When Jenny Graham told her son Lachlan that she was going to interrupt the world record in cycling around the world herself, he was not surprised. “After all I do, Mom,” he shrugged.
Since competing in the Arizona Trail Race and the Highland Trail 550 in Scotland in 2017, endurance rider Graham has been searching for something more difficult.
In “First the coffee, then the world – record for one woman in the world” (Bloomsbury), Graham describes her extraordinary journey, starting in Berlin on June 16, 2018, through 16 countries, 4 continents and back to the German capital 124 days and 18,000 miles later.
“I have been a mum all my adult life and I’ve only really been away for perhaps a month when Lachlan grew up, perhaps in the Alps or in Spain,” says Graham, who gave birth to her son when he was just 18.
![In her memoirs, Jenny Graham describes in detail her extraordinary journey through 16 countries and four continents.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/cyclists.jpg?w=1024)
“So I’ve never had much time in my very own head, so it was really recent to me.
Her cycling journey didn’t go easily, so to talk.
From extreme saddle pain and embarrassing toilet issues to battling a biological clock that went haywire, Graham’s epic journey saw her play with death on Russia’s perilous Trans-Siberian highway, and in Australia she navigated a 90-mile stretch of road using only the moon as her guide .
On the 5,900-mile North American leg of her drive, from Anchorage AL. west to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, she traded during the day and slept in a small tent at night with bear spray and a bear bell to maintain grizzlies away.
![First Coffee, Then the World: One Woman Pedaling Records Around the Planet by Jenny Graham](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/coffee-first-then-the-world.jpg?w=666)
Graham averaged over 150 miles a day and infrequently went over 200 miles. To achieve her goal, she drove for 32 hours non-stop on the final stretch of her route, back to Berlin.
Meanwhile, her final time of 124 days, 10 hours and 50 minutes broke the previous world record by 20 days.
“Once I was writing the book, I kept asking myself: Who is that this woman? because I used to be so focused,” she adds.
“Nevertheless it’s not me anymore. I feel I could have relaxed a bit.”