third day. The forecast when we left had said a chance for showers. The forecast now suggests that we would have had rain for five or six days of the eight days of the attempt. Based on historical weather data we should have faced one or maybe two days of rain.
The problem with the rain, which yesterday was heavy and unrelenting, comes from the side effects of poor visibility, particularly at night while on the road, and the associated wall of water that can almost knock you off your bike when a road train goes flying past. The rain also led to increased chafing.
Chafing is unfortunately part and parcel of endurance cycling. While I had had some from the first three days of the attempt, it was not an issue until the ongoing rain accelerated it. With an inability to stay dry, despite multiple clothes changes, this was an issue that we would struggle to cope with.
Over the coming days and weeks I will be able to share some of the highs and lows of the attempt; of which there were plenty. A high, for example, was the riding down to Norseman, with a beautiful sunrise, knowing at that time that I was the fastest person ever to cycle to that point . A low, was collapsing on the second night and hitting my face on the scooter as I fell when my knee decided it didn’t want to play ball (still after a 90min sleep and a hot meal I was back out again).
It has been an amazing experience up until this point, and I am just deeply
sorry to my friends, supporters and sponsors for not being able to achieve my goal in this instance. I still strongly believe that the record is breakable – the fact that we were able to get up to some 6 hours ahead of it when we got some fine weather is testament to this. For those of you who looked to me for some inspiration, please do not let this dampen it. To me, this attempt has reinforced the power of the body, mind and good spirit of people.
There is no question that I would like to make a second attempt at the record, but before any decision is made, I will need to speak with my soon to be wife, family and sponsors. This attempt, including the associated fund-raising, has taken some 2,000 hours of planning/training and a lot of money. Obviously a second attempt would require a little less work but would still be a large commitment and probably could not occur until next year due to all the planning that is required (and the physical recovery I now need from the past few days).
Moving forward, I would like to make a commitment to continue to fund-raise for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, whom we’ve raised some $14,000 for so far. I also commit to organise further rides through out the 
Wheatbelt/State over the coming year as was done with our trial rides.
So for now, as we try to sort out our next step, I say sorry for not being able to break that record for you this time, and a sincere thank you to everyone, particularly my support crew, that gave me the chance to try.
Chris Marris
