There has been plenty of discussion on this in the past. Something about a treadmill or an elliptical or something. I think his charity was more of a scam than a charity at one point too?

Also this is slowtwitch where most people are more concerned with going fast than going boringly slow for long periods of time.

Edit: just googled and apparently this is someone different. I have no idea then but I believe the second part still stands.

Yes we should! Looks like he is going to make it! I think he hasn't got as much attention because he has not spent as much time hyping it up in the press and social media.

Yeah - it was that contrast with those other efforts that did get so much attention I was curious about!

I think a lot of the long distance efforts don't get the recognition that they 'deserve' because they are one off's and nothing to compare them against. The Iron cowboy journey was littered with questionable antics but the Sean Conway effort looks legit and a credible achievement that must need a herculean amount of determination to organise and complete. I have been following on Facebook and heard the IMTalk podcast interview last week.

Respect is due in my opinion - Chapeau!

---

He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

It does look legit and nothing "questionable" about it (although what is questionable when there are no rules?), and it also looks boooooring AF.

This is amateur stuff. No, I couldn't do it, but people could, but they won't.

---

"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

.
.
Just to keep going day after day for so many hours a day is remarkable. So much mental strength especially as he was hurting very early on. I think he said the other day that he has only lost 3kg which is amazing.

its not a magical number.... 100 is a nice whole number... just doing 1 extra from the first guy (iron cowbody) who achieved that you can go slow for many days is lackluster. maybe if sean went for 200 or 365....

Probably because he's not a relentless self promoter to the same degree as IC, and he doesn't have the controversy surrounding him.

Cool Stupid Human Trick, for sure. But I prefer Rait's efforts to go fast.

---

----------------------------------
Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

140.6
Not sure what the 0.6 tri would be 😂

---

Full-time Engineer / Part-time Pro Triathlete
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/benwgoodfellow/
Strava - https://www.strava.com/athletes/3085032
Website - https://benwgoodfellow.wixsite.com/bengoodfellow

Clicking through various links I can't find any link to his actual times for the past 99 days??? Somehow I am missing it??? Just curious as to what his times have been like.

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

They are posted inconsistently, but recent times seem to have been in the 14-14.5 hours range. Pretty good considering!

I have to agree with you - that guy was unbelievably fast over mind boggling distances. I think he got recognised by IUTA last year (but might be wrong) and holds some 'world records' that IUTA recognise. Once you go beyond 140.6 the recognition just drops off a cliff but if he dominated Ironman like he dominated true long distance triathlon racing he would be akin to Frodo or Brownlee with his results.

---

He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

true, pretty good times considering. However, I would think he would want a good tally of all of his results just for the historical record. If the split times are not being recorded every day, it would be almost impossible to remember them all across the 102 days. :)

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

.
You seriously need to learn what Strava is.
Sean Conway | Strava Cyclist Profile

It does look legit and nothing "questionable" about it (although what is questionable when there are no rules?), and it also looks boooooring AF.//

If I'm not mistaken, isn't he using pacers on the bike and drafting most of the rides? And that is a huge difference from what a guy like Rait did, probably worth an hour a day at least when you add up all the advantages. Just as with the IronCowboy, both these guys probably could not have continued each day if they did solo races like Rait did. It is not just he time saved, but that time also then goes into the recovery period, and losing an hour a day looks to put both over the redline of being to continue.


I think for a lot of us, we know the difference between what Rait did and these other two, and it is momentous. I still cannot wrap my head around what Rait did, running low 3 hour marathons every single day, and wavering 10+ hours for his total time each day. And that is with a horrible, horrible swim to start it out each day. No drafting on the bike, and recovering from a bad crash in the middle too. The other two are just stupid human tricks, kind of like riding your bike around the world, or rowing across the various oceans. Great feats of endurance for sure, but more sleep deprivation contests than actual elite sporting contests.

That is incredible! There doesn't seem to be a lot of love for these types of events. We just had a local triathlete break and set the Guinness World Record for the longest single event triathlon on Sunday. He did something like 7 miles of swimming, 186 miles of cycling, and 47 miles of running. There was some buzz about it in the local news and his tri club backing him up but otherwise not a lot of attention. Maybe Iron Cowboy ruined it for everyone else?

We just had a local triathlete break and set the Guinness World Record for the longest single event triathlon on Sunday. He did something like 7 miles of swimming, 186 miles of cycling, and 47 miles of running. //


But what does that even mean? The folks that do ultraman do more than this every time they race, and on courses that can be timed and measured against each other, with competition. Not sure how this is any type of world record, unless this is the only guy to put up the $25k to get them to recognize it.


And didnt someone swim the English Channel, ride across America, then run some ridiculous amount of miles(maybe Badwater?)? Pretty sure there have been lots of these types of adventures that obliterate this guys little triathlon...

Can easily game the system here. 100m swim, 300mi cycle, 100m run for longest 'tri'. All these Guinness records are gamed now.

What is Rait up to now? Iron cowboy burned out from triathlon completely

Rait did 5 straight 140.6s in under 10 hours each last fall. Nothing I've heard of yet.

But, again, Conway's Stupid Human Trick does not diminish what Rait's done, or anything else. It just happens to be a different Stupid Human Trick.

---

----------------------------------
Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Rait did 5 straight 140.6s in under 10 hours each last fall. Nothing I've heard of yet.//

Context please?? 5 in a row as in no rest back to back, or one a day for 5 days in a row, or all the swim/bike/runs lumped together??

That is the problem with these ultra events, context is everything. Now I figure it is maybe 5 days in a row with one race a day, but with Rait one never knows what he can do..

IIRC Rait did 5 iron distance triathlons in 5 days (in the 1-a-day format) finishing with an overall time under 50 hours (49hr32 or something like that) in an official recognised race (IUTA sanctioned, so not at "at home" DIY event).

This thread reminds me of every couch potato I've ever spoken to about IM. They all say they could finish one, with most saying the bike and run would be easy and they could probably do the bike on no training at all.

I usually respond, "Go sit on your bike for six-and-a-half hours (just sit outside...no pedalling...no music...no TV) and then go walk a marathon as fast as you can. Call me after and let me know if you still think you can finish an IM in 17 hours."

What Sean Conway is doing amazing. I think we too easily jump from, 1 to 2 to 10 to 100.

Afterall, don't we celebrate everyone who can do 100/100 much, much shorter runs only? And how many people get to 100 anyway?

The dude is a physical and mental beast.

Not really.

---

"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

This thread reminds me of every couch potato I've ever spoken to about IM. They all say they could finish one, with most saying the bike and run would be easy and they could probably do the bike on no training at all. //

Except that this community is the exact opposite of couch potato's, and virtually all of us understand what it is like to do Ironmans and the training for them. We understand what an incredible thing it is to just be able to get up every day and move for 15 hours, but we also recognize that in the grand scheme of athletics, that this kind of thing would not be that rare if there was some actual compensation. Kind of like someone riding their bike for 150 miles a day for weeks on end, sounds hard until you pin that up against what the TDF riders are doing. Without the money, ultra riding would just be another sleep deprivation exercise, like the RAAM. But put all the best cyclists in the world together for something like the TDF, and you get the performance end of that endurance challenge too, and that is many times more compelling to watch for this group of fans...