Show Notes
Endurance adventurer Sean Conway has lived a life defined by adventure, resilience and a relentless desire to do hard things. Driven by curiosity and an appetite for pushing beyond what most consider possible, Sean has built a career out of testing the very edges of human endurance.
He is the man who completed 105 full distance triathlons in 105 consecutive days, breaking the world record for the most consecutive full Iron distance triathlons. He became the first person to swim the length of Britain, a 900 mile journey from Land's End to John o' Groats.
He has cycled 4,000 miles self-supported across Europe from Portugal to Russia faster than anyone before him. He completed the world's longest triathlon, a continuous 4,200 mile ultra triathlon around the coast of Great Britain. He has cycled around the world, yes around the world, completed multiple marathon and ultra runs including 15 marathons in 15 national parks in 15 days. And that is only a tiny snapshot of an extraordinary endurance resume he has achieved since first delving into the wonderful world of endurance sport.
Born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa on vast wildlife conservation parks, Sean didn't grow up sporty. His first dream was to travel the world as a National Geographic photographer. When that ambition didn't materialise, he pivoted, choosing endurance as his vehicle for exploration and purpose.
In doing so, he wrote himself into the record books on multiple occasions, becoming the first person to complete an Endurance Grand Slam; achieving a world's first, world's longest, world's fastest and world's most.
Inspired by boundary breakers who redefined what endurance could look like, Sean has not only chased records himself, he now coaches, mentors and encourages others to test their own limits. A motivational speaker and author of multiple books, in this episode, we explore his philosophy of deliberately choosing difficult paths, what fuels his fear of living an ordinary life and how he continues to test what he's truly capable of.
This is an incredible conversation on resilience, reinvention and building a life exploring the hard road, on purpose. An episode well worth tuning into. To find out more about Sean and his incredible achievements go to www.seanconway.com
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Jen Done didn't grow up sporty. She swam a bit as a youngster, tagging along to galas beside a sister who was the 'sporty one of the family' and other than a handful of pre-baby marathons, a life in sport was never really part of her master plan. Seven years ago, after the birth of her daughter, she found herself in a very different kind of race, a race against postnatal depression so severe she could not get out the front door, convinced her husband and daughter would be better off without her. Dismissed as "baby blues" by three separate doctors before a female GP finally gave her the diagnosis and help she needed. Somewhere in the middle of it all, her husband suggested she try running again; she managed 30 seconds out the door and back. It was enough to change everything. That 30 seconds became a habit, and the habit snowballed; an IRONMAN 70.3 in Weymouth, her first full IRONMAN in Hamburg, the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona in 2023 racing with the IRONMAN Foundation. She launched her own podcast, 'The Toughest Finish Line', to share other people's stories of using sport to fight through trauma and mental health struggles and she is also a triathlon coach. A little over three weeks ago, Jen took on her biggest challenge yet: two full IRONMAN races, on consecutive days, in two different countries. IRONMAN Kalmar in Sweden on Saturday and IRONMAN Copenhagen in Denmark 24 hours later. In this episode Jen recalls and shares insight into her Viking IRONMAN adventure, the highs and the lows, the chaos to the calmness, from lost luggage, to the hectic hours before the race weekend even started and the nausea that almost derailed her ambitious racing plans which saw her become an eight time IRONMAN. Jen talks openly about her postnatal depression and the transformational journey she has been on since that 30 second run seven years ago. She reflects on what she's learned about her own capacity to cope, how strong she is and how far removed this version of herself is from the woman who once couldn't leave the house. This is a lovely episode centred on courage, resilience, self-belief and the importance of a loving support crew to help you take one small step at a time, even when that small step seems impossible.
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