You may have heard. Lael Wilcox broke the women’s record for riding a bike around the world, finishing the ultimate loop in 108 days. More specifically, Wilcox rode 18,125 miles (29,169 kilometers) in 108 days, 12 hours and 12 minutes.
The first woman to do this, maybe, was Annie Londonderry, whose real name was Annie Cohen Kopchovsky. The whole assumed name thing was part and parcel of Londonderry’s life, which is so wreathed in apocryphal tales, misdirections and real bravery, that it’s hard to know what she did and didn’t do, or why she did it. She was born in Latvia, then lived in the US, in Boston. That much seems true. Conventionally, she rode a bicycle around the world on a bet at a time when no one did that, when it didn’t seem remotely possible.
In reality, she didn’t really do it, though to view that as a failure, or to assess her various stories as so many self-aggrandizing lies, is to miss the point. Londonderry dreamed a thing and attempted to will it into existence. She is Lael Wilcox’s forebearer. They dreamed the same dream.
You really should read Londonderry’s story. Whatever it is, it’s amazing.
Lael Wilcox, though afflicted with Londonderry’s same audacity, is a different personality in a different time. You could follow her adventure by live tracker. There is a day-by-day breakdown of what she did and when. No doubt, there is a video coming from one of her many sponsors. Annie Londonderry funded her exploits via sponsorship too, foreshadowing the practice.
There are some people who just can’t be contained within the confines of a “normal” life. Some of them are ego-driven, bent on gaining notoriety. Some of them are money motivated. And some just have to see what’s out there (or within themselves).
What I have always loved about Lael Wilcox and her riding, is that she just seems to love it so much. It is not her cross to bear. It is not some form of noble suffering. She loves to rider her bike. She does it with a smile on her face. She does things that most of us couldn’t fathom, but she does them for fun.
I suspect Annie Londonderry was the same sort of person, irrepressible, with a contagious enthusiasm, and actually I think that’s what’s important. With records, there is always the question of veracity. Did they really do it? It seems Anne Londonderry didn’t and Lael Wilcox did, but that’s beside the point.
We need people like them to show us the way, to remind us that we can do whatever it is we dream about doing with a smile on our face.