The prospect of completing one triathlon would be sufficient for most of us.
Not so Sean Conway who recently completed 105 full triathlons in 105 consecutive days.
Every day for over three months, Sean’s alarm would go off at precisely 4.29am and after a quick change he would be on his way to his local pool at Mold Leisure Centre.
After completing his daily 2.4-mile swim, this remarkable athlete would set off on a 112-mile bike ride and then finish his day with a 26.22-mile marathon taking in the roads and paths of North Wales and Cheshire.
Describing his daily endeavours, Sean says: “Swim for about an hour-and-a-half, including the transition, and I’m on the bike, and the bike’s about six-and-a-half hours, seven hours, and then about a 20-minute transition for the run. And then the run is about five-and-a-half-hours to six hours, depending on how I’m feeling.”
This is not the first time Sean has embarked on such epic challenges. He was the first person to cycle, swim, and run the length of Great Britain, from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, while in 2016 he completed the world’s longest triathlon, a 4,200-mile journey around the coast of Britain.
But contrasting his earlier efforts with the 105 triathlons in 105 days, Sean says: “The thing that’s different with this compared to everything else I’ve done is if I’ve had a bad day, you know, when I swam the length of Britain, I could take a rest day. I could have a short day if the weather was bad.
“On this one, it’s relentless, you’ve got 17 hours. And if you don’t do it, it’s out. And on day two, I think that was my lowest, because I picked up a knee niggle on day one, which I didn’t expect, and I only made the 17-hour cut off by about four or five minutes.”
This was also the second time he had attempted the triathlon challenge. A year ago, the ultra-endurance athlete got to day seven but fell off his bike and twisted his ankle, forcing him to give up.
He credits an even more intense training schedule with ensuring he was as well prepared as he could be for this year’s challenge.
The record Sean needed to beat was 101 full triathlons in 101 days, set by the American James Lawrence (AKA the Iron Cowboy). Sean not only beat the record, but just for good measure did a few ‘laps of honour’ continuing for a further three days to set a new record of 105 in 105 days.
Sean, who was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in South Africa where he had an adventurous upbringing in the bush, says: “I sort of just did everything five per cent better this time. And if you add all those marginal gains up, eventually you can do 102 days of this thing. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, I think, to be honest.”
For the last three and a half months, Sean has been supported by various friends, family – he is married to Caroline and has two young children aged two and four – and a host of other supporters including members of Chester Triathlon Club.
Sean has been raising funds for a hugely worthwhile cause, the True Venture Foundation, which aims to inspire and support children and young athletes by improving access to positive opportunities through sport.
Sean says: “I just was looking for the next thing to try and raise some money for charity here in North Wales, because I’m passionate about getting kids in sport. And after Covid, there’s just been such a drop-off in that.”
