70.3M Triathlon World Record

A 70.3M triathlon is a huge physical challenge in its self. Ask anyone who has done a half IRONMAN what it takes to do just one! I did 70 in 75 days!

 

Each triathlon consists of a 1.2M swim (80 lengths of the pool), a 56M cycle and a 13.1M (half marathon) run. Andy managed to complete them on consecutive days with no rest time in between.

 

It was a huge challenge which took 18 months to build up the physicality and mental strength with his coaches. Imagine repeating the same physical challenge come rain, wind, hail or a heatwave…. when you are soaked, tired or fighting infection, have an ingrown toe or even when your bike breaks down and you have to wait in the rain for it to be fixed…. Each day (apart from when Andy was nearly hospitalized) he carried on.

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Initially Andy was aiming to complete 70 consecutive 70.3M triathlons which would have given him a second Guinness World Record of "most consecutive 70.3M triathlons", however on day 35, an infection in his big toe started to travel up his leg, threatening to turn into sepsis. Andy had to take a 5 day break whilst the high strength antibiotics got the infection back under control. It was a bitter pill to swallow (literally) as stopping meant Andy kissed goodbye to a 2nd GWR attempt of most consecutive 70.3M triathlons.

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Thankfully Andy managed to keep control of his emotions, picked himself up and went back out and did another 35 triathlons – whilst Andy may not have got that 2nd consecutive GWR at least he proved he would have achieved it had it not been for that infection. Andy was down but not beaten.

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The story of Andy's triathlon world record was covered on BBC and he was interviewed live by Kay Burley on SKY news breakfast show.