SAN DIEGO, CA (November 15, 2013)— ElliptiGO Inc., creators of the world’s fastest elliptical cycles, today announced that ElliptiGO athletes turned in four record-setting performances in the month of October. On October 5th – 6th in North Carolina, Alvin Maxwell and Jill Paxson set new male and female 24-hour elliptical cycling records by riding 320.9 miles and 207.4 miles respectively during the “Ride Without Limits” event. The following week, professional 5,000 and 10,000-meter runner Sara Slattery and 2012 NCAA Division II Female Track & Field Athlete of the Year, Betsy Graney, established new time standards at the ElliptiGO World Championships.
Maxwell, a 44-year old elite endurance cyclist, broke the previous 24-hour record of 250 miles that had been set earlier this year by British athlete Idai Makaya. Maxwell is currently the number one ranked U.S. cyclist in the UltraMarathon Cycling Association and number two in the world. “Once I get into something, I’m the type of person that can’t do something halfway,” stated Maxwell. “It consumes me and I just rode the ElliptiGO to death. In the process, I discovered that riding something you have to stand up on really helps your endurance on the bicycle.” During the event, Maxwell completed 320.9 miles, surpassing the previous record by more than 70 miles.
Paxson, a 41-year old endurance cyclist and triathlete broke her own record of 187 miles set in August of this year. She trained for the event by commuting to work on ElliptiGO and working up to 30 miles per day during the week and 50 miles each weekend day. “I was looking to take a break from the bike and the ElliptiGO was perfect,” stated Paxson. “Riding it enabled me to build up strength in my quads and abs, and it worked my upper body, as well. It was nice to have another tool to train on.” Despite battling a respiratory infection, she eclipsed her previous record and completed 207.4 miles.
The following weekend saw two more record-setting performances at the Fourth Annual ElliptiGO World Championships. On Saturday, October 12th, Slattery’s time of 1:32:40 knocked more than 7 minutes off the two-year-old women’s ascent record up Palomar Mountain. The course has an average grade of nearly 7% over 11.69 miles and is a favorite challenge of ElliptiGO riders and cyclists alike. On Sunday, October 13th, it was fellow professional runner Graney who set the new women’s standard by averaging 19.79 mph on the 8.2-mile course. Her time of 25:07 was more than a minute faster than the previous record set by 3-time Olympian Mary Decker Slaney the year before.
“It’s always exciting to get that phone call or email and hear about what someone has been inspired to do on the ElliptiGO,” stated Bryan Pate, Co-Founder and Co-President of ElliptiGO. “Alvin and Jill truly set the bar high with the distances they covered at Ride Without Limits. Those records will likely stand for a while. At this year’s World Championships, it was great to see another field of tough competitors push themselves and to have a pair of pro runners like Sara and Betsy push the envelope of elliptical cycling. The enthusiasm, sportsmanship and drive of these individuals inspires all elliptical cyclists and we’re excited that the sport continues to grow in popularity.”