21 July 2023
Hilton College recently shared the news that Old Hiltonian Sean Conway had established a world record for the most consecutive long-distance triathlons: 102 in 102 days! In fact, that number has since become 103.
For the record, a long-distance marathon consists of a 3.8-kilometre swim, a 180-kilometre bike ride and a 42.2-kilometre (standard marathon) run.
To manage that incredible and “ridiculous” feat, he had to get up at 04:29 every morning and head to a swimming pool to begin his day. Insane! And yet so inspiring.
Remarkable endurance feats
It’s not the first time that Conway has undertaken an extreme challenge. His other achievements include becoming the first person to cycle, swim and run the length of Great Britain, from Land’s End to John o’Groats, a distance of 6 759 kilometres.
He has also cycled around the world and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in a penguin suit for charity. In fact, many of his extreme challenges are undertaken for the benefit of charities.
During the long-distance triathlon world record attempt, he has raised money for True Venture, a UK-based charity that aims to give all young athletes in North Wales an equal opportunity to enter and succeed in sport through its support of sports clubs. Conway is an official ambassador of the organisation.
And, on a not so minor side note, Conway did three-quarters of his epic cycle around the world with a fractured back after being run over by a truck in the USA!
School days
He attended Clifton (Nottingham Road) before completing his schooling at Hilton, where he was in Falcon House.
In 2014, when he visited South Africa to swim all eight miles of the aQuellé Midmar Mile to raise funds for the Save the Rhino charity, I had an opportunity to sit down with him and learn more about his background and his extreme adventure challenges.
His love of endurance events had begun during his days at Clifton, Conway said, when he first swam the Midmar Mile.
“When I did the swim in 1996, I did it with my school Clifton and I remember the excitement as we all drove there in the bus. I remember all the butterflies as I was on the start line,” he recalled.
Swimming the Midmar Mile again, so many years later, it had become a markedly easier but not altogether comfortable challenge, he revealed. “The Midmar Mile is a very different race for me,” Conway explained, “because in my world it is a sprint.” The reason for that was he had become the first person to swim the entire coast of Great Britain in 2013.
Clifton old boy Connor Buck defends Midmar Mile title | Pinnacle Schools (pinnacle-schools.com)
The famous beard
At least the Midmar Mile didn’t include the jellyfish, 20-foot waves, testing tides and bone-aching cold that swimming the coast of Britain entailed. The presence of jellyfish, though, led to the evolution of the big red beard which has become something of Conway trademark. He explained that he had grown it to counteract jellyfish stings during his big swim. Afterwards, he shaved it off, but it soon returned.
Other endurance feats include completing a Round Wales Triathlon (he lives in Wales), covering almost 1 300 kilometres.
In 2021, he was part of a group of 23 runners who ran from the top of Iceland to the bottom, covering about a marathon per day.
Another challenge included running 15 consecutive marathons in 15 days in the UK’s 15 national parks.
Then, there was the 496km challenge. It began with one kilometre on 1 January. Then two kilometres the next day. Then three on the 3rd. By adding one kilometre each day, he finished the month with 496 kilometres. Maybe somewhat tame by his standards, but a serious challenge for almost anybody else.
A challenge which carried a lot of personal appeal was the Conwy to Conway 280-mile run, from Conwy Castle in North Wales to Castle Conway in the west of Ireland. He did it with his wife, son and dog following along.
Conway has also taken on more standard challenges, like the London Marathon. There was, of course, a twist, and he completed it wearing an outsized Scout badge.
On the bike, he cycled across Europe, from Portugal to Russia, covering a distance of 6 260 kilometres, in a world record of 24 days, 18 hours and 39 minutes.
The thing is, that’s not half of what Conway has done, which includes setting a number of other endurance records, and succeeding at many other challenges and adventures.
Dreams
He still dreams of building his own rowing boat and rowing across an ocean, doing an Ironman in the Arctic, and running the length of Africa, among other things.
To learn more about this extraordinary adventurer, visit his website at https://www.seanconway.com/
You’ll also be able to purchase his books there, too. There are six of them, all detailing the incredible challenges he has undertaken.
Truly, this product of Clifton Prep School and Hilton College is one of the world’s great modern adventurers.
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