Source: Radio New Zealand
Twenty-one-year-old Matthew Fairbrother rode around a Christchurch McDonald’s for 24 hours. Matthew Fairbrother
A Christchurch mountain biker spent 24 hours cycling continuous laps around a McDonald’s drive-through to test his endurance.
Twenty-one-year-old Matthew Fairbrother clocked up 500 kilometres on the ride on Christmas Day, which he described as a “deliberately absurd” endurance challenge.
“I came up with this idea about a year ago and started looking into it and worked out the only day that I could do it was the 25th of December because that’s the only day McDonald’s shuts down,” he said.
“It’s been on my mind the last 12 or so months and it’s just been burning a hole, so I had to go extinguish that fire and get it done.
“There was never a distance goal it was just a time goal. I basically told myself I’d bike for 24 hours or up until I got kicked out. I started at 5am and then I stopped at 5am and over the whole 24 hours I only spent just under two hours not moving.”
Fairbrother said he felt exhausted but satisfied at the end.
He said the ride was intentionally simple and repetitive, and rather than aiming for speed or spectacle, the challenge focused on mental discipline.
“I don’t usually do stupid things like this. At my core I’m a mountain biker, mainly long distance so a lot of the things and events I do are super physically tough, but also mentally tough, so I spend a lot of time by myself in the mountains and most of the time it’s mind over matter,” he said.
“So I guess this was a big test of what my mind and my mental capacity actually has. Physically I knew I could bike for 24 hours non-stop but to do it in the way I did, mentally I’ve never done anything so tough.”
Fairbrother said he got into biking through his family.
“I started mountain biking when I was 12 but the more adventure side of it kicked in at age 16, then at age 17 I went overseas to compete internationally and ever since then I’ve been doing six months overseas competing each year.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
