Around the World in 80 Days is a story of extreme endurance and Mark’s unwavering ambition to find his personal best, to push his limits and set down unbreakable World Records. In 2017, Mark set out to make the ‘80 Days’ Victorian fiction a two-wheeled reality, cycling from Paris to Paris via the world and both hemispheres, averaging a staggering 240 miles a day – smashing the previous World Record of 123 days.
To give context to this mind-boggling feat of endurance, in 2008, Mark Beaumont cycled the world solo and unsupported, in 195-days, setting a new World Record – at the time many cyclists thought this couldn’t be broken. He then cycled the Americas, solo, at the more ‘leisurely’ pace of 257-days. He rowed the Arctic. He almost drowned after capsizing during an attempt at the mid-Atlantic rowing record. In 2015, Mark cycled across Africa, smashing the Cairo to Cape Town solo record, in 42-days. In 2017, Mark, the now award-winning, best-selling author and broadcaster turned his attention to cycling the world once again, smashing the record by cycling the 18,039-mile circumnavigation at an average of 240 miles per day, achieving his feat in just 78-days, 14 hours & 40 minutes. Now he returns to 10 stages in Ireland and England to tell his story, in an extension of his hugely popular ‘audience with…’ style lecture show, Around the World in 80 Days, presented by Speakers from the Edge and in association with ON, Vango, Leadership Challenges and Tiso.
In 2008, Mark became known as ‘The Man Who Cycled the World’ when he completed what was then an incredible record-breaking 18,000 mile circumnavigation cycle of the World, which he swiftly followed with a 13,000 mile cycle of the American Cordillera (the longest mountain range on the planet) – and summiting the continent’s two highest peaks – for the BBC One documentary, The Man Who Cycled the Americas.
Mark went on to become part of the first crew to reach a certified polar position by rowing boat (the 1996 North Magnetic Pole), an achievement he documented for the BBC One’s Rowing the Arctic. In 2012, Mark joined the ‘Atlantic Odyssey’, an attempt at the mid-Atlantic World Record, an attempt in which lives were in real danger before rescue arrived when the boat capsized after 28-days. During 2013 and 2014 Mark led the BBC coverage of the Queen’s Baton Relay, the incredible nine-month journey around the Commonwealth in the build up to Glasgow 2014. In his attempt at cycling north to south across Africa, Mark again smashed the Cairo-to-Cape Town record, breaking the previous record by 18 days.
Mark’s stories are captivating tales of where life can lead if you have enough determination; a story of mental and physical endurance, as well as a fascinating insight into the world we live in.
Around the World in 80 Days is touring 10 Irish and UK theatres in February and March 2020 and will be at Chelmsford’s Civic Theatre on Monday, 2 March – to book tickets, contact the Box Office on 01245 606505 / chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres
